July 3, 2025 • 33 mins
Patrick Stack, president of Anthem Rugby Carolina, joins Trent and Patrick on “At Home with Roby”. Patrick relocated to pursue a career in sports and found his way into rugby. Now, he shares his knowledge of the game with others and highlights that Charlotte ranks as the third-largest youth rugby market in the nation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to that Home with Ruby. I'm Patrick mcasac from
Ruby Commercial and Services. Long with Trent. He's from the
Ruby family of companies. We are your hosts. We got
all kinds of scary stuff going on in here, talking
about unsolved mysteries. You brought it up, you said, Robert Stack.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Well, guest today who can't talk for ten minutes.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
We just met Patrick.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
He's the coach of the Charlotte rugby team. Anthem, we'll
let him talking a little while. But I called him
Robert Stack, and you said that was the unsolved mystery guy,
and uh, we talked about how scared we were. It
would come on Wednesday nights at nine o'clock and when
the music would come in, I would cry and tell
(00:41):
my parents to cut the TV off, change the channel.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
It kept me up all the time when I was
a kid.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, there he is, and about every fourth or fifth show,
because I was running a spreadsheet on this, they had
the man that would do things around the railroad track
and we had a we have a railroad track, as
you know, that goes by my house across the river.
So those really scared me. What are you doing? Man? Stop?
(01:10):
I don't want to cry.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, I don't know what it is about his voice
and that opening music would just like you said, just
my skit still makes.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
My It was all scary because it was real true story.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yeah so to a.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Seven year old kid. Now, my wife watches it twenty
four hours a day. All she does is watch true
real life. Yeah, crime like forty eight hours and goodness gracious,
who's that woman that just got got acquitted for killing
her boyfriend? Oh my gosh, she watched that whole trial.
How did these women watch this trial? What do you
think about that Patrick who can't say anything?
Speaker 1 (01:48):
No, no, look he's getting that way. Hey, I would
be a little bit on the caution side. He is
a rugby coach. I imagine he's probably a pretty tough fella,
So you may be on your own on this rugby guys.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
They seem they seem. I think that's as it's about
a six out of ten on tough sports.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Those guy's don't wear pads, man. I had a good
friend that I played high school with. In high school football,
his name was Steve Baskin, and Steve was a super
tough dude. And Steve played rugby on the club team
at university of Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
You know who I hung out with yesterday is uh
is a big block, Kevin Blocker, and he has introduced
me to to Brenton Burson from the Carolina Panthers, a
receiver for five years for the Carolina Panthers. And you're
talking about a big block. I mean them two guys.
(02:42):
Kevin Blocker has been on the show. He was a
baseball player.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
He played for the Rockies for a while.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, man, I mean and you introduced me to him,
Thank you. And he's a member at Carolina Golf Club.
Great people, super dude. Yeah along, But we had a
good time. But I bet Brenton is not good at rugby.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
I don't know. Patrick might be might need his digits,
might be wanting to call him up.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Okay is fast?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
How uh? How good was last week's show? Brandon Stewart
Hydro Live Therapy, Burger King b K b K state,
what are you doing to the microphone? Patrick?
Speaker 1 (03:17):
A microphone is not wanting to cooperate, have to mess
with I can see Kelvin. I can feel the fumes
coming out of his ears right now. He hates when
I mess with this thing, but he does no Brandon
was awesome. He was fantastic. What an entrepreneur I think, Uh,
you know him talking about just going at it, burning
the boats essentially, I mean, throwing everything at it. And
(03:40):
I don't know, it's just very very good perspective he has,
I hear you.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
And then Jeff Naper's in the studio, mister radio, mister
iha radio. He's good friends with Patrick and he actually
him and I both in the last couple of weeks
have had our calcium test. He was yesterday, So go
get checked out, get your annual physical. Do that for
you and your family so you know where you stand.
(04:08):
I think my test was a little higher than I
had hoped, but we know what we're dealing.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
With, that's right. We obviously a couple of weeks ago
we talked about this mine and just it's crazy. I
saw I don't know another younger person that seems to
be on LinkedIn that randomly passed away, just like a
friend of a friend of a friend of a friend.
But I mean it seemed very similar to like.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Some Do you think AI is sending that to you?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
I definitely think so.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
At this point, my wife was telling me about about
my my children's friends who have phones and the ai
that are addicted to these phones, and she's like, millionaires
in California are doing this to addict your kids like crack,
(04:58):
And I said, maybe that are billionaires.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Have you seen the Social Experiment. I think we've talked
about that on the radio show before. It it talks
about that, and it's it's been out for several years,
but it talks about how the changes kids and based
on things that are said and liked and all the difference.
I mean, it just predict basically what you're saying that
they could. It's they can predict all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
And the crazy thing is, and this is just the truth.
We have a rule that my kids don't get their
phone till fourteen, and my son's ten and as friends
have phones and let you see that, it affects him
in the sense that he's not in the game, so
to speak. So we deal with that.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
We We were the same with Scarlet. It took a
while before we and then when we gave it, gave
in and finally got her one her she wanted to
She used to like to read books, a lot more
of it. She wanted to play on her phone more
than read books. So it's amazing how that changes. But
you sent a quote over the weekend about AI and
about something about a doctor now now if he uses AI,
(06:02):
essentially could you get in trouble? And in five years
if they don't they don't use it, they also could get.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
They said, this is a fact. Well, if a doctor
uses AI now to diagnose and help find a solution,
they could get sued for malpractice. Probably will in five years.
If they don't use AI, they will get sued for malpractice.
Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
It's wild, but it is. It is such a helpful,
useful tool you had sent down. I wrote back, Hey,
you mentioned you downloaded chatch ept. I'm like, pet get
the paid version. It's worth it for nineteen bucks a month.
This is in a chatch Ept advertisement, I promise, but
I use it like if like you're talking about trying
to eat better, which is cool, I'll type in like,
hey what should I eat it? Noble smoke today for lunch?
(06:51):
What's healthy? And they'll say, try these six options, stay
away from these two options. Really, they'll do it for
any restaurant, really, anything that you And the craziest part is,
I mean, I'm sure most people listen this probably know this,
but you can get in the paid version. You actually
have somebody that will talk to you, and so it's
got like a real person's voice.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Trick. I'll talk to you for free, or you can
give me eighteen dollars a month.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
So we were we were driving to see my parents.
I think I've told you this before, and we brought
up this, you know, the chatch Epte lady, and we
were interested in learning more about the Grand Canyon, and
so it I mean, it tells you everything you ever
want to know. It's like having an expert on the
Grand Canyon sitting right next to you.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And whichever novelty store at the Grand Canyon pays chat
GPT more advertising, that's who they tell you to go
to and see.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I don't think you can advertise on chat ept yet.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Oh yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
It's coming. Come on, man, it's coming.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Big brothers listening to you. They know all about you.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Man, it's coming.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
I think it's unfair. I gotta learn about you. The
old school around.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Well, we're gonna learn about We're gonna learn about Patrick Stack.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
If I if I, if I put a microphone when
you carry you around and let me let me hear
all your his darkest conversations.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
And we'll get shatgypt that summarize it for you.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
It'll be wonderful. Ford asked me the other day. Ford said, Dad,
what if you could have one superpower? What would it be?
And I said, man, I never really have thought about
this ten year old, so what was it? And I said,
I said, I don't. I don't really know. I'm I'm
somewhat content with with my life. I said, but I
(08:24):
would like to know what people read people's minds, and
then I said, no, no, no, I don't want to
read people's minds because then you know when they're thinking
about you, so you create out his head trash and
he said, which I really don't want that. I want
to be a dummy. But he said mine would be
to fly. I hear you, and I was like too.
(08:45):
He said walking on water would be cool. I said, well, heck,
if you could fly, you got walking on water taken.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Care of kind of cover.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
So uh, maybe one day we will be able to
fly with a jetpack. You know when back in a
few went back to when Back to the Future came
out and they had those hoverboard Yeah, skateboards. I thought
I was going to be riding the hoverboard skateboard before
I had a car.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
So you're disappointed that you haven't had a hoverboard.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Where's that scientist? That this gracious Michael J. Foxx's Brown?
