June 5, 2025 • 43 mins
Ever wonder how waste management and professional soccer intersect? Andy McNeil, a successful Arkansas entrepreneur who built multi-million dollar environmental service companies, takes us on an unexpected journey through both worlds in this captivating conversation.
McNeil's business savvy shines as he explains how he transformed small waste management operations into industry leaders, including Denali—the largest food waste recycler in America with over a billion dollars in invested capital. But it's when the conversation shifts to soccer that his eyes truly light up. From coaching youth teams for 18 years to attending multiple World Cups and once finding himself in Roman Abramovich's owner's box at Chelsea, McNeil's soccer stories reveal why the beautiful game creates such powerful connections.
What makes this episode particularly valuable is McNeil's unique perspective on why professional sports—and specifically Ozark United FC—matter for Northwest Arkansas's future. "If we could leap forward 20 years and reflect back on today, what would set up Arkansas to be one of the best states? I think one of those things would be pro sports," he explains. This isn't just about entertainment; it's about economic development, talent attraction, and community identity.
The discussion also explores the remarkable investment opportunity soccer represents, with franchise valuations skyrocketing and the sport showing tremendous growth across all metrics in America. McNeil provides fascinating insights into why business fundamentals remain crucial even while building community-focused sports organizations, and why Ozark United FC's mixed-use development approach represents forward-thinking planning for the region.
Whether you're a soccer fan, business enthusiast, or simply care about Northwest Arkansas's future, this conversation offers valuable perspective from someone who understands both the boardroom and the beautiful game. Subscribe now and join us as we continue to explore the journey from pitch to professional soccer in NWA.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 2 (00:05):
Pitch to Pro is the official podcast of Ozark United
FC.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
This will be our platform to tell our story about
the club and the special placethat we call home, Northwest
Arkansas.
This is a journey we want tobring you along for the ride.
We'll share what's going onbehind the curtain, help educate
the community at large aboutsoccer, our league, and give
updates on the progress of theclub along the way.
Together, we'll explore andunpack our journey to
(00:30):
professional soccer, the magicthat is NWA, our community, and
talk all things soccer from onthe pitch to behind the scenes,
telling the story of our club.
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Pitch to Pro Podcast is proudly sponsored by
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(01:07):
Hello everybody and welcomeback to the Pitch to Pro podcast
.
I'm your host, wes Harris,managing Director for Ozark
United FC, northwest Arkansas'pro soccer club playing in the
United Soccer League Today.
I'm super excited about ourguest, mr Andy McNeil.
He's an Arkansas-basedentrepreneur and investor in
environmental services and justloves the game, the beautiful
(01:29):
game, and has just made his waythrough and found Northwest
Arkansas and all other places oflife in the US and investment,
and we'll talk about all of yourbackground, man, but just Andy.
Thank you so much, man.
I think you have just a reallyfascinating background and so
happy to have you on our showand thank you for your support.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Wes, I'm super pumped to be on.
You know perhaps the thing thatI you know, when I think about
just my whole, just life journey, soccer has been a part of the
whole thing, and so soccer isjust one of those sports that I
that I love for many differentreasons.
I like lots of sports, but inparticular, I like soccer, and
so I'm very grateful for all thehard work that you guys are
(02:13):
doing and I'm really I'mcheering you guys on to be, you
know, actually get it on thefield and get it over the line.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, thank you so much.
It's, uh, as we've told people.
It's, and you know we've hadWarren on Chris on a bunch of
times.
Uh, it is a process and it Ithink we've been a little bit
more out in the publicthroughout the process than
maybe typical.
You know, markets as they comeon board, they typically just
kind of say, hey, stamp.
(02:43):
Markets as they come on board,they typically just kind of say,
hey, stamp here's, here's theowner, boom, um, and you know
you have soccer in a year.
Versus, hey, this is what wewant to do, and it takes a
village and we're going to bringyou along for the ride and we
want you to know what we'redoing.
