Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Light Up the D, focus on what's happening
in our community from the people who make it happen.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Here's your host.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
IHeartMedia Detroit Market President Colleen Grant.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Good morning and welcome to another episode of Light of
the D. I'm Colleen Grant, your host, and I'm joined
today by Alex Wright. He's the co owner and chief
creative officer of Detroit City Football Club, a wonderful organization
that brings so much vibrance and spirit to our community
in the soccer world. And looking forward to speaking with
you today, Alex, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Thanks for having me all right.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
For those who are not familiar with the experience at
the Detroit City Football Club, which you actually have a
lot of things going on there, but even just the games.
If you haven't been to a game, you have to
get to one. Tell us all the things that are
going on at Detroit City Football Club.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Sure, Detroit CITYFC match is an experience unlike many other
in sports, especially in the US. First and foremost, like
the any first time or two our games is going
to mention the sites and the sounds and the smells
as being familiar but in many ways foreign. Our matchday
(01:19):
experience has like all the chants and singing and choreography
and dance moves that you would see in like a
college student section of a basketball game, but it also
has the food trucks and amenities that reflect like our
community in the same way that like you would maybe
see an outdoor game like baseball. At the same time,
(01:42):
while the games going on in the field, you're seeing
families together all wearing the same jerseys as the players
on the field, which is something that's really common really
in every sport in a town like Detroit where we're
so sport's crazy, And what you get with all of
that is this unique but famili your experience that is
really welcoming to everyone. We try to make it accessible
(02:04):
and affordable, but really there's a surprise every moment and
every way you look, starting from the moment you make
your way through the streets of Hamtrammick into the stadium.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And so the final whistle blows.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
That I have to say was one of my favorite
experiences when I went the first time was we didn't
know where we were going.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
We were like, Okay, it's in.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Ham Trammick somewhere, and we find a place where you're like, okay,
there are cars everywhere. We just got to park somewhere
and follow all the humans wherever they're going. So we
get out of our car and you're literally walking through
the neighborhoods of ham Trammick, which first of all, is
a wonderful community and just has such a homey feel
about it. And so you're walking down the street and
you're like just following these people, and then you end
(02:46):
up at the stadium and you're like, oh my gosh,
there's this amazing stadium in the middle of ham Trammick.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
And you walk in and it's almost like it's.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Almost like you're on the field, like you're on the
field with the players. You feel like you're so close.
It's such an intimate stadium. And then, like you said,
the sounds and the smells and the colors and smoke
bombs going off and the people chanting and the drums,
and I just was like, this is so cool. I mean,
that you started that has to be just such a
(03:14):
wonderful feeling. To know that you brought something so vibrant
to the community.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
It feels great and it's something that we take a
lot of pride in and it's something that we see
as a privilege as much as it is something that
we're benefiting from. Soccer is the sport that has been
started up, spun up on the professional level in our
community many times, in many generations. And you know, it's
(03:39):
sort of an accident of time and moment and idea
that this version of soccer has taken hold. And we
consider ourselves so privileged to be sort of like the
stewards of that version of soccer. And it is about intimacy,
it's about the connection. Really, at the end of the day,
all sports is really about the connection between the player
(04:00):
and the fans. Soccer is such a great example of
that because it's not a you're not under a helmet
or behind glass, right, It's a game that you can
see and hear and feel, similar to basketball, where you
can just be so close. And also it's a very
manageable sport, right. So it's just something that it's a
game that you can play in your backyard and then
you can go to these games and see folks kick around.
(04:21):
But when you talk about the the idea of a
stadium in a neighborhood and the players being close enough
to touch. I think that's also tapping into something that
those of us who are sports fans, there's echoes of that,
of stories that.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Our grandparents told us about.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
It's like the way a lot of experiences used to
be more intimate, you kind of had to find them.
You kind of had to, you know, make your way
through a neighborhood to get there and be surprised by
the outcome. And I think those are stories I think
that we were told when we were younger that kind
of have stuck with us, and that to us kind
(04:56):
of make up the foundation for what we think a
modern sports experience must have if it's going to separate itself,
especially in a town like Detroit, where there's four at
this point nearly a century or more old teams already
in existence, which are doing a great job, which at
any given time at least one of them is doing
really well. So you have to compete for that ticket
(05:19):
money as well. But the way we've come a upon
it and the way we approach it is that we
strive to offer a different, authentic, more lasting connection with
fans to allow us to separate from that crowd.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
Let's talk about that.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
What is the different kind of experience that a person
will feel when they go to a DCFC event.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
I try not to define what a Detroit City experience
is by what it's not, but to start the conversation there, Like,
I do feel like a lot of sporting experiences now
are a bit like your average family especially is sort
of excluded from a lot of like the best of it.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
It's quite expensive.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
It's the kind of thing where like you really have
to plan and save and and schedule and and make
sure that you can afford this one big trip for
the for the month, which really puts a lot of
pressure on that moment. Yeah, and I hope, yeah, And
I think, like, you know, the parents are kind of
uh counting the time and the dollars that they're spending,
(06:22):
and the kids are kind of dazzled by everything because
they're trying to take so much in because it is
so special. So I think it's this, it's this mix
of creative, something unique that is that that is cool
and therefore like there like it is something you have
to as an experience, you have to pay for, but
at the same time, like you get so much more
out of it than than what it is that you
(06:44):
feel like you're spending, and that is sort of a
guiding principle of ours, like that's what folks are in for,
right the the idea that if you want to go
for a walk and check out the food trucks that
we've got there, you're going to be as rewarded.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
As if you as if you stay in the stands.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
But we try to keep our ticket prices reasonable. But
at the same time, we don't put a ton yet,
and we aspire to in the game day experience because
and we're getting better with that every single year. But
to be honest, so much of what the game day
experience is during the game, it comes from our supporters,
(07:21):
and we, unlike most really any soccer team in the US,
we put our fans directly across from the team's bench
in the middle of the field. In soccer tradition, you
put your supporters, who are typically your wildest fans, behind
one of the opposing goals, which makes sense from like
(07:43):
a tactical point of view because they can kind of
yell at the opposing goalkeeper. But in the American model
of the sports that so much relies on the visuals
of it, of broadcasts of photography, it kind of sells
them short, and it kind of puts them on off stage.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Right.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
So when we have the our fans full throated, full house.