He's a fraud?
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Where is Emmitt Brown when we need him?
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Emmitt Brown?
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Doctor Emmitt That's my favorite movie. I still watch that
if it's on TV and I catch at nine o'clock
at night on USA.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I just want a little bit of his hair.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
You can have some of mind.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Uh. But yeah, so here we go. We got the
coach of anthem uh Rugby Carolina's our Rugby team. He
can't say anything. He's looking at me. He pulled the
mic over uh. Patrick Stack. When we return, I can't
here wait to hear what he's got to say. On
at Home with Rugby.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
And don't forget Rugby Services is your one stop source
for all your electrical heating, cooling, plumbing and handyman needs.
Keep it easy and get it all done by one.
Roby servicesnow dot com. That's Roby Services now dot com.
Welcome back at Home with Roby and Patrick mcasac from
Roby Commercial and Services on the Trent Hayston from the
Roby Family of Companies. We are your host, Steve. If
(10:15):
you miss this. On the first segment, I had a
few laughs. I think we got a lot of incorrect
information according to our guests. Patrick, you wanted when do
you want to start correcting us? At what point of
the of the show where you like, I gotta tell
them they're wrong.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Well, there's a couple of things. We probably gonna get
a line down here shortly.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
So talking to the mike, Patrick, We've got.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
More than one Patrick, so you can't keep on calling
me Patrick. So all right, stack and pick, stack, p Stack, Stack,
attack or Stacker.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Oh, we've got options. I might call you every one
of them before the show's over.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Friend is what I think I'm looking for.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
I have a lot of people to call me. I
do I do.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
When I meet somebody that I like, we become friends.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
I'm sure you have and too many friends of the problem.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
That's my wife tells me.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Yeah, right, so yeah, yeah, call me. Don't call me
Patrick because it's going to confused listeners.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
All right, SpongeBob, let's go.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
I am not the coach of Anthem.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
You are not.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
I do not know how to coach rugby for the record,
that really important distinction. I've played rugby, but I'm the president,
so the president.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Of the business side of the team.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
There you go, so do who.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Kind of felt a good emotion? But yeah, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
I mean, you know, I'm in a group called young president.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
I heard about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's no young
coaches they.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
No, that's really cool.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Man.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
In two distinctions, then I didn know the woman that
killed her boyfriend. Her name is Karen Reid, yes, yes?
And Doc Brown I forgot this name was Emmet That
was good. But you listen to you.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Did you listen to that trial too?
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I don't know much about it, but like it surrounds me.
Supposedly the cops killed that's the rumor.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
That is the rumor. But uh.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Apparently when you hit somebody with your cart doesn't really
bust a tail light out. Really, that's what they tell me.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Do you speak from experience?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
No?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I peripherally who watched his trial for the last two years.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
I didn't know if you had hit somebody with your
with your car before.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I have never God blessed, I am knock on wood.
Please you just say that my buddy told me earlier
that I'm going to see later this week, he said.
I said, I can't wait to see you. He lives
in Alabama, and he he said, he said, I'm looking
forward to it. I said, we're gonna have a lot
of fun. He said, me and you could have fun
in jail together. I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
(12:47):
That is a little strong, you know, don't be so presumptuous.
It's a stacker. That's next level there.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yeah, I mean, come on, that could be taken. Yeah,
I really, they don't.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Really need to need to even hear anything along the line.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
We'll leave that there.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Yeah, not touch it.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Let's talk about rugby.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Let's talk about it.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
How give us the details. How you got here, where
you're from, all the things.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Yeah, I'm from a little tropical place eight hours north
of here called Cleveland, Ohio.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Nice and so nice, thinking about the sun be.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Really nice this time of year, great lakes, it's beautifulful
this time of year.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I agree.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Moved down here in two thousand and eight, like so
many folks from up north, came down here to work
in the sports business. So at that time, still to
this day, obviously this is big NASCAR country, and I
had a sports marketing background, so I worked for a
sports marketing agency. They did a lot of Nascar work
in two thousand and eight. So that's originally what brought
me down here. And then rugby origin story. Growing up
in Cleveland, I played rugby and high school. My high
(13:42):
school introduced a rugby team. My freshman year football coach
didn't let us play, but up up in Ohio and
to an extent here, rugby happens after football season. So
this season was done. My senior year football coach couldn't
tell me what to do anymore. My buddies in a bugnay,
come on and play rugby, play rugby. And grew up
playing like backgard football and kind of new, yeah, kind
of new what it was, but didn't really know the rules.
To be Franko, it was kind of scared to go play.
(14:04):
Then you get out there and it's fun as hell.
I don't if I can say that on the go
for it. If you're coming from football, Yeah, rugby both
you play offense and defense, you can carry the ball,
it's NonStop, it's a blast and it kind of immediately
fell in love with the sport in high.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
School that was the Cristmas snap. I've ever heard right hand?
One more time? One more time, here's the left hand.
Oh you got rugby hands.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
When I'm forty seven, I think I'm a little hair
older than you there, mister Stack. But uh, when I
was in high school, it's like the next generation, probably
four or five years below me. Those guys were playing rugby.
I never was introduced to rugby other than five WTV.
I had some educational thing about rugby in Australia is
(14:54):
all I ever saw. But it became real popular, uh
in the in the later nineties. Yeah, so same thing,
similar to Cleveland.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
It's very popular here. Yeah, Charlotte's the third largest youth
rugby mark.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
In the country. Really really Yeah, there's a club here
that's gone to the last two national championships. They won
last year they lost.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
See, this is why we have you.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
This is really cool growing.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
What age group?
Speaker 3 (15:16):
This is high school? So this is you twelve three?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Goodness gracious?
Speaker 1 (15:19):
And where and where do y'all? I mean, where do
you play?
Speaker 4 (15:21):
American Legion and World Stadium. Yeah, we got eight matches there.
It's honestly very structured dar football. You've got like sixteen weeks.
Our season runs right after football, so okay. Our home
opener was the week after the Super Bowl February fifteenth
through early June, so we just wrapped up our season.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
I know you were so kind and offers a couple
of tickets to come to the game. We just couldn't
do it that last minute. I definitely want to come
by the vibe at the stadium for your games. I
have driven by like either before or after, and he
could feel it. It was That's what I love about
Mortial Stadium too. It's just it's so intimate and it's cool.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
It's a very good field for rugby too. It's turf
rugby guys playing grass because it's a lot of damage
on your body time to go down, so.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
They love natural grass. But it's a really big pitch.
They like it, beautiful sidelines and something very historic about
being there too.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
It's great family you call a pitch and rugby as well. Correct, okay, cool,
make sure you get the terminality.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Interesting thing you want to we can talk about rugby.
So I think you guys probably understand this football derived
from rugby. So rugby was first and then football came
second because they wanted to throw the ball forward, and
rugby you can't throw the ball forward. There's kind there's
a bunch of different rules, but kind of the three
biggest differences. Rugby you can only pass the ball backwards.
You can kick it forward and run underneath it. You
can't pass the ball forward. You can't black that's called obstruction.
(16:30):
So you can't even set a pick like you would
in basketball. And then when you get tackled, players live,
so the play doesn't start and stop, so you have
to basically kind of ruck over kind of to maintain possession.
But it started with rugby and then it became football.
And you know that because what do you call when
you score six points in football?
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Touchdown?
Speaker 3 (16:47):
A touchdown? Do you touch the ball down?
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Nope?
Speaker 4 (16:49):
In rugby to actually score, you have to touch the
ball down in the tries on. That's where that originated from.
So in rugby you run into the try zone.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
This is great.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Rugby is og football. So everyone needs a love it.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
I'm gonna tell everybody I know that because I think
that's a.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Cool sea I do.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah, that's really neat.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
So how did you get it? So how did you
make this transition from the marketing company to Anthem.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Yeah, yeah, I've bounced around a little bit.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
We don't have enough time to kind of walk you
through my whole career path, but I've always been around
corporate partnerships in sponsorship within the sports business.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Played in high school and then.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Actually did a study of broad experience in Australia college
and played in six months.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
It was like really immersed in the culture.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
You know, you go to you go to school on Saturdays,
there's like five rugby matches. I've played at ten, there's eleven, twelve,
and then you go up, you drink all day, watch rugby,
then you go to the pub.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
It's the best explained six minutes of my life.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
The very first time I ever got classes past tool,
ever got exposed to rugby, was from a family that
had moved to where I grew up from New Zealand. Yeah,
and they both played football, very good football players, and
they would do uh, what do you call it? The
chance that they do before the game, hakka, the hakka.