And then they're, you know, outin the public and and along for
the ride for those multipleyears that these projects take,
(03:03):
um, and so this is not, uh,warren's first rodeo by any
means and he's been verysuccessful, uh, and then you
have that combo with the passionof Chris, the local guy, and
and just the market growth andall the things you know we've
talked about, and it's just arecipe for what is we know is
going to set us ourselves up forgreat success.
Um, but I really appreciate youjoining me here on the show
(03:27):
today to talk about you know you, your background, how you found
the game and what's excitingabout just soccer in general in
the U?
S and then our project as well.
So I always start with folks uh, a little bit about you and
your background, man, and justkind of your journey.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Excellent.
Well, I guess I'll just start,you know, going back a little
bit.
So I've lived in Arkansas for anumber of decades at this point
, but I'm not really from here.
I grew up in Atlanta, georgia,and Portland, Oregon.
When I got out of college Imoved to Arkansas.
It just was going to betemporary.
(04:03):
It was just going to be verytemporary.
It was actually for a largecorporation and I was going to
only be here for a few monthsand then move away.
And I ended up meeting a girl.
I said hey, don't marry me ifyou want to live in Arkansas,
because I'm a big city kid.
And then, of course, I've livedin Arkansas Pretty much all the
time.
That's a slight exaggerationhow long, but pretty long.
(04:25):
And so, at least from abusiness perspective and I'll
make this short and then we cango into the soccer side so I've
been pretty fortunate with thedifferent things that I've done.
I did management consultingafter I got out of college and I
lived in Europe for a whilewith that.
When I was a little over 30, Imoved back to Arkansas really to
(04:49):
take care of a relative thatwas terminally ill, and again,
that was supposed to be shortterm but it ended up being.
I've lived here ever since thenand really I joined up with a
couple of small entrepreneursand I've been broadly in the
waste specialty waste recyclingfor a very long time.
Since then I've had a number ofdifferent companies and I've
(05:11):
been lucky with those.
I don't know that you reallyhave any reason to know any of
these, but I'll mention a coupleof them.
So one of the more recentbusinesses is a company called
Denali.
Denali is a Russellville-basedbusiness but we operate
throughout the United States.
We are the largest recycler oforganic waste or food waste in
(05:33):
the US.
It's actually become a fairlybig business.
I give Arkansas Business themagazine a little hard time
because they don't include us inthat magazine on their list of
privately held businessesbecause we have capital from
private equity firms and theyhave a controlling share at this
point and so they don't countus as an Arkansas company.
(05:53):
But if it was counted as anArkansas company it'd be like
the 24th, the 25th largestcompany in the state of Arkansas
, which perhaps being on thelist isn't all that important.
But we're really proud aboutwhat we've all accomplished.
Also, we had a trash business.
That business now has morphedinto a larger business called
LRS, which perhaps in NorthwestArkansas.
(06:15):
You've seen that I do a littleprivate equity work and I still
have a few little smallbusinesses.
So that's a little bit aboutthe business side.
Shall I tell you a little bitabout the soccer side, unless?
you want to know any more aboutthe business side, because I can
tell you a lot about that too.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, I think give people a little bit more like
that's such an interestingbackground, how did you get into
the waste business?
It's such an important industryand it's not one I think that's
talked about enough.
I want people to kind ofunderstand what it is that you
(06:51):
guys really do and focus on andhow did you find that and kind
of where is that going?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
So one of the things that happened when we think
about waste just in general,historically, we've just gone to
landfills, okay, and today,here today in the US, we've got
landfill scarcity.
It's about 1,200 landfills leftin the United States.
Very difficult to permit them.
Look no further than the wastemanagement Tontitown landfill in
(07:19):
Northwest Arkansas.
Right, that was under a lot ofpressure.
Will they extend the permit,will they not, etc.
But there's not anotherlandfill up there, you know, so
you have to leave the state orgo down to fort smith, um, and
so, um.