We we've been selling out most of the summer, and
when that chorus of thousands of people are singing and chanting,
and it's the thing you see behind the players. That's
something that makes it like from from fun to remarkable,
(08:18):
right from like exciting to memorable. The thing that the
next time you see some friends and soccer comes up,
you're just like, oh, you got to you got to
check out this game.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
It's something else.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Well, I love that description because when you think about
the biggest fans and the noisiest fans being behind the team,
they're almost like pushing the team onto the field, like
with their support and their love and their their are
you know, their voices and their songs and they're chanting.
It's like giving them all the energy to push them
forward to the to the victory.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
It seems like the appropriate place with them.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Yeah, and we also have wonderful traditions that have evolved
organically around that reality of this proximity between the players
and the and the team. At the end of every game,
the players win, lose, do not go back to the
locker room unless they do an entire lap of the stadium,
and fans are invited to come all the way down
to that very first row and shake hands and sign
(09:11):
autographs and get selfies, and some players get really into
it and they stay well past the point where most
players would be showered and on their way home. And
it speaks to the connection between the fans and the players,
but it also speaks to this special caliber of players
that we have that understand that all of those moments
(09:34):
are important. It's not just the ninety minutes. It's the
things that we're doing in our community. It's the things
that we're doing in one to one. That's the culture
that we're trying to promote, both on and off the pitch.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
And it's really there's.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
A real sense of pride in those those moments after
the game winner lose well.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
And that's a leadership style. It is.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
It is how you want the team to engage with
the fans. And it makes a difference what do you
want your fans to experience when they come.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
I think the most important thing for any sports organization
to strive for is to become a fundamental and important
and authentic part of a family's life and tradition. What
we know about how sports grows is it's one of
two things. It's the thing that you did when you
were little and you fell in love with because you
(10:27):
enjoyed doing it, or it's the thing that your guardian
parents grandparents taught you because they took you to and
you associate that sport with the way you feel about
those older generations. And Detroit CITOC is a generational project,
and we are in generation one. What we're trying to
do is create a stage for those memories to be
(10:49):
made within the families. And we don't dictate who's there
or the memories they choose, or the greatest moments, and
goodness knows, it's the one thing we can control as
wins or losses. But what we ask ourselves and what
we ask our staff to ask themselves, is like, are
we doing everything we can to make being a fan
of Detroit City of c easy, To make it accessible,
(11:11):
to create this space that if you do it right,
it sort of takes care of itself.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
That's why I love baseball.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
It's because it was it was the sport that my
family took me to. I wasn't born with an innate
love of it, and that's the same way with kids today.
So we think about and talk about things like that
a lot that we'll really only know if this Detroit
City of Sea thing worked out when we're a few
more years down the road and we can look up
(11:38):
in the sands and you can see the grandparents' parents
and kids sitting next to each other and the grandparent
is like, hey, you know, yeah, sure this player is good,
but let me tell you about so and so twenty
years ago. That's that's what we're striving for.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
How many teams does the DCFC compete against.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
So the men's side, the professional side is in the
USL Championship, which is the second level of American professional soccer.
There are twenty two teams in the league. It's about
an East and West, and for the most part, you
play teams in the East. The season you're playing twenty
five to thirty games. When you mix in friendlies and
tournaments and cup games and ideally playoffs. We also have
(12:21):
a women's team which is semi professional, and those are
extremely high level women players that for the most part
are either like on break from their college teams or
recently graduated, or are of the caliber of player that
are post college that just still have it and are
chasing the professional dream. And one of the most interesting things,
which is a tribute to the community we live in,
(12:42):
is we're also seeing a lot of younger women players
showing our team, fourteen fifteen, sixteen year olds that are projects,
they are products of some of the youth.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Clubs in the community.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
We're seeing a real soccer renaissance in terms of talent
coming through.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
And that's not just the boys, that's the girls side.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
So we had games on the women's side this summer
with players ranging from fourteen to fifteen to thirty one
thirty two right, which is an awesome experience, and the
skill level reflected that as well. And then when you
go down the organization in general, the men's team has
a second team, which we're calling DCFC two, which is
(13:22):
sort of a reserve team, but it's also sort of
a development team. And then we have our own in
house soccer club, which is DCFC Youth City Youth and
we serve at this point more than five hundred families.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
Yeah, that's enormous organization.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Yeah, for the most part, they're Detroit based or near
East side. I'm proud to say that my oldest daughter
is a member of that of the girls side, the
twenty eighteen girls rouge team, all six of them playing
four versus four no goalies, but.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
We see.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
But it's all in good fun and it's what it
looks like to build a club. That's the difference between
a team and a club. Right every way you look,
there's an opportunity for everyone. We also have co ed
adult leagues. So the idea is that once, once you're
into the sport like, we have a way for you
to be a part of it as a fan, as
(14:18):
a player, as a parent, as a grandparent, and a
lot of our decisions goes along those lines too.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Today today for your organization, you know, it's a very
special time. It's it's a special time and place for
a lot of reasons in the popularity of soccer, the
popularity of soccer across so many different age groups, and
it's really it's resulting in a lot of growth for
your organization.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
Tell us what's coming up.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Well, the.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Biggest story in Detroit CITYFC world is the our plans
coming into realization to build a forever home for soccer
for us between the Corktown and Mexican Town communities in
downtown Detroit to build our own stadium that we hope
to be playing in in twenty twenty seven. We have
(15:09):
acquired all of the property and lands surrounding the old
Southwest Hospital Southwest Detroit Hospital down on Michigan Avenue. In
short order, the foundations will be poured and laid and
the construction will began, and anyone who's driving into town,
especially along that ninety six seventy five corridor, will see
(15:30):
an old sort of dilapidated building coming down and a
new stadium going up.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
And it's something that.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
As Detroit is three of the four remaining founders of
the club that are with the organization, we consider that
part of our neighborhood. So one of the most interesting
aspects of the Detroit City FC story is the fact
that you're talking about a professional sports organization where the
owners are building a stadium in their neighborhood. And we
(15:59):
consider ourselves a hauntable to our neighbors, and we're no
different than the rest of our neighbors, and that we
want a place for everyone to be built. We want
a place that helps people that is a community space,
that's beautiful, that makes sense, right, and we truly believe
that that's one of the things that makes us special,
not only because we're fortunate enough to do this, but
(16:19):
because we are part of the community and it helps
us make decisions that are in the community's best interest.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Well, Southwest Detroit is such a cultural iconic area, you know,
it's so beautiful, the music and the food and just
such a great part of town.