He would do that before like our coach would make
them get up there. But yeah, yeah, I'm not to
say the name up there and do and like that.
(18:01):
I mean, they would get it, just him doing to
get you fired.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
It's a mayory is the tribe. Yeah, it's a warrior
warrior dance. That's what they would do before they would
go to war. Ever seen Zealand? Oh you'd love it,
trent All Blacks, you just started doing before you come
out on the podcast.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, let's do it right now.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
See we can do that.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
It's basic, like get your blood going. Man, it's cool.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Area are all going to do something? My name is
not Patrick.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
I never answered you, so I bounced. I've worked in
the sports business for a while. I worked with for
Charlotte Checkers, worked for the Cleveland Browns, worked in agencies.
I was a professor for a number of years, starting nonprofits.
I've kind of bounced around.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
A little bit.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
But I've always had a passion for rugby. But when
I was getting rolling it, there wasn't a commercial, enterprising
ecosystem around it. This was like fifteen twenty years ago.
And no joke, this is a LinkedIn success story. I
was on LinkedIn in September and I was messing around,
probably looking at someone I could figure out how could
sell something to like Jeff Naper and uh and uh
and and get on there and there's a job posting
(18:58):
for team president. Anthro might be Carolina and I always
wanted to work in rugby always and ambitions to be
a team president, and.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Uh kind of fell in my lap.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
So the fact that I had a passion for rugby
ownershid that the sports business and then have a background
in Charlotte to community build and build relationships. It kind
of was a was a quick, a quick kind of
fortunois outcome, honestly.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
So how's it going.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
It's hard.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
It's hard.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
We're a startup, you know, like we're we're a startup.
We're in an emerging market, is the best way to
think about it. So an emerging market and a very
competitive climate. They come any more sports teams are here
now fifteen years ago, right crazy? The sports teams that
are that we're here then that are here now are
like much more mature. I was at the Charlotte Checkers
Calder Cup match last night, right sad matching game now.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Because I'm more on rugby too much. So cool, unbelievable.
I worked at the Checkers.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
They were well, we're an organization, but I was emotionally
overwhelmed by, like what a great experience was last night?
Eight thousand people going nuts. That's a minor league hockey
team in Charlotte. When did you remember you with the
Checkers when they played up town. Yeah, that's where I
started my career. We used to advertise with the Checkers.
It was like the like the lamp, Roby electrics, like
the lamp. Jason Shaia, who was the announcer, I became
(20:03):
pretty cool. He what a great guy, great guy. He
was our account rep.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Yeah, he's great.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
He was awesome.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
So we Uh, I worked to those guys. Yeah, Gody
named Aaron Osborn and that's whe I started.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
I remember Aaron. Aaron went to go work for Coca Cola, right, yeah, great,
Yeah that was cool. So that was back in the day.
We that was by twenty eleven.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah. I was there from twenty ten to twenty thirteen. Yeah, yeah,
we're old.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
I didn't know you did that, Oh yeah did. I
went to it.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
There was a lot of sports in this community.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Man.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
They're good. They're good teams, they're good organizing.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
You know, you never you take it for granted.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
You definitely did if you're.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Not talking about it, But uh, I got to ask you.
I might a little out of loop. Did the Checkers win.
They lost the Colder Cup. They lost the game, made
it to the finals.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Yeah, fought back to and they were put a great game.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
They were on fire up until the final.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
They were and it was a it was a top
top five sporting been to. Really, it was awesome. It
was great. That place packed.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Yeah, my family went to a game when one Sunday
afternoon and it was awesome.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
It was great.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Tara Tara Black was was ran the organization when I was.
Sean still there.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
They really honestly, those folks kind of gave me an
opportunity that is really cool to kind of.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I think Sean went to Clemson, right, Yeah, we were
there at the same time. Yeah, because when we did
start doing the advertising, we had put those pieces together.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Yeah, it's a great organization. This is a great sports
business community. He asked, like it's challenging because we've got
to figure out our path.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Amongst really good organizations and we Rugby. Everyone kind of
knows what it is, but they don't really know what
it is. They know that it's kind of like football
and they don't wear pads and that it's kind of tough.
But beyond that, there's like a little lack of awareness,
which is which is kind of why I wanted the job.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
I like to build stuff, Roby, yeah, fruction, I get it.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
And as my background as an educator, I like to teach,
so it's kind of a it's honestly what I was
looking for. It's something I know has merit here in Charlotte.
I think people will love the aggressive aspect of it.
It's super fun to watch where you can kind of
understand it. And then, honestly, the biggest reason I took
this role, the Rugby World Cup is coming to the
United States in twenty thirty one.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Really, yeah, it'd be the first time it's ever happening
in the US.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Rugby Cups is equivalent to the year of World Cup.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Correct, It's the third largest sporting event in the world.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Where's it being played.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
They haven't identified yet. They'll identify after the twenty twenty
seven World Cup in Australia.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Come to Charlotte.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
It's it's it's in the mix. That's party plan, that's
part of the plan.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
That's so cool man.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
It's a bit of a power organization structured and really
a big reason why I took the job, because you've
got to think about how do you grow a product, Right,
you got to invest in the community and then you
have to have a long term view what it is
and what we're doing now in twenty five is to
make sure that when twenty thirty one rules around, that's
like our launch point. I use this analogy a lot
and people I think I think that by you let
me know, you should be straight.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Right.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
MLS launched after the ninety ninety nineteen ninety four Soccer
World Cup, Right, that was kind of its launch pot really, Yeah,
ninety ninety six and WNBA was immediately after the nineteen
ninety six Olympics in Atlanta. Right, women's basketball took off.
So this is kind of that launch point. And credit
to World Rugby for investing in what they're doing now
to try and make sure the twenty thirty one it's
kind of that launch point.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Wow, very cool. So soon when a layman who doesn't
know rugby, Trent and I you're obviously educating us, which
is awesome, and we're super excited you're here to be
able to give a platform for the anthem. Uh do
you have I mean, do you kind of have some
instructional informational stuff at the game, like, hey, this is
what's going on. These are some of the penalties. This
(23:15):
is I mean, so fans can kind of learn.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Yeah, there's a couple of things we've been tweaking. And
to be a frank, guys that started the job in
December February. Okay, so I was kind of thrown into
the fire a bit.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
I bet you were.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
I learned a lot. I learned a lot this year.
I learned a lot.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
So we teased a couple of things, and then I
also went to rugby matches kind of across the country
to see how other teams that are more established have
been doing that. One thing that I think works best
was it that rugby one on one experience pre match.
So I would invite you and your family up come
meet me thirty minutes beforehand, bring a couple of players
who aren't playing, and they'll teach you that kind of stuff.
And the beauty of what we have as access I
can get you guys down on the field, we can
(23:48):
catch in front of the players. The spirit of what
we're trying to build with respect to the players is
that they want rugby to grow too, right.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
It's good for them.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
So they're willing to sit down with you, talk to
your kids on a ball, walk you through this, teach
you how to pass whatever. So a Rugby one to one
experiences something we were doing pre matches. I could see
us doing that more consistently, maybe more in the community,
and then within reason, you want to try to interject
in the when the game. The game doesn't slop, it
doesn't stop, so it's very hard to you don't think
through like in football, there's first down, yeah, stop, you
(24:20):
can do whatever. On the video board, do whatever, pa,
You've got to kind of keep it rolling. So there's
you have to have a really acutely good PA announcer
who can both like interject when they should with the information,
but also step away. So we were working through that
as well. We've got some various video board spots. But
that's kind of probably my number one objective this year
is how do we help educate the casual fan understand
(24:41):
what rugby is and why that should be compelled to
come check it out, and then once they're there, to
get a better understanding up of what happens.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
So a couple questions, how many leagues are in the team,
how many teams are in the league, and how long
is the game?