So a lot of things that havebeen in landfills historically
are coming out of landfills,because we can recycle them, and
(07:41):
, of course, anything that's aliquid or any hazardous waste
it's got its own process, soI've been involved in a lot of
different types of waste.
Because we can recycle them,and then, of course, anything
that's a liquid or any hazardouswaste, it's got its own process
, so I've been involved in a lotof different types of waste.
The way that it started, though, was there was two guys that
had a business, and thisbusiness was taking wastewater
residuals, and what that meansis it's the when you clean water
and you turn, dirty water goeson a pipe into the black box,
(08:04):
that cleans it and clean watergoes into our watersheds.
Well, you're going to have abyproduct that comes out the
other direction, so you mightcall it sludge, bile solids.
It has a lot of different namesand there was a small little
Arkansas company and this isgoing back 20 plus years ago,
and there's two guys.
They wanted a third partner andit was just sort of a fit, and
(08:27):
so they made me a partner intheir business.
At the time I didn't knowanything about any of these
waste streams zero and so andwhat we were doing is we were
taking these waste streams andwhen they had a beneficial reuse
purpose, we used them asfertilizer on farm fields.
And that's actually fairlycomplicated in the sense that
(08:48):
you're looking at what's theconditions in the soil.
So you're measuring all sortsof things in the soil
mathematically, looking at thecover crop and then what you're
going to use as fertilizer tomathematically calculate things
like nitrogen, just as anexample.
And so that business morphedover time.
We did things like nitrogen,just as an example, and so that
business morphed over time.
We did things like we investedin the Fayetteville Shale and we
(09:10):
built a saltwater disposal wellhere.
So that's taking frackingfluids and putting them down
whole.
We had a business where we'recollecting fryer oil from
restaurants.
We ended up growing all these,selling them in pieces, and then
I started businesses that weresort of similar, slightly
different and, let's say,adjacent waste streams, and so
one of those was food waste, andso 25% of what goes into the US
(09:33):
landfills is food.
Now, most all of it still goesinto the landfills, but at scale
.
Grocery stores, hospitalschools, prisons, casinos,
things like that you're going tosee start coming out of
landfills, specifically incertain parts of the US.
You might think about them asthe blue and red states, but in
these blue states there's not asmany landfills in general, so
(09:54):
there's more pressure to takethings out.
So that's what those materialsare, and I can tell you more if
there's any parts that you findinteresting that you want to
hear about.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
That's really, really interesting.
I think the one thing that kindof rang true and you tell me if
it's uh, if it's incorrect, butit it's.
It's just another reminder, anexample of you know, it's not
necessarily the what, it's thewho, um, that kind of helps make
the world go around and justsurrounding yourself with good
people.
(10:23):
You said you had no experiencewith waste whatsoever and you
got introduced to these guys whoyou know were good folks that
you surrounded yourself.
They were looking for goodfolks and you try to do some
good together.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
For sure it's a people business.
I mean, I think that it's.
It's.
It's one of the things Wes, Iwould say too, is um, uh and,
and I'm actually hoping to teacha class on this at the
University of Arkansas.
We're working that direction totalk about entrepreneurship and
how you start some of thesebusinesses, because people are,
for sure, a huge element, justlike what you guys are doing.
(10:57):
Right, it requires all thesedifferent people, but it's more
because you also have to reallyget the capital structures
correct, you know.
So the strategy's correct,there's all these little aspects
, and so one of the secretsauces for what we're doing is
just to give you a sense of this.
Our business, you know itstarted off with just a few
(11:19):
people and it's now got, youknow, like you know hundreds and
hundreds of people that workfor the business.
But formulating and putting thecapital in the business is
really, really important and,just using Denali as an example,
it has over a billion dollarsof invested capital in that
business and attracting thatcapital.
(11:40):
That's a hard thing to do andone has to understand, just like
you guys are doing, for whatyou're doing right To get the
capital to, because, as much aseverybody wants pro sports.