Speaker 5 (16:35):
What a great location.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah, we are thrilled to be in that spot.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
It's really perfect, really acting as a bridge between Southwest Detroit,
probably best known for its Hispanic community, a community that
we've worked alongside for years with international friendlies with Mexican
professional teams, but also these are families that we serve
for youth soccer and they come and enjoy games and
refreshment at our our Detroit City field House, sports bar
(17:02):
and indoor soccer facility. And then the Corktown community being
something that so many folks who are already accustomed to coming,
maybe even because of the old Tiger Stadium days, but
it's a community that is no stranger to sports and
how exciting a vibrant neighborhood going to see sports can
be Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Alex, you were were talking about how you're in your
first generation, and you know, the hope is that multi
generations end up attending together and that they have that
shared history that they can talk about over the years.
You're in your fifteenth anniversary right now, is that right?
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (17:35):
So we started twenty twelve, right, so twenty twenty six,
we are depending on the league we're in because we
haven't been in the same league the whole time.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
But that's that's.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
The We're in our fifteenth season, fourteenth year, fifteenth season.
The even the math confuses me sometimes too, but in
we are in our tenth season at Keyworth Stadium. Okay,
next year being our final one, our eleventh before we
move on to the place.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Well, and what does it mean to you the fifteenth anniversary.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
It's funny the depending on who we talk to, Detroit
CITYFC can be the like the best kept secret that
they've known about forever, or this new thing that they've
just heard, And it's fun to think of it as
sort of like this overnight sensation that's been nearly two
decades in a making, right, depending on who you're talking to,
so I always say it's better than a real job,
(18:26):
but there's so much more to it than that. It's
I think, to be growing up a Detroiter and I
was born and raised here, spent most of my life here.
You're just a sports fan sort of, whether you like
it or not. And I can't think of a fellow
sports fan that grew up in this community that didn't
spend their youth like coming up with ideas for if
(18:47):
they had a team, what it would be called, what
the colors would be, what the what the the crest
would look like, what the mascot would be, what the
stadium would look like, what the uniforms would look like,
and we're living that dream.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
How did that come up out for you?
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Well, the up until twenty twelve, there was a couple
of years where we had a co ed recreational soccer league.
Those of us who ended up founding the team came
together playing in those pickup soccer games.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
At the time.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
It was in Bellisle, the soccer field facing Canada that
was actually the transplanted nineteen ninety four World Cup turf. Ironically,
is where we all came to know each other. The
five of us that started the DCFC project were coming
from different areas of professional like we were just professionals
in different fields. I was in media, but we had
(19:36):
a lawyer, we had an administrator, we had someone who
was involved in politics and community organizing, and we had
a soccer player. And the five of this came together
and threw some money together with the idea that we
would join a semi pro team over the summer, basically
a two month season.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
It was a couple thousand dollars and we gave it
a go.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
We played a cast Tech High School at the time,
which was a grass pitch that was they're suitable for
soccer nor any other port at the time. It was
too narrow and even the football players had to put
pads on the fences just to make it work. But
it was a great space and you could see the
skyline in the background of.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Every photo of every photo we took.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
And we didn't know what we had until our first
game when we opened up the gates and we were
hoping two hundre people wouldhow up, and twelve hundred did wow.
And at that point is sort of one of those
moments where you realized that this idea you had that
you thought might be like a hobby or a side hustle,
might have some potential. That was the first of many
realizations I think we had, and it's been a long
(20:36):
struggle since, but that's sort of how we found ourselves
becoming on the path to bring Detroit professional soccer.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
How did kurest Stadium come about?
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Keure Stadium is the result of, in many ways, the
success of our supporters showing up and watching soccer. Castech
became too small. We were turning people away and I
don't care what business here, and that's bad business if
you're turning people away. So we scoured the city and
we really only had a few criteria because we were
(21:08):
dedicated and committed to staying in the city. Now, Ham
Tramick is not Detroit, but it's surrounded by Detroit, so
I guess we'll just take that one as a technicality.
But they're really that weren't that many options, and him
Trammick was the best one, but at the time it
had fallen into disrepair, so before we could even kick
a ball there, we had to organize our fan base
(21:29):
in our community to put together a fundraising campaign that
offered a rate of return. This wasn't a donation where
we asked our fans to invest in us in our
project to build a proper stadium and we would pay
them back based on ticket revenue. Over the next couple
of years, we were able to raise nearly a million dollars.
We were able to restore the stadium to the state
(21:51):
where people could sit in it. It's a stadium to
the day that still hosts games beyond DCFC, including him
Trammick High School. Project was so successful that that we
were able to pay out those investments within a few years.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
So it's a model that we've always liked.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
We are not of the we're sort of of the
generation that kind of looks sideways at large publicly funded projects,
stadiums being one of them, certainly not as a first resort,
maybe maybe later in the project. But the guiding principles
of this should be like this, if this is something
that people want, there should be a way to harness
(22:31):
that desire and gathered community involvement and make something happen.
And that's what we've been doing since we started, and
that's how we got into Keyworth. Selling out a Keyworth
has led us to wanting to take the next step
of having our own place.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
So when you make the move, it's going to happen
in which year, Spring of twenty seven, Spring of twenty seven.
What do you hope your relationship will be like with
that community when you're there, and what kinds of things
are you doing to, you know, make it a harmonious
relationship with the community.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Yeah, well, like I said earlier, we are of the community.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
I'll be riding my bike to the stadium and my
partners will be walking to the stadium. We want for
that community what everyone wants of the community they live in.