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Yeah, great question, So eighty minutes, so it's forty minute halves.
They do a hydration stopage at twenty of each. The
league is relatively new as well. League started in twenty eighteen.
There's eleven teams. Okay, we're the eleventh team here is
Major League Rugby, So it's the first domestic professional rugby
in the US.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Well, let's talk a little bit about the about the
business side you have brought up. Hey, the players aren't
they're they're not going to make an NFL money at
this point. Do a lot of them have second jobs
or day jobs? Do this on the side or is
it to the point where this is their full time gig.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Yeah, during the season, it's a full time gig.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
I mean some of the guys will have their own
businesses doing various kind of computer jobs, you could say
after practice. But their day is seven am Wow through
five pm. When you look at Wow, you look at
kind of come in meetings, taping sessions. So that's the
other thing that when you guys come to match, you're
gonna see tape everywhere and like weird places, like why
do all these guys have tape. They can't wear padding
(25:46):
or braces because if that would be almost like equipment, right,
So only recourse they have to substantiate any kind of
injury or preventing jo. So you'll see tape around legs,
You'll see tape around around heads.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Lit's see tape on shoulders. So there's like a pretty
significant taping session that happens pre practice.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
We might have to put some tape around track.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
You're gonna see tape in really weird places, and then
you know they're done by three or four pm. So
then I guess in theory they could work. But during
the season it's pretty they'll have to work out. But
in the off season, we actually had a sponsor, a
shameless plug gentle Giant moving company. One of the reasons
they worked with us was because they want to hire
our guys in the off season. They need big people
to move stuff.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
So a number of guys have that as a great
part time job. And then a number of our players
are actually another shameless plug. An number of our players
actually six play for the US national team.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
So when their season's over, now they've already transitioned to
international test matches. So there's two test matches being played
here in Charlotte July fifth and July twelve, So six
of our guys will play Belgium on July fifth and
then Spain in July twelve.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
So our team out of eleven has six national players
for the US.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Yeah, that's actually kind of how we're structured.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
We're called anthem because we have a relationship with USA Rugby,
so USA Rugby is like ourhigh performance part so we're
our team is actually built to develop young American players
to represent the US.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Who is the who is the owner the backer of
this team?
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Yeah, a great question. That's another reason why I took
the job to be frank. Typical structure is rich guy
owns a team, loves the sport, invest in it. It's
not our structure. We're actually partially owned by two different
rugby organizations. And this is super confusing. I don't want
to want to boord you guys too much.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
But it's perfect.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
World Rugby, which is the International Federation, owns half of
our team. So that would be like FIFA buying an
MLS team. Really Yeah, okay, with the express goal of
raising the profile of rugby in the US before they
bring the World Cup in twenty thirty one.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
And then the other half is actually the league. So
the league wants to work with World Rugby and have
that partnership, and then they want to develop American talent.
So we have that relationship with USA Rugby. The best
way to think about that relationship is the Charlotte Knights.
The Knights run the business for the Charlotte Knights. They
don't pick the players, and I pick the coaches. They
don't pay the players. That's an affiliate agreement with Chicago
White Sox got right, same thing with the Checkers. Agree
(28:00):
with the Florida Panthers. We have an affiliate agreement with
USA Rugby. So USA Rugby coaches are identifying the players
and developing the players to do that for US SO.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
And you're running the business side direct.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
That's why I was quick to point out that I'm
not a coach, because they are very offended. They actually
know what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Well, thanks for clear of finding that again, apologies for
getting that incorrect.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
I don't know what I'm doing on the present on
the business side, but I definitely don't know what I'm
doing on the rugby side.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
On the radio, man that is so intriguing. Man, that's cool,
so so cool. I cannot wait to take my kids.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
It's an ambitious goal. Like I said, nothing against other
sports teams. I worked for other sports teams. But for
me where I was in my career, the aspiration is
isn't just profit seeking for an individual owner. It's how
do we get more people to play rugby, how do
we enhance the competitiveness of our national team at the
US level, and how do we grow the game. And
that was the kind of thing that I was I
(28:53):
was looking for.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I mean, Pa Stack or Patrick as we talked struggle
with like you were nickname options, not sure one. Now
you're all right, You're all right, we got you, we
got you. I mean what you're talking about is exactly
what we talked about in this show. You're a startup.
You're you're hoping to be at the very beginning of
something that can grow to something extraordinary. You got a
plan to get there. I mean, this is this is
(29:14):
exactly what we talk about with with our entrepreneurial guests.
And you're you're an entrepreneur. I mean essentially you're you're
trying to build grinding yeah, like like it.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Like even when I don't think I'm a reminded every day.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Yeah, like Brandon Stewart, Uh, you know, getting into the
Jimmy John's business when he was twenty eight. It's very similar.
So cool. I think it's really cool that we're utilizing
you said the checkers, they're utilizing the old Charlotte Colisseum
on Independence Boulevard, and you guys are using the old
Memorial Stadium. I think it's called the American Legion Stadium. Now, yeah,
(29:48):
that's great. I think that's wonderful. And how to how
better to give your Charlotte a chance to be successful
in rugby than supported by the League.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Correct and the World Federation and the World Federation the
kind of the biggest character d angle, which is the
World Cup. So that's why I mean, and I'm saying
in our record here, but I've been in meetings and
folks from World Rugby would would reinfirm it. If we
can have success, Charlotte has a very good chance at
hosting a Rugby World Cup, which would be a huge
opportunity for us. And we've already have seen the city's
willingness to support and help us out with these international
(30:23):
matches until we can because everyone wants that. That's the
best part about Charlotte, you guys get it. I feel
like everyone's trying to grow the community. I'm from Cleveland.
It's not like that in Cleveland. Really, no, no, no,
So I think that's been probably the best part about
this role is I know that this can work in
Charlotte because community is such.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
A I think that all started with leaders like Hugh McCall.
I agree, and uh Ed Crutchfield knows. Guys, they were
philanthropists for the city of Charlotte and know that we
need well rounded culture and sports and stuff, entertainment for
the family for us to truly be a desired successful city.
(30:58):
And this is an example.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
It's amazing and we take it for granted. There's a
Club World Cup today, I mean, and unbelievable the ban
as we here a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, Sports
Foundation does an amazing job too.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
That is awesome.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
What I mean we always asked this, like, how do
how can we support How can the people listening support
I'm sure social media everywhere, all the things, websites all
the same. How do we engage with.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
The anthem as a community, give us a chance come
check it out, right. I think it has a lot
of the elements that you'll like in traditional sport. It's
super aggressive, very competitive, NonStop intensity, NonStop. You will see
hits that you don't think are natural, and you we
hear collisions that don't seem to make sense, and then
you will see those guys get up and go do
(31:45):
it again for the love of that and for that brotherhood.
And it's not being it's not done out of a yeah,
it's we're going to play super hard. We're going to
do it for each other because we love each other.
We're trying to push this together and I think that's
a kind of thing people rally around. So give it
ans and then ask questions. You guys already did a
good job. I think people show up and I don't
get it, and they kind of check out the Checkers
(32:05):
game last night. There's eight thousand people there, but you
seven thousand didn't really understand all the different calls. Right,
So give us a chance and come come check us
outuld be kind of step one. So Season Kids kicks
back off in February, but if you want to see
really great rugby, it's coming up in three weeks. Sounds
like US versus USA versus Spain, which would be even
better rugby than we.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Six of those players are Charlotte correct? Like for the anthem? Yeah,
that is wonderful.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
And is that is that? Is that American legions?
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Well?
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Oh man, yeah, we gotta do that.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
What's more American than watching.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Three weeks there's game July twelve.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Dan, we got to figure that out to have you
guys out.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Well cool, I want to come out. I'm out of
town July fifth. We'll see if I can come July twelve.