It's also not charity, right?
You know everybody wants areturn on their capital and they
want to understand the gameplan of how it works.
It's no different places likeDenali, you know.
So you know you capitalize ontrends by seeing the trends that
(12:02):
are out there and you knowservicing customers as best you
possibly can with the bestpeople with the right capital
structure.
So I think if you can do that,you can create businesses that
aren't necessarily the sort ofentrepreneur journey that is.
You know that a lot of times wetalk about where it's somebody
(12:22):
starting a dot-com from scratch,you know, or a new product or
something.
These are existing businessesthat we launch by doing all the
things that I just said.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
And I love that and I was going to say this more
towards the end, but it's here.
These things navigatethemselves a lot of the time in
these conversations, which isgreat, but you hit on it is
these are businesses at the endof the day, they're not charity
projects and people invest inthese things not because it's
charitable and they want to seegood come from it in the
(12:54):
community.
Yes, they do those things andthey want to do good as sport
through the vehicle, but they'reinvesting in them because
they're getting return on theirinvestment.
Um, at the end of the day.
And so, from your lens I don'tknow how much you are watching
or involved or not in the prosports landscape, but as
somebody who deals with largeamounts of capital and handling
(13:18):
that and watching deal flow andall of those things in kind of
the VC world and being anentrepreneur and investor, Speak
a little bit about, if you can,anything that you have seen
from pro sports and maybe soccerin general from that lens.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
It's been an incredible transformation in pro
sports over the last 30 years.
No doubt about it.
And who would have dreamed?
Even if we go back and we lookat what jerry jones did with the
cowboys and I don't have thesenumbers memorized, but I think
he put 250 million dollars,which people thought was insane
when he did it, and you know,and I think it's one of the most
(13:55):
valuable pro sports franchisesin the world, you know, probably
worth somewhere.
You know, north of six billiondollars, just guessing, maybe
even even more.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Maybe it's even close to 10.
Yeah, I think the last number Isaw was like 9, 9.3 or
something like that.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
And, as it relates to soccer, one of the things I
think is super interesting towatch the growth is that you had
I'm closing in on 60.
And when I was in high school,both high schools that I went to
I went to two different highschools had soccer teams, but
plenty of people that I knowthat are my age went to places
(14:32):
that didn't have soccer teams.
Now that's not true today.
I'm sure there's high schoolsin Arkansas that don't have
soccer, but the vast majority ofhigh schools all over the
United States have soccer teamsand most people that are younger
generations played FIFA on anXbox.
They can tell you who Messi is,even if they don't love soccer.
(14:55):
They still have some sort ofworking knowledge.
If I went back to when I firststarted working in the 80s, if
you had suggested at that time,let's take a customer out to a
soccer game, that would not havebeen a thing.
First off, you couldn't havedone it.
But let's just say you couldhave done it.
You wouldn't have had guys thatwere running the things back
(15:17):
then.
The 56 year olds then wouldhave been like, yeah, no, we're
not going to do that.
That's not true today, right?
So that's a big change and justin terms of how people think
about what they want to do andspend their time.
But if we look at the MLS oreven the secondary leagues, the
USL, et cetera, these franchiseshave started off at small
(15:39):
dollars.
You could get into the MLS for10 million bucks, not even that
long ago Today, I think.
San Diego I think they had toput $500 million up and build a
stadium and I don't think theyused a lot of public money on
the stadium, but I could bewrong on that and they're doing
it because they look at it andgo this is the new frontier, and
(16:03):
so I think it's superinteresting in that regard.
Let me say one other thing too.
I think that's interesting asit relates to Arkansas, and this
is true for me in a businesssense, but I think it's true in
sports too.
I think that, look, if we couldgo leap forward 20 years in
(16:23):
time and reflect back on today,right, and we just think like,
what decisions could we makewith, let's just say broadly,
we're the governor of Arkansas,with all sorts of powers, let's
say we can wave magic wands?