To be safe and beautiful, to have to be accessible
and have opportunity to get better every single year, to
be the place that your kids want to come back
to visit you. Those are the kind of the values
and aspirations that we will bring to the conversation. But
(23:27):
we are obligated and we welcome the mandated and also
voluntary aspects of the community engagement that we're going to
be undertaking during this process with the help of the
city and just the general guidelines of what we have
to do for to talk community benefits, which is a
fairly common occurrence for high level projects in our city.
We welcome that and that's something that's in motion. And
(23:50):
we also have community owners that have we recently during COVID,
we put ten percent of our organization basically up for
public investment to help us float those hard times.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
They were bought up by fans.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
And not ten percent of an organization is owned and
sort of a be status as are as owners. And
those are folks that we consider our most dedicated fan base,
and those are also folks that we're going to engage
over the course of this process to find out what
they want in the stadium to make sure that sure,
we feel like we are experts in this field at
this point, but no one knows what a supporter needs
(24:28):
better than a supporter, and so we're going to make
sure that we make time for those conversations as well.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
You must be so excited about almost the unknown, like
what it's going to be like and how it's going
to you know, how it'll be so richly welcomed in
the community, and the new experiences people will have. That's
got to be something that's so invigorating to the past
fifteen years and what you're looking forward to having happen.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
Yeah, it's invigorating and staunting. But that's just purely pressure
that we put on ourselves to deliver the word that
we constantly come back to as privilege. It's an absolute
privilege to have this role in this moment to set
the course for an entire sector of sports in our community,
build a youth club and build an organization around it.
Ideally that people love supporting, but that also is successful.
(25:14):
Right at the end of the day, people go to
games because they want to see their favorite team win
and it's so exciting to be a part of every
aspect of that, and it's one that we don't take lately.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Well.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
In the meantime, we're in Hamtramck and we have tickets
to sell until twenty twenty seven when we make a
move over. I want to go back to the fan
experience because I just I just can't say it enough
again how unique and special it is, and so help
everybody understand some of the key traditions, rituals, cultural aspects
(25:46):
that are really unique to the experiences they have when
they go to one of your games.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Sure, yeah, we have a supporter section which is nearly
half of the stadium that if you go, you will
be witnessed to songs, dances, choreography, chants, some of which
are for adult consumption. But it's twenty twenty five and
everyone's got HBO at home, so it's nothing anyone hasn't heard.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Again.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
It's very similar to that college student section vibe right
where anything can happen on or off the field. We're
talking about supporters that researched the other team's bios and
know what high school they went to and start talking
trash about how they lost the big game to the
crosstown rival. And these players are in the middle of
(26:33):
fighting for their life and they're looking over their shoulder like,
how the heck did they know that I went to
whatever high school that was in Missouri.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
That level of.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Creativity and dedication, it's contagious and it's just so fun
to watch, even if it's not your thing. We've got
all sorts of amenities that we have built out in
sort of a DIY fashion in the Detroit CFC Way.
We've got shipping container suites, We've got shipping container bars,
We've got shipping container merch stands.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
We make spaces for a.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Lot of our community and charitable partners to do be
tabling there, So at any given game day, there'll be
different themes where you can, like if you've got some time,
you can learn ways of like helping folks in.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Our community that need help.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Right, not to mention the fact that there's you know,
typically like a dozen food trucks from the community of
every like type of cuisine, both familiar.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
And unfamiliar, right, all of our merch.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
And then one of the things a few of the
things that we're adding even this year, and we're always
adding things, is we're doing concerts before the game. Folks
can come early and we've got music's playing. There's typically
bands out. We've we're doing more and more to populate
like pregame and halftime with dance troops and performances to
(27:51):
the extent that that we can in that space and
still say respectful and keep it on time, right, because
unlike other sports, soccer's got to pretty strict timing. Right,
You've only got fifteen minutes for that halftime and the
game's over when the clockheads zero, plus some extra time,
so not many commercial breaks in soccer, so there's fewer
time for like quick change.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Artists and jugglers, right, But we try to squeeze every
minute we can.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
And that goes all the way down to the team mascot,
which is a polar bear that our friend of ours
who was walking through his neighborhood on garbage day and
saw polar bear costume and someone's and someone's trash heap
and thought it was pretty fun and brought it to
a game and we've been stuff and interurns into that
thing ever since.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
It's gotta smell really good.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
Yeah, well I wouldn't know because you I wouldn't be
caught dead in there. But it's a right a past.
It's the one time I will cash in my owner card.
I will never set foot in that, and although it
has been cleaned, I will be fair. I don't want
to get ocean our back. But the it is a
it's a clean and safe space in that little uh
in that little mascot had, there's a polar bear walking
(28:57):
around to in a giant T shirt.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Right, It's that kind of thing.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
When does the season start?
Speaker 4 (29:03):
The seasons are the season's ongoing. It goes from March
October and soccer willing into November for postseason. The women
play March, sorry, the women playing May June July shorter season,
and the youth season is typical of like all the
youth seasons in our community is basically August May or so.
(29:24):
But the men professional team has the longest season. It's
sort of a combination of baseball and then it kind
of it it's.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Pretty close to baseball.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Actually, it starts a little bit during spring training and
kind of ends these days around the time of the
World Series. So it's like a baseball season with like
football American football timing because you're playing once a week, right.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
And if somebody is interested in getting tickets or they,
let's say you, somebody's listening here like that more community feel.
Everybody's welcome, it's accessible to everybody. It's generational. Wants to
be a sponsor? How might they buy tickets or become
a sponsor?
Speaker 4 (29:59):
Best way to find us is d ETCITYFC dot com.
We've got a website with all of that information CFC
dot com Detroit CITYFC but Dtcity FC dot com and
you can find info and tickets, partnerships, sponsors, community events,
all that stuff right on there.
Speaker 5 (30:16):
Our guest today has been Alex Right.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
He's the co owner and chief creative officer of Detroit
City Football Club get there, get your tickets.
Speaker 5 (30:25):
Let's support them. Thanks for joining me today, Alex.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Thanks for having us calling.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
This has been light up the d a community a
fairs program from iHeartMedia Detroit. If your organization would like
to get on the program, email Colleen Grant at iHeartMedia
dot com. Here are all episodes on this station's podcast page.