And Charlotte, how can people look you up? And look up.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Anthem anthem RC dot com anthem RC as in Rugby
Carolina dot com.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
I hear you well, Patrick, speed to you, peace Stack,
good luck, uh you you certainly are an entrepreneur and
go anthem statty Carolina Carolina's uh and go do the
Golden rule today. Treat others the way you want to
be treated. Carry a smile around on your face because
(33:15):
you never know who it's gonna help. Thanks for listening
to At Home with Ruby
Welcome to that Home with Ruby. I'm Patrick mcasac from
Ruby Commercial and Services. Long with Trent. He's from the
Ruby family of companies. We are your hosts. We got
all kinds of scary stuff going on in here, talking
about unsolved mysteries. You brought it up, you said, Robert Stack.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Well, guest today who can't talk for ten minutes.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
We just met Patrick.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
He's the coach of the Charlotte rugby team. Anthem, we'll
let him talking a little while. But I called him
Robert Stack, and you said that was the unsolved mystery guy,
and uh, we talked about how scared we were. It
would come on Wednesday nights at nine o'clock and when
the music would come in, I would cry and tell
(00:41):
my parents to cut the TV off, change the channel.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
It kept me up all the time when I was
a kid.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, there he is, and about every fourth or fifth show,
because I was running a spreadsheet on this, they had
the man that would do things around the railroad track
and we had a we have a railroad track, as
you know, that goes by my house across the river.
So those really scared me. What are you doing? Man? Stop?
(01:10):
I don't want to cry.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, I don't know what it is about his voice
and that opening music would just like you said, just
my skit still makes.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
My It was all scary because it was real true story.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yeah so to a.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Seven year old kid. Now, my wife watches it twenty
four hours a day. All she does is watch true
real life. Yeah, crime like forty eight hours and goodness gracious,
who's that woman that just got got acquitted for killing
her boyfriend? Oh my gosh, she watched that whole trial.
How did these women watch this trial? What do you
think about that Patrick who can't say anything?
Speaker 1 (01:48):
No, no, look he's getting that way. Hey, I would
be a little bit on the caution side. He is
a rugby coach. I imagine he's probably a pretty tough fella,
So you may be on your own on this rugby guys.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
They seem they seem. I think that's as it's about
a six out of ten on tough sports.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Those guy's don't wear pads, man. I had a good
friend that I played high school with. In high school football,
his name was Steve Baskin, and Steve was a super
tough dude. And Steve played rugby on the club team
at university of Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
You know who I hung out with yesterday is uh
is a big block, Kevin Blocker, and he has introduced
me to to Brenton Burson from the Carolina Panthers, a
receiver for five years for the Carolina Panthers. And you're
talking about a big block. I mean them two guys.
(02:42):
Kevin Blocker has been on the show. He was a
baseball player.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
He played for the Rockies for a while.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, man, I mean and you introduced me to him,
Thank you. And he's a member at Carolina Golf Club.
Great people, super dude. Yeah along, But we had a
good time. But I bet Brenton is not good at rugby.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
I don't know. Patrick might be might need his digits,
might be wanting to call him up.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Okay is fast?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
How uh? How good was last week's show? Brandon Stewart
Hydro Live Therapy, Burger King b K b K state,
what are you doing to the microphone? Patrick?
Speaker 1 (03:17):
A microphone is not wanting to cooperate, have to mess
with I can see Kelvin. I can feel the fumes
coming out of his ears right now. He hates when
I mess with this thing, but he does no Brandon
was awesome. He was fantastic. What an entrepreneur I think, Uh,
you know him talking about just going at it, burning
the boats essentially, I mean, throwing everything at it. And
(03:40):
I don't know, it's just very very good perspective he has,
I hear you.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
And then Jeff Naper's in the studio, mister radio, mister
iha radio. He's good friends with Patrick and he actually
him and I both in the last couple of weeks
have had our calcium test. He was yesterday, So go
get checked out, get your annual physical. Do that for
you and your family so you know where you stand.
(04:08):
I think my test was a little higher than I
had hoped, but we know what we're dealing.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
With, that's right. We obviously a couple of weeks ago
we talked about this mine and just it's crazy. I
saw I don't know another younger person that seems to
be on LinkedIn that randomly passed away, just like a
friend of a friend of a friend of a friend.
But I mean it seemed very similar to like.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Some Do you think AI is sending that to you?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
I definitely think so.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
At this point, my wife was telling me about about
my my children's friends who have phones and the ai
that are addicted to these phones, and she's like, millionaires
in California are doing this to addict your kids like crack,
(04:58):
And I said, maybe that are billionaires.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Have you seen the Social Experiment. I think we've talked
about that on the radio show before. It it talks
about that, and it's it's been out for several years,
but it talks about how the changes kids and based
on things that are said and liked and all the difference.
I mean, it just predict basically what you're saying that
they could. It's they can predict all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
And the crazy thing is, and this is just the truth.
We have a rule that my kids don't get their
phone till fourteen, and my son's ten and as friends
have phones and let you see that, it affects him
in the sense that he's not in the game, so
to speak. So we deal with that.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
We We were the same with Scarlet. It took a
while before we and then when we gave it, gave
in and finally got her one her she wanted to
She used to like to read books, a lot more
of it. She wanted to play on her phone more
than read books. So it's amazing how that changes. But
you sent a quote over the weekend about AI and
about something about a doctor now now if he uses AI,
(06:02):
essentially could you get in trouble? And in five years
if they don't they don't use it, they also could get.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
They said, this is a fact. Well, if a doctor
uses AI now to diagnose and help find a solution,
they could get sued for malpractice. Probably will in five years.
If they don't use AI, they will get sued for malpractice.
Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
It's wild, but it is. It is such a helpful,
useful tool you had sent down. I wrote back, Hey,
you mentioned you downloaded chatch ept. I'm like, pet get
the paid version. It's worth it for nineteen bucks a month.
This is in a chatch Ept advertisement, I promise, but
I use it like if like you're talking about trying
to eat better, which is cool, I'll type in like,
hey what should I eat it? Noble smoke today for lunch?
(06:51):
What's healthy? And they'll say, try these six options, stay
away from these two options. Really, they'll do it for
any restaurant, really, anything that you And the craziest part is,
I mean, I'm sure most people listen this probably know this,
but you can get in the paid version. You actually
have somebody that will talk to you, and so it's
got like a real person's voice.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Trick. I'll talk to you for free, or you can
give me eighteen dollars a month.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
So we were we were driving to see my parents.
I think I've told you this before, and we brought
up this, you know, the chatch Epte lady, and we
were interested in learning more about the Grand Canyon, and
so it I mean, it tells you everything you ever
want to know. It's like having an expert on the
Grand Canyon sitting right next to you.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And whichever novelty store at the Grand Canyon pays chat
GPT more advertising, that's who they tell you to go
to and see.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I don't think you can advertise on chat ept yet.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Oh yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
It's coming. Come on, man, it's coming.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Big brothers listening to you. They know all about you.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Man, it's coming.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
I think it's unfair. I gotta learn about you. The
old school around.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Well, we're gonna learn about We're gonna learn about Patrick Stack.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
If I if I, if I put a microphone when
you carry you around and let me let me hear
all your his darkest conversations.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
And we'll get shatgypt that summarize it for you.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
It'll be wonderful. Ford asked me the other day. Ford said, Dad,
what if you could have one superpower? What would it be?
And I said, man, I never really have thought about
this ten year old, so what was it? And I said,
I said, I don't. I don't really know. I'm I'm
somewhat content with with my life. I said, but I
(08:24):
would like to know what people read people's minds, and
then I said, no, no, no, I don't want to
read people's minds because then you know when they're thinking
about you, so you create out his head trash and
he said, which I really don't want that. I want
to be a dummy. But he said mine would be
to fly. I hear you, and I was like too.
(08:45):
He said walking on water would be cool. I said, well, heck,
if you could fly, you got walking on water taken.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Care of kind of cover.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
So uh, maybe one day we will be able to
fly with a jetpack. You know when back in a
few went back to when Back to the Future came
out and they had those hoverboard Yeah, skateboards. I thought
I was going to be riding the hoverboard skateboard before
I had a car.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
So you're disappointed that you haven't had a hoverboard.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Where's that scientist? That this gracious Michael J. Foxx's Brown?
He's a fraud?
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Where is Emmitt Brown when we need him?
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Emmitt Brown?