What would be some of thethings that we would do today
that would set up Arkansas to beone of the best states in the
(16:44):
United States.
I think one of the things thatwe would do is have pro sports
Right, because pro sportsattract people to their neck of
the woods, and I think that asoccer team makes a lot of sense
.
And at least soccer even ifwe're saying okay and turning it
into more common language forpeople, the minor leagues or the
(17:06):
second league right, but it isone of the few sports where you
could move up to the big times,right.
It's got a possibility thatdoesn't exist in minor league
baseball, right.
It's not really a thing forbasketball, nor is it really a
thing for football, right, andso it is the gateway for us.
(17:26):
So not only is it, it's goodfor Arkansas, it's a sport with
a lot of trends.
You know, it's something thatyou know, um, that we probably
need if you were looking out 20years.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
And that's such a huge thing.
I mean even you know theWalmart uh local headquarter
associate survey.
You know, one of the mostpopular things uh over the last
several years has been, you know, what are we missing?
What do you wish you had?
And this is, you know, I think,evident and showcasing across
(18:03):
right.
They just are the largest,probably the largest employer
here in the state, but at leastin Northwest Arkansas with their
headquarter campus.
And they what do you wish youhad?
Here Pro sports in their surveywith the associates for the
last several years.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
It's it's it's it really is important for the
state.
Yes, the state's not probablygoing to put a lot of money or
any money into the program, butthe state is a beneficiary, just
to give you like anothertalking point on that.
So I happen to be with some youknow some a group of people
that would be the type thatwould put money into the NIL
(18:35):
programs at the University ofArkansas in a big way and they
all looked at it interestinglyas business development for the
state.
They love the Razorbacks butthey viewed it as super
important that the Razorbackshad, you know, good teams.
They don't have to win thewhole thing.
(18:55):
It doesn't have to be likeAlabama per se, although people
might like that but if they'rejust consistently putting a high
quality team on the field,whatever sport it is, that
that's good for the state, and Ithink Ozark United is the same
way.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Yeah, I think it's really interesting.
It's really interesting is toyour point is how can these
companies incentivize and andmake it easier to recruit some
of the top talent?
Uh, you know, globally, notjust in the U S, but I mean
you're you're talking aboutglobal talent now and competing
on the world stage.
You know the more and more thatNorthwest Arkansas and Arkansas
(19:32):
as a state is kind of showingup and you know good places to
live, quality of life, all thosethings.
You know that's great and it'sit's kind of coming.
But you know, as we kind ofcontinue to evolve, what are
those things that we're stillmissing or that we need, that
aren't necessarily going tocompletely snap your fingers and
solve like, oh, that's thenumber one place that I have to
go to, but are they additionallevers that you know you can
(19:56):
point to and say look at thegrowth, look at all the things
that we have now and and placesto go, things to do, uh, and
then things that continue todrive and build community and
bridge some of those gaps thatthat exist.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Yeah, you know, I don't think it is you know, so
it's part of it for sure.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Well, I love that and we talked a little bit about it
, but how did you find the game?
I always ask people thisquestion, like how did you get
introduced to soccer?
What's your experience with thegame?
How did you either find it andgrow up with it, or you found it
later in life?
What's your experience with thegame?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Well, so there happened to be a league close by
my house when I was a littlekid and I sort of played soccer
when I was a kid and I playedother sports too and I played,
you know.
So I played growing up, butwhat I would say was more of
maybe more of an inflectionpoint was when I was in my early
twenties.
I started playing with a groupof guys in like a men's league
(20:56):
Okay, Just, you know, a recmen's league but that meant so
much as just an experience, youknow, and so I would play every
weekend.
We had an indoor arena that weplayed at, and I have all of
these fond memories and I hadthis opportunity to move to
Europe and I got to play on aEuropean team.
I had to try out for this teambut it was still and we had a
(21:19):
coach, but it was still like awreck men's league.