Welcome to Light Up the D, focus on what's happening
in our community from the people who make it happen.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Here's your host.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
IHeartMedia Detroit Market President Colleen Grant.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Good morning and welcome to another episode of Light of
the D. I'm Colleen Grant, your host, and I'm joined
today by Alex Wright. He's the co owner and chief
creative officer of Detroit City Football Club, a wonderful organization
that brings so much vibrance and spirit to our community
in the soccer world. And looking forward to speaking with
you today, Alex, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Thanks for having me all right.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
For those who are not familiar with the experience at
the Detroit City Football Club, which you actually have a
lot of things going on there, but even just the games.
If you haven't been to a game, you have to
get to one. Tell us all the things that are
going on at Detroit City Football Club.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Sure, Detroit CITYFC match is an experience unlike many other
in sports, especially in the US. First and foremost, like
the any first time or two our games is going
to mention the sites and the sounds and the smells
as being familiar but in many ways foreign. Our matchday
(01:19):
experience has like all the chants and singing and choreography
and dance moves that you would see in like a
college student section of a basketball game, but it also
has the food trucks and amenities that reflect like our
community in the same way that like you would maybe
see an outdoor game like baseball. At the same time,
(01:42):
while the games going on in the field, you're seeing
families together all wearing the same jerseys as the players
on the field, which is something that's really common really
in every sport in a town like Detroit where we're
so sport's crazy, And what you get with all of
that is this unique but famili your experience that is
really welcoming to everyone. We try to make it accessible
(02:04):
and affordable, but really there's a surprise every moment and
every way you look, starting from the moment you make
your way through the streets of Hamtrammick into the stadium.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And so the final whistle blows.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
That I have to say was one of my favorite
experiences when I went the first time was we didn't
know where we were going.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
We were like, Okay, it's in.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Ham Trammick somewhere, and we find a place where you're like, okay,
there are cars everywhere. We just got to park somewhere
and follow all the humans wherever they're going. So we
get out of our car and you're literally walking through
the neighborhoods of ham Trammick, which first of all, is
a wonderful community and just has such a homey feel
about it. And so you're walking down the street and
you're like just following these people, and then you end
(02:46):
up at the stadium and you're like, oh my gosh,
there's this amazing stadium in the middle of ham Trammick.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
And you walk in and it's almost like it's.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Almost like you're on the field, like you're on the
field with the players. You feel like you're so close.
It's such an intimate stadium. And then, like you said,
the sounds and the smells and the colors and smoke
bombs going off and the people chanting and the drums,
and I just was like, this is so cool. I mean,
that you started that has to be just such a
(03:14):
wonderful feeling. To know that you brought something so vibrant
to the community.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
It feels great and it's something that we take a
lot of pride in and it's something that we see
as a privilege as much as it is something that
we're benefiting from. Soccer is the sport that has been
started up, spun up on the professional level in our
community many times, in many generations. And you know, it's
(03:39):
sort of an accident of time and moment and idea
that this version of soccer has taken hold. And we
consider ourselves so privileged to be sort of like the
stewards of that version of soccer. And it is about intimacy,
it's about the connection. Really, at the end of the day,
all sports is really about the connection between the player
(04:00):
and the fans. Soccer is such a great example of
that because it's not a you're not under a helmet
or behind glass, right, It's a game that you can
see and hear and feel, similar to basketball, where you
can just be so close. And also it's a very
manageable sport, right. So it's just something that it's a
game that you can play in your backyard and then
you can go to these games and see folks kick around.
(04:21):
But when you talk about the the idea of a
stadium in a neighborhood and the players being close enough
to touch. I think that's also tapping into something that
those of us who are sports fans, there's echoes of that,
of stories that.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Our grandparents told us about.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
It's like the way a lot of experiences used to
be more intimate, you kind of had to find them.
You kind of had to, you know, make your way
through a neighborhood to get there and be surprised by
the outcome. And I think those are stories I think
that we were told when we were younger that kind
of have stuck with us, and that to us kind
(04:56):
of make up the foundation for what we think a
modern sports experience must have if it's going to separate itself,
especially in a town like Detroit, where there's four at
this point nearly a century or more old teams already
in existence, which are doing a great job, which at
any given time at least one of them is doing
really well. So you have to compete for that ticket
(05:19):
money as well. But the way we've come a upon
it and the way we approach it is that we
strive to offer a different, authentic, more lasting connection with
fans to allow us to separate from that crowd.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
Let's talk about that.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
What is the different kind of experience that a person
will feel when they go to a DCFC event.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
I try not to define what a Detroit City experience
is by what it's not, but to start the conversation there, Like,
I do feel like a lot of sporting experiences now
are a bit like your average family especially is sort
of excluded from a lot of like the best of it.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
It's quite expensive.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
It's the kind of thing where like you really have
to plan and save and and schedule and and make
sure that you can afford this one big trip for
the for the month, which really puts a lot of
pressure on that moment. Yeah, and I hope, yeah, And
I think, like, you know, the parents are kind of
uh counting the time and the dollars that they're spending,
(06:22):
and the kids are kind of dazzled by everything because
they're trying to take so much in because it is
so special. So I think it's this, it's this mix
of creative, something unique that is that that is cool
and therefore like there like it is something you have
to as an experience, you have to pay for, but
at the same time, like you get so much more
out of it than than what it is that you
(06:44):
feel like you're spending, and that is sort of a
guiding principle of ours, like that's what folks are in for,
right the the idea that if you want to go
for a walk and check out the food trucks that
we've got there, you're going to be as rewarded.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
As if you as if you stay in the stands.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
But we try to keep our ticket prices reasonable. But
at the same time, we don't put a ton yet,
and we aspire to in the game day experience because
and we're getting better with that every single year. But
to be honest, so much of what the game day
experience is during the game, it comes from our supporters,
(07:21):
and we, unlike most really any soccer team in the US,
we put our fans directly across from the team's bench
in the middle of the field. In soccer tradition, you
put your supporters, who are typically your wildest fans, behind
one of the opposing goals, which makes sense from like
(07:43):
a tactical point of view because they can kind of
yell at the opposing goalkeeper. But in the American model
of the sports that so much relies on the visuals
of it, of broadcasts of photography, it kind of sells
them short, and it kind of puts them on off stage.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Right.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
So when we have the our fans full throated, full house.