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Doctor Emmitt That's my favorite movie. I still watch that
if it's on TV and I catch at nine o'clock
at night on USA.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I just want a little bit of his hair.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
You can have some of mind.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Uh. But yeah, so here we go. We got the
coach of anthem uh Rugby Carolina's our Rugby team. He
can't say anything. He's looking at me. He pulled the
mic over uh. Patrick Stack. When we return, I can't
here wait to hear what he's got to say. On
at Home with Rugby.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
And don't forget Rugby Services is your one stop source
for all your electrical heating, cooling, plumbing and handyman needs.
Keep it easy and get it all done by one.
Roby servicesnow dot com. That's Roby Services now dot com.
Welcome back at Home with Roby and Patrick mcasac from
Roby Commercial and Services on the Trent Hayston from the
Roby Family of Companies. We are your host, Steve. If
(10:15):
you miss this. On the first segment, I had a
few laughs. I think we got a lot of incorrect
information according to our guests. Patrick, you wanted when do
you want to start correcting us? At what point of
the of the show where you like, I gotta tell
them they're wrong.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Well, there's a couple of things. We probably gonna get
a line down here shortly.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
So talking to the mike, Patrick, We've got.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
More than one Patrick, so you can't keep on calling
me Patrick. So all right, stack and pick, stack, p Stack, Stack,
attack or Stacker.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Oh, we've got options. I might call you every one
of them before the show's over.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Friend is what I think I'm looking for.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
I have a lot of people to call me. I
do I do.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
When I meet somebody that I like, we become friends.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
I'm sure you have and too many friends of the problem.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
That's my wife tells me.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Yeah, right, so yeah, yeah, call me. Don't call me
Patrick because it's going to confused listeners.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
All right, SpongeBob, let's go.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
I am not the coach of Anthem.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
You are not.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
I do not know how to coach rugby for the record,
that really important distinction. I've played rugby, but I'm the president,
so the president.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Of the business side of the team.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
There you go, so do who.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Kind of felt a good emotion? But yeah, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
I mean, you know, I'm in a group called young president.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
I heard about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's no young
coaches they.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
No, that's really cool.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Man.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
In two distinctions, then I didn know the woman that
killed her boyfriend. Her name is Karen Reid, yes, yes?
And Doc Brown I forgot this name was Emmet That
was good. But you listen to you.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Did you listen to that trial too?
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I don't know much about it, but like it surrounds me.
Supposedly the cops killed that's the rumor.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
That is the rumor. But uh.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Apparently when you hit somebody with your cart doesn't really
bust a tail light out. Really, that's what they tell me.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Do you speak from experience?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
No?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I peripherally who watched his trial for the last two years.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
I didn't know if you had hit somebody with your
with your car before.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I have never God blessed, I am knock on wood.
Please you just say that my buddy told me earlier
that I'm going to see later this week, he said.
I said, I can't wait to see you. He lives
in Alabama, and he he said, he said, I'm looking
forward to it. I said, we're gonna have a lot
of fun. He said, me and you could have fun
in jail together. I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
(12:47):
That is a little strong, you know, don't be so presumptuous.
It's a stacker. That's next level there.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yeah, I mean, come on, that could be taken. Yeah,
I really, they don't.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Really need to need to even hear anything along the line.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
We'll leave that there.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Yeah, not touch it.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Let's talk about rugby.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Let's talk about it.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
How give us the details. How you got here, where
you're from, all the things.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Yeah, I'm from a little tropical place eight hours north
of here called Cleveland, Ohio.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Nice and so nice, thinking about the sun be.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Really nice this time of year, great lakes, it's beautifulful
this time of year.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I agree.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Moved down here in two thousand and eight, like so
many folks from up north, came down here to work
in the sports business. So at that time, still to
this day, obviously this is big NASCAR country, and I
had a sports marketing background, so I worked for a
sports marketing agency. They did a lot of Nascar work
in two thousand and eight. So that's originally what brought
me down here. And then rugby origin story. Growing up
in Cleveland, I played rugby and high school. My high
(13:42):
school introduced a rugby team. My freshman year football coach
didn't let us play, but up up in Ohio and
to an extent here, rugby happens after football season. So
this season was done. My senior year football coach couldn't
tell me what to do anymore. My buddies in a bugnay,
come on and play rugby, play rugby. And grew up
playing like backgard football and kind of new, yeah, kind
of new what it was, but didn't really know the rules.
To be Franko, it was kind of scared to go play.
(14:04):
Then you get out there and it's fun as hell.
I don't if I can say that on the go
for it. If you're coming from football, Yeah, rugby both
you play offense and defense, you can carry the ball,
it's NonStop, it's a blast and it kind of immediately
fell in love with the sport in high.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
School that was the Cristmas snap. I've ever heard right hand?
One more time? One more time, here's the left hand.
Oh you got rugby hands.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
When I'm forty seven, I think I'm a little hair
older than you there, mister Stack. But uh, when I
was in high school, it's like the next generation, probably
four or five years below me. Those guys were playing rugby.
I never was introduced to rugby other than five WTV.
I had some educational thing about rugby in Australia is
(14:54):
all I ever saw. But it became real popular, uh
in the in the later nineties. Yeah, so same thing,
similar to Cleveland.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
It's very popular here. Yeah, Charlotte's the third largest youth
rugby mark.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
In the country. Really really Yeah, there's a club here
that's gone to the last two national championships. They won
last year they lost.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
See, this is why we have you.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
This is really cool growing.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
What age group?
Speaker 3 (15:16):
This is high school? So this is you twelve three?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Goodness gracious?
Speaker 1 (15:19):
And where and where do y'all? I mean, where do
you play?
Speaker 4 (15:21):
American Legion and World Stadium. Yeah, we got eight matches there.
It's honestly very structured dar football. You've got like sixteen weeks.
Our season runs right after football, so okay. Our home
opener was the week after the Super Bowl February fifteenth
through early June, so we just wrapped up our season.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
I know you were so kind and offers a couple
of tickets to come to the game. We just couldn't
do it that last minute. I definitely want to come
by the vibe at the stadium for your games. I
have driven by like either before or after, and he
could feel it. It was That's what I love about
Mortial Stadium too. It's just it's so intimate and it's cool.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
It's a very good field for rugby too. It's turf
rugby guys playing grass because it's a lot of damage
on your body time to go down, so.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
They love natural grass. But it's a really big pitch.
They like it, beautiful sidelines and something very historic about
being there too.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
It's great family you call a pitch and rugby as well. Correct, okay, cool,
make sure you get the terminality.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Interesting thing you want to we can talk about rugby.
So I think you guys probably understand this football derived
from rugby. So rugby was first and then football came
second because they wanted to throw the ball forward, and
rugby you can't throw the ball forward. There's kind there's
a bunch of different rules, but kind of the three
biggest differences. Rugby you can only pass the ball backwards.
You can kick it forward and run underneath it. You
can't pass the ball forward. You can't black that's called obstruction.
(16:30):
So you can't even set a pick like you would
in basketball. And then when you get tackled, players live,
so the play doesn't start and stop, so you have
to basically kind of ruck over kind of to maintain possession.
But it started with rugby and then it became football.
And you know that because what do you call when
you score six points in football?
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Touchdown?
Speaker 3 (16:47):
A touchdown? Do you touch the ball down?
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Nope?
Speaker 4 (16:49):
In rugby to actually score, you have to touch the
ball down in the tries on. That's where that originated from.
So in rugby you run into the try zone.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
This is great.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Rugby is og football. So everyone needs a love it.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
I'm gonna tell everybody I know that because I think
that's a.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Cool sea I do.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah, that's really neat.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
So how did you get it? So how did you
make this transition from the marketing company to Anthem.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Yeah, yeah, I've bounced around a little bit.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
We don't have enough time to kind of walk you
through my whole career path, but I've always been around
corporate partnerships in sponsorship within the sports business.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Played in high school and then.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Actually did a study of broad experience in Australia college
and played in six months.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
It was like really immersed in the culture.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
You know, you go to you go to school on Saturdays,
there's like five rugby matches. I've played at ten, there's eleven, twelve,
and then you go up, you drink all day, watch rugby,
then you go to the pub.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
It's the best explained six minutes of my life.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
The very first time I ever got classes past tool,
ever got exposed to rugby, was from a family that
had moved to where I grew up from New Zealand. Yeah,
and they both played football, very good football players, and
they would do uh, what do you call it? The
chance that they do before the game, hakka, the hakka.