But I had so much fun with that.
And then, you know, I alwaystease my kids.
So my kids are in theirtwenties or at least most of my
kids are in their twenties and Itease them.
If I could go back and, like,hop into their body, I'd go play
soccer Not that I couldn'tnecessarily play today, but I
can't do the same things that Iused to do.
There's just no way.
(21:39):
And then, as my kids grew, Iwanted to be the sort of dad
that coached, and so I coachedsoccer for 18 years.
And if you coach especially ifyou coach like in Russellville
Arkansas like in RussellvilleArkansas you end up also having
to ref, because we don't haveenough refs, and so guys like me
would ref your team if you werecoaching at the same time.
(22:00):
I had a great time doing that.
I also coached other sports, butI coached soccer and there's a
lot of things about that I tookparticular pride in.
I had people on the team thatmade I know it's not a thing
today, but they made the stateteam.
(22:21):
That was part of the Olympicdevelopment program when it
occurred, which is a programthat sought to identify pools of
people within a state, thenwithin a region and then in the
nation, and I coach players thatdid a really good job doing
that.
One of the legacies that Ireally like and you may or may
not know this, but RussellvilleHigh School has won a lot of
(22:44):
state championships under thiscoach, jared Fuller.
In fact, they just won theirfourth in a row and I got to
thinking about this my oldestson's.
When he was a freshman.
He was on the team and that wasthe first year that this coach,
jared, who was a younger guy atthe time, took them to the
(23:04):
state championship, and both ofmy sons got to play in state
championship teams, which wasreally cool, and I am
particularly proud that a lot ofthe teams that did really well
were boys that I coached.
So it's probably not true, butthe story I'm going to tell
myself is that I handed theRussellville High School coach a
(23:28):
state championship team and hejust got to inherit the team
that we grew me and the othercoaches that we worked with.
Probably not true.
If he was on this podcast, hewould probably say that's not
exactly true, although I thinkhe would be thankful for guys
like me.
So not to make this too long,but I've also been a fan, so
I've always felt like that for asport that did a lot for me,
(23:52):
that I owed it something back,more than other sports that I
played.
So I've always been one thathas been.
You know, I'll subscribe toapple, in this case to watch mls
.
You know, um, and I like otheryou know and, and you know I've
had all these I can go into I'llI'll pause there, but I can go
into all sorts of fandom thingsthat I've done Soccer.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Let's do it.
I'd love to hear the stories.
These are great.
I tell people I was.
You know, everybody knows I'm amassive Liverpool fan.
I'm a massive Steven Gerrardfan and I spent much more than I
should to go to Anfield for hisvery last match at Anfield.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
So I got I have two stories.
I love these stories Twostories for you.
So, um, so this is going back,I don't know, 15 years ago maybe
, maybe a little longer.
I can't exactly remember whichyear was the very first year, um
, but so I made it a point,cause I lived in Arkansas, of
course, so I didn't get to see alot of the games live, to go to
the MLS championship game eachyear.
(24:51):
Okay, so, not the first year, Ithink, but maybe the second
year.
I happened to pick the hotelwhere all the media and the
teams were staying.
Okay, now, if you go back farenough, you could have arrived
in that city and you would havenever known there was a
championship game going on.
Okay, not like if you know,versus like if you go to like
(25:12):
the Super Bowl is not a greatcomparison because it's in the
different stratosphere, but but,but you know.
So when I got there, they hadlike like the floor mats where
you might have, like you know,like wiped your feet on and it
said like mls.
I was like, wow, this city'sreally embracing this and
literally there was like apicnic table with like a banner
(25:32):
over it that said mls vip andlike had two girls sitting there
and they had like some likelittle teeny blow up soccer
balls.
So I went over to say like, andI I just thought it was like a
welcome for anybody who's intown.
So I went over there, talked tothem and they said, oh well,
you know, you know, they juststarted explaining it and and I
didn't quite understand.