We we've been selling out most of the summer, and
when that chorus of thousands of people are singing and chanting,
and it's the thing you see behind the players. That's
something that makes it like from from fun to remarkable,
(08:18):
right from like exciting to memorable. The thing that the
next time you see some friends and soccer comes up,
you're just like, oh, you got to you got to
check out this game.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
It's something else.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Well, I love that description because when you think about
the biggest fans and the noisiest fans being behind the team,
they're almost like pushing the team onto the field, like
with their support and their love and their their are
you know, their voices and their songs and they're chanting.
It's like giving them all the energy to push them
forward to the to the victory.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
It seems like the appropriate place with them.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Yeah, and we also have wonderful traditions that have evolved
organically around that reality of this proximity between the players
and the and the team. At the end of every game,
the players win, lose, do not go back to the
locker room unless they do an entire lap of the stadium,
and fans are invited to come all the way down
to that very first row and shake hands and sign
(09:11):
autographs and get selfies, and some players get really into
it and they stay well past the point where most
players would be showered and on their way home. And
it speaks to the connection between the fans and the players,
but it also speaks to this special caliber of players
that we have that understand that all of those moments
(09:34):
are important. It's not just the ninety minutes. It's the
things that we're doing in our community. It's the things
that we're doing in one to one. That's the culture
that we're trying to promote, both on and off the pitch.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
And it's really there's.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
A real sense of pride in those those moments after
the game winner lose well.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
And that's a leadership style. It is.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
It is how you want the team to engage with
the fans. And it makes a difference what do you
want your fans to experience when they come.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
I think the most important thing for any sports organization
to strive for is to become a fundamental and important
and authentic part of a family's life and tradition. What
we know about how sports grows is it's one of
two things. It's the thing that you did when you
were little and you fell in love with because you
(10:27):
enjoyed doing it, or it's the thing that your guardian
parents grandparents taught you because they took you to and
you associate that sport with the way you feel about
those older generations. And Detroit CITOC is a generational project,
and we are in generation one. What we're trying to
do is create a stage for those memories to be
(10:49):
made within the families. And we don't dictate who's there
or the memories they choose, or the greatest moments, and
goodness knows, it's the one thing we can control as
wins or losses. But what we ask ourselves and what
we ask our staff to ask themselves, is like, are
we doing everything we can to make being a fan
of Detroit City of c easy, To make it accessible,
(11:11):
to create this space that if you do it right,
it sort of takes care of itself.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
That's why I love baseball.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
It's because it was it was the sport that my
family took me to. I wasn't born with an innate
love of it, and that's the same way with kids today.
So we think about and talk about things like that
a lot that we'll really only know if this Detroit
City of Sea thing worked out when we're a few
more years down the road and we can look up
(11:38):
in the sands and you can see the grandparents' parents
and kids sitting next to each other and the grandparent
is like, hey, you know, yeah, sure this player is good,
but let me tell you about so and so twenty
years ago. That's that's what we're striving for.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
How many teams does the DCFC compete against.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
So the men's side, the professional side is in the
USL Championship, which is the second level of American professional soccer.
There are twenty two teams in the league. It's about
an East and West, and for the most part, you
play teams in the East. The season you're playing twenty
five to thirty games. When you mix in friendlies and
tournaments and cup games and ideally playoffs. We also have
(12:21):
a women's team which is semi professional, and those are
extremely high level women players that for the most part
are either like on break from their college teams or
recently graduated, or are of the caliber of player that
are post college that just still have it and are
chasing the professional dream. And one of the most interesting things,
which is a tribute to the community we live in,
(12:42):
is we're also seeing a lot of younger women players
showing our team, fourteen fifteen, sixteen year olds that are projects,
they are products of some of the youth.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Clubs in the community.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
We're seeing a real soccer renaissance in terms of talent
coming through.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
And that's not just the boys, that's the girls side.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
So we had games on the women's side this summer
with players ranging from fourteen to fifteen to thirty one
thirty two right, which is an awesome experience, and the
skill level reflected that as well. And then when you
go down the organization in general, the men's team has
a second team, which we're calling DCFC two, which is
(13:22):
sort of a reserve team, but it's also sort of
a development team. And then we have our own in
house soccer club, which is DCFC Youth City Youth and
we serve at this point more than five hundred families.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
Yeah, that's enormous organization.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Yeah, for the most part, they're Detroit based or near
East side. I'm proud to say that my oldest daughter
is a member of that of the girls side, the
twenty eighteen girls rouge team, all six of them playing
four versus four no goalies, but.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
We see.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
But it's all in good fun and it's what it
looks like to build a club. That's the difference between
a team and a club. Right every way you look,
there's an opportunity for everyone. We also have co ed
adult leagues. So the idea is that once, once you're
into the sport like, we have a way for you
to be a part of it as a fan, as
(14:18):
a player, as a parent, as a grandparent, and a
lot of our decisions goes along those lines too.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Today today for your organization, you know, it's a very
special time. It's it's a special time and place for
a lot of reasons in the popularity of soccer, the
popularity of soccer across so many different age groups, and
it's really it's resulting in a lot of growth for
your organization.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
Tell us what's coming up.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Well, the.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Biggest story in Detroit CITYFC world is the our plans
coming into realization to build a forever home for soccer
for us between the Corktown and Mexican Town communities in
downtown Detroit to build our own stadium that we hope
to be playing in in twenty twenty seven. We have
(15:09):
acquired all of the property and lands surrounding the old
Southwest Hospital Southwest Detroit Hospital down on Michigan Avenue. In
short order, the foundations will be poured and laid and
the construction will began, and anyone who's driving into town,
especially along that ninety six seventy five corridor, will see
(15:30):
an old sort of dilapidated building coming down and a
new stadium going up.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
And it's something that.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
As Detroit is three of the four remaining founders of
the club that are with the organization, we consider that
part of our neighborhood. So one of the most interesting
aspects of the Detroit City FC story is the fact
that you're talking about a professional sports organization where the
owners are building a stadium in their neighborhood. And we
(15:59):
consider ourselves a hauntable to our neighbors, and we're no
different than the rest of our neighbors, and that we
want a place for everyone to be built. We want
a place that helps people that is a community space,
that's beautiful, that makes sense, right, and we truly believe
that that's one of the things that makes us special,
not only because we're fortunate enough to do this, but
(16:19):
because we are part of the community and it helps
us make decisions that are in the community's best interest.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Well, Southwest Detroit is such a cultural iconic area, you know,
it's so beautiful, the music and the food and just
such a great part of town.