He would do that before like our coach would make
them get up there. But yeah, yeah, I'm not to
say the name up there and do and like that.
(18:01):
I mean, they would get it, just him doing to
get you fired.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
It's a mayory is the tribe. Yeah, it's a warrior
warrior dance. That's what they would do before they would
go to war. Ever seen Zealand? Oh you'd love it,
trent All Blacks, you just started doing before you come
out on the podcast.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, let's do it right now.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
See we can do that.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
It's basic, like get your blood going. Man, it's cool.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Area are all going to do something? My name is
not Patrick.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
I never answered you, so I bounced. I've worked in
the sports business for a while. I worked with for
Charlotte Checkers, worked for the Cleveland Browns, worked in agencies.
I was a professor for a number of years, starting nonprofits.
I've kind of bounced around.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
A little bit.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
But I've always had a passion for rugby. But when
I was getting rolling it, there wasn't a commercial, enterprising
ecosystem around it. This was like fifteen twenty years ago.
And no joke, this is a LinkedIn success story. I
was on LinkedIn in September and I was messing around,
probably looking at someone I could figure out how could
sell something to like Jeff Naper and uh and uh
and and get on there and there's a job posting
(18:58):
for team president. Anthro might be Carolina and I always
wanted to work in rugby always and ambitions to be
a team president, and.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Uh kind of fell in my lap.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
So the fact that I had a passion for rugby
ownershid that the sports business and then have a background
in Charlotte to community build and build relationships. It kind
of was a was a quick, a quick kind of
fortunois outcome, honestly.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
So how's it going.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
It's hard.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
It's hard.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
We're a startup, you know, like we're we're a startup.
We're in an emerging market, is the best way to
think about it. So an emerging market and a very
competitive climate. They come any more sports teams are here
now fifteen years ago, right crazy? The sports teams that
are that we're here then that are here now are
like much more mature. I was at the Charlotte Checkers
Calder Cup match last night, right sad matching game now.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Because I'm more on rugby too much. So cool, unbelievable.
I worked at the Checkers.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
They were well, we're an organization, but I was emotionally
overwhelmed by, like what a great experience was last night?
Eight thousand people going nuts. That's a minor league hockey
team in Charlotte. When did you remember you with the
Checkers when they played up town. Yeah, that's where I
started my career. We used to advertise with the Checkers.
It was like the like the lamp, Roby electrics, like
the lamp. Jason Shaia, who was the announcer, I became
(20:03):
pretty cool. He what a great guy, great guy. He
was our account rep.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Yeah, he's great.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
He was awesome.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
So we Uh, I worked to those guys. Yeah, Gody
named Aaron Osborn and that's whe I started.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
I remember Aaron. Aaron went to go work for Coca Cola, right, yeah, great,
Yeah that was cool. So that was back in the day.
We that was by twenty eleven.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah. I was there from twenty ten to twenty thirteen. Yeah, yeah,
we're old.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
I didn't know you did that, Oh yeah did. I
went to it.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
There was a lot of sports in this community.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Man.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
They're good. They're good teams, they're good organizing.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
You know, you never you take it for granted.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
You definitely did if you're.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Not talking about it, But uh, I got to ask you.
I might a little out of loop. Did the Checkers win.
They lost the Colder Cup. They lost the game, made
it to the finals.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Yeah, fought back to and they were put a great game.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
They were on fire up until the final.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
They were and it was a it was a top
top five sporting been to. Really, it was awesome. It
was great. That place packed.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Yeah, my family went to a game when one Sunday
afternoon and it was awesome.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
It was great.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Tara Tara Black was was ran the organization when I was.
Sean still there.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
They really honestly, those folks kind of gave me an
opportunity that is really cool to kind of.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I think Sean went to Clemson, right, Yeah, we were
there at the same time. Yeah, because when we did
start doing the advertising, we had put those pieces together.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Yeah, it's a great organization. This is a great sports
business community. He asked, like it's challenging because we've got
to figure out our path.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Amongst really good organizations and we Rugby. Everyone kind of
knows what it is, but they don't really know what
it is. They know that it's kind of like football
and they don't wear pads and that it's kind of tough.
But beyond that, there's like a little lack of awareness,
which is which is kind of why I wanted the job.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
I like to build stuff, Roby, yeah, fruction, I get it.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
And as my background as an educator, I like to teach,
so it's kind of a it's honestly what I was
looking for. It's something I know has merit here in Charlotte.
I think people will love the aggressive aspect of it.
It's super fun to watch where you can kind of
understand it. And then, honestly, the biggest reason I took
this role, the Rugby World Cup is coming to the
United States in twenty thirty one.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Really, yeah, it'd be the first time it's ever happening
in the US.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Rugby Cups is equivalent to the year of World Cup.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Correct, It's the third largest sporting event in the world.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Where's it being played.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
They haven't identified yet. They'll identify after the twenty twenty
seven World Cup in Australia.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Come to Charlotte.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
It's it's it's in the mix. That's party plan, that's
part of the plan.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
That's so cool man.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
It's a bit of a power organization structured and really
a big reason why I took the job, because you've
got to think about how do you grow a product, Right,
you got to invest in the community and then you
have to have a long term view what it is
and what we're doing now in twenty five is to
make sure that when twenty thirty one rules around, that's
like our launch point. I use this analogy a lot
and people I think I think that by you let
me know, you should be straight.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Right.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
MLS launched after the ninety ninety nineteen ninety four Soccer
World Cup, Right, that was kind of its launch pot really, Yeah,
ninety ninety six and WNBA was immediately after the nineteen
ninety six Olympics in Atlanta. Right, women's basketball took off.
So this is kind of that launch point. And credit
to World Rugby for investing in what they're doing now
to try and make sure the twenty thirty one it's
kind of that launch point.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Wow, very cool. So soon when a layman who doesn't
know rugby, Trent and I you're obviously educating us, which
is awesome, and we're super excited you're here to be
able to give a platform for the anthem. Uh do
you have I mean, do you kind of have some
instructional informational stuff at the game, like, hey, this is
what's going on. These are some of the penalties. This
(23:15):
is I mean, so fans can kind of learn.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Yeah, there's a couple of things we've been tweaking. And
to be a frank, guys that started the job in
December February. Okay, so I was kind of thrown into
the fire a bit.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
I bet you were.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
I learned a lot. I learned a lot this year.
I learned a lot.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
So we teased a couple of things, and then I
also went to rugby matches kind of across the country
to see how other teams that are more established have
been doing that. One thing that I think works best
was it that rugby one on one experience pre match.
So I would invite you and your family up come
meet me thirty minutes beforehand, bring a couple of players
who aren't playing, and they'll teach you that kind of stuff.
And the beauty of what we have as access I
can get you guys down on the field, we can
(23:48):
catch in front of the players. The spirit of what
we're trying to build with respect to the players is
that they want rugby to grow too, right.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
It's good for them.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
So they're willing to sit down with you, talk to
your kids on a ball, walk you through this, teach
you how to pass whatever. So a Rugby one to one
experiences something we were doing pre matches. I could see
us doing that more consistently, maybe more in the community,
and then within reason, you want to try to interject
in the when the game. The game doesn't slop, it
doesn't stop, so it's very hard to you don't think
through like in football, there's first down, yeah, stop, you
(24:20):
can do whatever. On the video board, do whatever, pa,
You've got to kind of keep it rolling. So there's
you have to have a really acutely good PA announcer
who can both like interject when they should with the information,
but also step away. So we were working through that
as well. We've got some various video board spots. But
that's kind of probably my number one objective this year
is how do we help educate the casual fan understand
(24:41):
what rugby is and why that should be compelled to
come check it out, and then once they're there, to
get a better understanding up of what happens.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
So a couple questions, how many leagues are in the team,
how many teams are in the league, and how long
is the game?
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Yeah, great question, So eighty minutes, so it's forty minute halves.
They do a hydration stopage at twenty of each. The
league is relatively new as well. League started in twenty eighteen.
There's eleven teams. Okay, we're the eleventh team here is
Major League Rugby, So it's the first domestic professional rugby
in the US.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Well, let's talk a little bit about the about the
business side you have brought up. Hey, the players aren't
they're they're not going to make an NFL money at
this point. Do a lot of them have second jobs
or day jobs? Do this on the side or is
it to the point where this is their full time gig.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Yeah, during the season, it's a full time gig.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
I mean some of the guys will have their own
businesses doing various kind of computer jobs, you could say
after practice. But their day is seven am Wow through
five pm. When you look at Wow, you look at
kind of come in meetings, taping sessions. So that's the
other thing that when you guys come to match, you're
gonna see tape everywhere and like weird places, like why
do all these guys have tape. They can't wear padding
(25:46):
or braces because if that would be almost like equipment, right,
So only recourse they have to substantiate any kind of
injury or preventing jo. So you'll see tape around legs,
You'll see tape around around heads.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Lit's see tape on shoulders. So there's like a pretty
significant taping session that happens pre practice.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
We might have to put some tape around track.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
You're gonna see tape in really weird places, and then
you know they're done by three or four pm. So
then I guess in theory they could work. But during
the season it's pretty they'll have to work out. But
in the off season, we actually had a sponsor, a
shameless plug gentle Giant moving company. One of the reasons
they worked with us was because they want to hire
our guys in the off season. They need big people
to move stuff.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
So a number of guys have that as a great
part time job. And then a number of our players
are actually another shameless plug. An number of our players
actually six play for the US national team.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
So when their season's over, now they've already transitioned to
international test matches. So there's two test matches being played
here in Charlotte July fifth and July twelve, So six
of our guys will play Belgium on July fifth and
then Spain in July twelve.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
So our team out of eleven has six national players
for the US.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Yeah, that's actually kind of how we're structured.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
We're called anthem because we have a relationship with USA Rugby,
so USA Rugby is like ourhigh performance part so we're
our team is actually built to develop young American players
to represent the US.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Who is the who is the owner the backer of
this team?
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Yeah, a great question. That's another reason why I took
the job to be frank. Typical structure is rich guy
owns a team, loves the sport, invest in it. It's
not our structure. We're actually partially owned by two different
rugby organizations. And this is super confusing. I don't want
to want to boord you guys too much.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
But it's perfect.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
World Rugby, which is the International Federation, owns half of
our team. So that would be like FIFA buying an
MLS team. Really Yeah, okay, with the express goal of
raising the profile of rugby in the US before they
bring the World Cup in twenty thirty one.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
And then the other half is actually the league. So
the league wants to work with World Rugby and have
that partnership, and then they want to develop American talent.
So we have that relationship with USA Rugby. The best
way to think about that relationship is the Charlotte Knights.
The Knights run the business for the Charlotte Knights. They
don't pick the players, and I pick the coaches. They
don't pay the players. That's an affiliate agreement with Chicago
White Sox got right, same thing with the Checkers. Agree
(28:00):
with the Florida Panthers. We have an affiliate agreement with
USA Rugby. So USA Rugby coaches are identifying the players
and developing the players to do that for US SO.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
And you're running the business side direct.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
That's why I was quick to point out that I'm
not a coach, because they are very offended. They actually
know what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Well, thanks for clear of finding that again, apologies for
getting that incorrect.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
I don't know what I'm doing on the present on
the business side, but I definitely don't know what I'm
doing on the rugby side.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
On the radio, man that is so intriguing. Man, that's cool,
so so cool. I cannot wait to take my kids.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
It's an ambitious goal. Like I said, nothing against other
sports teams. I worked for other sports teams. But for
me where I was in my career, the aspiration is
isn't just profit seeking for an individual owner. It's how
do we get more people to play rugby, how do
we enhance the competitiveness of our national team at the
US level, and how do we grow the game. And
that was the kind of thing that I was I
(28:53):
was looking for.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I mean, Pa Stack or Patrick as we talked struggle
with like you were nickname options, not sure one. Now
you're all right, You're all right, we got you, we
got you. I mean what you're talking about is exactly
what we talked about in this show. You're a startup.
You're you're hoping to be at the very beginning of
something that can grow to something extraordinary. You got a
plan to get there. I mean, this is this is
(29:14):
exactly what we talk about with with our entrepreneurial guests.
And you're you're an entrepreneur. I mean essentially you're you're
trying to build grinding yeah, like like it.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Like even when I don't think I'm a reminded every day.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Yeah, like Brandon Stewart, Uh, you know, getting into the
Jimmy John's business when he was twenty eight. It's very similar.
So cool. I think it's really cool that we're utilizing
you said the checkers, they're utilizing the old Charlotte Colisseum
on Independence Boulevard, and you guys are using the old
Memorial Stadium. I think it's called the American Legion Stadium. Now, yeah,
(29:48):
that's great. I think that's wonderful. And how to how
better to give your Charlotte a chance to be successful
in rugby than supported by the League.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Correct and the World Federation and the World Federation the
kind of the biggest character d angle, which is the
World Cup. So that's why I mean, and I'm saying
in our record here, but I've been in meetings and
folks from World Rugby would would reinfirm it. If we
can have success, Charlotte has a very good chance at
hosting a Rugby World Cup, which would be a huge
opportunity for us. And we've already have seen the city's
willingness to support and help us out with these international
(30:23):
matches until we can because everyone wants that. That's the
best part about Charlotte, you guys get it. I feel
like everyone's trying to grow the community. I'm from Cleveland.
It's not like that in Cleveland. Really, no, no, no,
So I think that's been probably the best part about
this role is I know that this can work in
Charlotte because community is such.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
A I think that all started with leaders like Hugh McCall.
I agree, and uh Ed Crutchfield knows. Guys, they were
philanthropists for the city of Charlotte and know that we
need well rounded culture and sports and stuff, entertainment for
the family for us to truly be a desired successful city.
(30:58):
And this is an example.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
It's amazing and we take it for granted. There's a
Club World Cup today, I mean, and unbelievable the ban
as we here a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, Sports
Foundation does an amazing job too.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
That is awesome.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
What I mean we always asked this, like, how do
how can we support How can the people listening support
I'm sure social media everywhere, all the things, websites all
the same. How do we engage with.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
The anthem as a community, give us a chance come
check it out, right. I think it has a lot
of the elements that you'll like in traditional sport. It's
super aggressive, very competitive, NonStop intensity, NonStop. You will see
hits that you don't think are natural, and you we
hear collisions that don't seem to make sense, and then
you will see those guys get up and go do
(31:45):
it again for the love of that and for that brotherhood.
And it's not being it's not done out of a yeah,
it's we're going to play super hard. We're going to
do it for each other because we love each other.
We're trying to push this together and I think that's
a kind of thing people rally around. So give it
ans and then ask questions. You guys already did a
good job. I think people show up and I don't
get it, and they kind of check out the Checkers
(32:05):
game last night. There's eight thousand people there, but you
seven thousand didn't really understand all the different calls. Right,
So give us a chance and come come check us
outuld be kind of step one. So Season Kids kicks
back off in February, but if you want to see
really great rugby, it's coming up in three weeks. Sounds
like US versus USA versus Spain, which would be even
better rugby than we.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Six of those players are Charlotte correct? Like for the anthem? Yeah,
that is wonderful.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
And is that is that? Is that American legions?
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Well?
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Oh man, yeah, we gotta do that.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
What's more American than watching.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Three weeks there's game July twelve.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Dan, we got to figure that out to have you
guys out.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Well cool, I want to come out. I'm out of
town July fifth. We'll see if I can come July twelve.
And Charlotte, how can people look you up? And look up.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Anthem anthem RC dot com anthem RC as in Rugby
Carolina dot com.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
I hear you well, Patrick, speed to you, peace Stack,
good luck, uh you you certainly are an entrepreneur and
go anthem statty Carolina Carolina's uh and go do the
Golden rule today. Treat others the way you want to
be treated. Carry a smile around on your face because
(33:15):
you never know who it's gonna help. Thanks for listening
to At Home with Ruby
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