Speaker 5 (16:35):
What a great location.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah, we are thrilled to be in that spot.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
It's really perfect, really acting as a bridge between Southwest Detroit,
probably best known for its Hispanic community, a community that
we've worked alongside for years with international friendlies with Mexican
professional teams, but also these are families that we serve
for youth soccer and they come and enjoy games and
refreshment at our our Detroit City field House, sports bar
(17:02):
and indoor soccer facility. And then the Corktown community being
something that so many folks who are already accustomed to coming,
maybe even because of the old Tiger Stadium days, but
it's a community that is no stranger to sports and
how exciting a vibrant neighborhood going to see sports can
be Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Alex, you were were talking about how you're in your
first generation, and you know, the hope is that multi
generations end up attending together and that they have that
shared history that they can talk about over the years.
You're in your fifteenth anniversary right now, is that right?
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (17:35):
So we started twenty twelve, right, so twenty twenty six,
we are depending on the league we're in because we
haven't been in the same league the whole time.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
But that's that's.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
The We're in our fifteenth season, fourteenth year, fifteenth season.
The even the math confuses me sometimes too, but in
we are in our tenth season at Keyworth Stadium. Okay,
next year being our final one, our eleventh before we
move on to the place.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Well, and what does it mean to you the fifteenth anniversary.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
It's funny the depending on who we talk to, Detroit
CITYFC can be the like the best kept secret that
they've known about forever, or this new thing that they've
just heard, And it's fun to think of it as
sort of like this overnight sensation that's been nearly two
decades in a making, right, depending on who you're talking to,
so I always say it's better than a real job,
(18:26):
but there's so much more to it than that. It's
I think, to be growing up a Detroiter and I
was born and raised here, spent most of my life here.
You're just a sports fan sort of, whether you like
it or not. And I can't think of a fellow
sports fan that grew up in this community that didn't
spend their youth like coming up with ideas for if
(18:47):
they had a team, what it would be called, what
the colors would be, what the what the the crest
would look like, what the mascot would be, what the
stadium would look like, what the uniforms would look like,
and we're living that dream.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
How did that come up out for you?
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Well, the up until twenty twelve, there was a couple
of years where we had a co ed recreational soccer league.
Those of us who ended up founding the team came
together playing in those pickup soccer games.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
At the time.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
It was in Bellisle, the soccer field facing Canada that
was actually the transplanted nineteen ninety four World Cup turf. Ironically,
is where we all came to know each other. The
five of us that started the DCFC project were coming
from different areas of professional like we were just professionals
in different fields. I was in media, but we had
(19:36):
a lawyer, we had an administrator, we had someone who
was involved in politics and community organizing, and we had
a soccer player. And the five of this came together
and threw some money together with the idea that we
would join a semi pro team over the summer, basically
a two month season.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
It was a couple thousand dollars and we gave it
a go.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
We played a cast Tech High School at the time,
which was a grass pitch that was they're suitable for
soccer nor any other port at the time. It was
too narrow and even the football players had to put
pads on the fences just to make it work. But
it was a great space and you could see the
skyline in the background of.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Every photo of every photo we took.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
And we didn't know what we had until our first
game when we opened up the gates and we were
hoping two hundre people wouldhow up, and twelve hundred did wow.
And at that point is sort of one of those
moments where you realized that this idea you had that
you thought might be like a hobby or a side hustle,
might have some potential. That was the first of many
realizations I think we had, and it's been a long
(20:36):
struggle since, but that's sort of how we found ourselves
becoming on the path to bring Detroit professional soccer.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
How did kurest Stadium come about?
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Keure Stadium is the result of, in many ways, the
success of our supporters showing up and watching soccer. Castech
became too small. We were turning people away and I
don't care what business here, and that's bad business if
you're turning people away. So we scoured the city and
we really only had a few criteria because we were
(21:08):
dedicated and committed to staying in the city. Now, Ham
Tramick is not Detroit, but it's surrounded by Detroit, so
I guess we'll just take that one as a technicality.
But they're really that weren't that many options, and him
Trammick was the best one, but at the time it
had fallen into disrepair, so before we could even kick
a ball there, we had to organize our fan base
(21:29):
in our community to put together a fundraising campaign that
offered a rate of return. This wasn't a donation where
we asked our fans to invest in us in our
project to build a proper stadium and we would pay
them back based on ticket revenue. Over the next couple
of years, we were able to raise nearly a million dollars.
We were able to restore the stadium to the state
(21:51):
where people could sit in it. It's a stadium to
the day that still hosts games beyond DCFC, including him
Trammick High School. Project was so successful that that we
were able to pay out those investments within a few years.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
So it's a model that we've always liked.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
We are not of the we're sort of of the
generation that kind of looks sideways at large publicly funded projects,
stadiums being one of them, certainly not as a first resort,
maybe maybe later in the project. But the guiding principles
of this should be like this, if this is something
that people want, there should be a way to harness
(22:31):
that desire and gathered community involvement and make something happen.
And that's what we've been doing since we started, and
that's how we got into Keyworth. Selling out a Keyworth
has led us to wanting to take the next step
of having our own place.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
So when you make the move, it's going to happen
in which year, Spring of twenty seven, Spring of twenty seven.
What do you hope your relationship will be like with
that community when you're there, and what kinds of things
are you doing to, you know, make it a harmonious
relationship with the community.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Yeah, well, like I said earlier, we are of the community.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
I'll be riding my bike to the stadium and my
partners will be walking to the stadium. We want for
that community what everyone wants of the community they live in.
To be safe and beautiful, to have to be accessible
and have opportunity to get better every single year, to
be the place that your kids want to come back
to visit you. Those are the kind of the values
and aspirations that we will bring to the conversation. But
(23:27):
we are obligated and we welcome the mandated and also
voluntary aspects of the community engagement that we're going to
be undertaking during this process with the help of the
city and just the general guidelines of what we have
to do for to talk community benefits, which is a
fairly common occurrence for high level projects in our city.
We welcome that and that's something that's in motion. And
(23:50):
we also have community owners that have we recently during COVID,
we put ten percent of our organization basically up for
public investment to help us float those hard times.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
They were bought up by fans.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
And not ten percent of an organization is owned and
sort of a be status as are as owners. And
those are folks that we consider our most dedicated fan base,
and those are also folks that we're going to engage
over the course of this process to find out what
they want in the stadium to make sure that sure,
we feel like we are experts in this field at
this point, but no one knows what a supporter needs
(24:28):
better than a supporter, and so we're going to make
sure that we make time for those conversations as well.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
You must be so excited about almost the unknown, like
what it's going to be like and how it's going
to you know, how it'll be so richly welcomed in
the community, and the new experiences people will have. That's
got to be something that's so invigorating to the past
fifteen years and what you're looking forward to having happen.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
Yeah, it's invigorating and staunting. But that's just purely pressure
that we put on ourselves to deliver the word that
we constantly come back to as privilege. It's an absolute
privilege to have this role in this moment to set
the course for an entire sector of sports in our community,
build a youth club and build an organization around it.
Ideally that people love supporting, but that also is successful.
(25:14):
Right at the end of the day, people go to
games because they want to see their favorite team win
and it's so exciting to be a part of every
aspect of that, and it's one that we don't take lately.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Well.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
In the meantime, we're in Hamtramck and we have tickets
to sell until twenty twenty seven when we make a
move over. I want to go back to the fan
experience because I just I just can't say it enough
again how unique and special it is, and so help
everybody understand some of the key traditions, rituals, cultural aspects
(25:46):
that are really unique to the experiences they have when
they go to one of your games.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Sure, yeah, we have a supporter section which is nearly
half of the stadium that if you go, you will
be witnessed to songs, dances, choreography, chants, some of which
are for adult consumption. But it's twenty twenty five and
everyone's got HBO at home, so it's nothing anyone hasn't heard.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Again.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
It's very similar to that college student section vibe right
where anything can happen on or off the field. We're
talking about supporters that researched the other team's bios and
know what high school they went to and start talking
trash about how they lost the big game to the
crosstown rival. And these players are in the middle of
(26:33):
fighting for their life and they're looking over their shoulder like,
how the heck did they know that I went to
whatever high school that was in Missouri.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
That level of.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Creativity and dedication, it's contagious and it's just so fun
to watch, even if it's not your thing. We've got
all sorts of amenities that we have built out in
sort of a DIY fashion in the Detroit CFC Way.
We've got shipping container suites, We've got shipping container bars,
We've got shipping container merch stands.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
We make spaces for a.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Lot of our community and charitable partners to do be
tabling there, So at any given game day, there'll be
different themes where you can, like if you've got some time,
you can learn ways of like helping folks in.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Our community that need help.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Right, not to mention the fact that there's you know,
typically like a dozen food trucks from the community of
every like type of cuisine, both familiar.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
And unfamiliar, right, all of our merch.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
And then one of the things a few of the
things that we're adding even this year, and we're always
adding things, is we're doing concerts before the game. Folks
can come early and we've got music's playing. There's typically
bands out. We've we're doing more and more to populate
like pregame and halftime with dance troops and performances to
(27:51):
the extent that that we can in that space and
still say respectful and keep it on time, right, because
unlike other sports, soccer's got to pretty strict timing. Right,
You've only got fifteen minutes for that halftime and the
game's over when the clockheads zero, plus some extra time,
so not many commercial breaks in soccer, so there's fewer
time for like quick change.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Artists and jugglers, right, But we try to squeeze every
minute we can.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
And that goes all the way down to the team mascot,
which is a polar bear that our friend of ours
who was walking through his neighborhood on garbage day and
saw polar bear costume and someone's and someone's trash heap
and thought it was pretty fun and brought it to
a game and we've been stuff and interurns into that
thing ever since.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
It's gotta smell really good.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
Yeah, well I wouldn't know because you I wouldn't be
caught dead in there. But it's a right a past.
It's the one time I will cash in my owner card.
I will never set foot in that, and although it
has been cleaned, I will be fair. I don't want
to get ocean our back. But the it is a
it's a clean and safe space in that little uh
in that little mascot had, there's a polar bear walking
(28:57):
around to in a giant T shirt.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Right, It's that kind of thing.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
When does the season start?
Speaker 4 (29:03):
The seasons are the season's ongoing. It goes from March
October and soccer willing into November for postseason. The women
play March, sorry, the women playing May June July shorter season,
and the youth season is typical of like all the
youth seasons in our community is basically August May or so.
(29:24):
But the men professional team has the longest season. It's
sort of a combination of baseball and then it kind
of it it's.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Pretty close to baseball.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Actually, it starts a little bit during spring training and
kind of ends these days around the time of the
World Series. So it's like a baseball season with like
football American football timing because you're playing once a week, right.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
And if somebody is interested in getting tickets or they,
let's say you, somebody's listening here like that more community feel.
Everybody's welcome, it's accessible to everybody. It's generational. Wants to
be a sponsor? How might they buy tickets or become
a sponsor?
Speaker 4 (29:59):
Best way to find us is d ETCITYFC dot com.
We've got a website with all of that information CFC
dot com Detroit CITYFC but Dtcity FC dot com and
you can find info and tickets, partnerships, sponsors, community events,
all that stuff right on there.
Speaker 5 (30:16):
Our guest today has been Alex Right.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
He's the co owner and chief creative officer of Detroit
City Football Club get there, get your tickets.
Speaker 5 (30:25):
Let's support them. Thanks for joining me today, Alex.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Thanks for having us calling.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
This has been light up the d a community a
fairs program from iHeartMedia Detroit. If your organization would like
to get on the program, email Colleen Grant at iHeartMedia
dot com. Here are all episodes on this station's podcast page.
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