But what it was was, if youwere an owner, maybe a player
(25:56):
that wasn't playing media,foreign teams, whatever, you
would have been invited to thispre-game event, which was a
really nice tent set up outsidethe stadium and connected to the
stadium.
But, more importantly, theywould drive you in a bus to the
stadium and connected to thestadium.
And, but more importantly, theywould drive you in a bus to the
stadium.
(26:17):
And so I said, well, like.
They said, well, hey, well,here's two extra passes.
So I go to the MLS VIP and whenI get inside, of course it's
all the guys that were like notall, but I recognized all sorts
of people that were on the 94 uhworld cup team and um, and so,
(26:38):
anyway, for years I went to this, but as time went on, I
couldn't like my contacts had,by the way I took everybody's
name that I met that worked formajor league soccer, and I kept
emailing the meet.
You're like, oh hey, and theywere wonderful.
In fact, one year I couldn'tget tickets and they got me
tickets the last second and Iwent and watched one of the
(26:59):
games.
So anyway, I had this uniqueexperience.
I doubt they would consider mea VIP today and I probably
couldn't get anywhere near thetent, but for a number of years
I did that.
My second story that I would sayis that I also tried to go to a
number of the World Cups.
So in the 94 World Cup I joinedthe lottery and I got a lottery
(27:21):
to watch the finals.
I ended up getting sick and Ihad to give a ticket to my buddy
that went to it for me.
I went in France, I went inKorea, I went to Africa, I went
to Qatar and so, like this lasttime in Qatar, I went and
watched all the Mexican games,the US games and the Canadian
(27:42):
games, and I don't know if youcan see this picture behind me,
but this is a number of yearsago.
But I was looking at wastefacilities, just coincidentally,
in France and with the CEO ofthis company.
As we were finishing up, I wasleaving, like on a Friday, and
he said like hey look, do youthink you can kick your travel
(28:05):
back a day and do you want to goover to England and watch one
of the championship the PremierLeague games?
And I said sure I'll go one ofthe championship the Premier
League games.
And I said sure I'll go.
And he asked me, like do youhave a sport coat, which you
know, like you might not carry asport coat to wastewater
facilities, but I did have asport coat with me and what I
didn't know was that this guy'scompany, the major investor, was
(28:30):
, oh my God, the Russianoligarch that owned Chelsea at
the time.
Um, um, oh.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Abramovich.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Yes, yeah, roman Abramovich.
So we actually sat and this isthe game that Chelsea beat
Watford to win the the the theleague that year and Drogba
scored that day Wow, and I'm inthe box, and which is its own
story, just like the box.
So there's a lot to that story,but it was awesome to be out
(29:02):
there in the owner's box forsomeone who really didn't
deserve to be in the owner's box.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Well, I mean, those are incredible and those are.
I mean you'll remember thoseforever, you know, and people
that you tell will rememberthose, and I think it's also an
interesting thing to just whereit's.
It's incredible Sometimes thethings that you can accomplish
just by walking up and talkingto people.
You know your MLS story likeand, and part of it is you may
(29:31):
not have known any better andyou're just like, oh cool, like
all right, they're justwelcoming people.
But it's also things thathappen just by chance and you're
just walking up and beingfriendly and making conversation
and saying hello andinvestigating things, right, and
you never know what comes outof that.
So I always tell people neversay no to a conversation.
Hardly anything harmful hasever happened from having a
(29:56):
conversation.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeah, you know one of the things that this is one of
the things that's interestingtoo about just pro sports,
specifically soccer, and this isanother trend.
Can I go back a little bit, isthat okay?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, andof course, maybe people talked
about this as well with you.
But what I find interesting isyou know a lot of people that
(30:19):
own like an NFL team also own asoccer team.
So the folks that own thePatriots own the New England
Revolution, the folks that ownthe Buccaneers also own
Manchester United.
The Glazer family, stan Kroenke,who owns the Rams, owns the
Colorado Rapids, and I thinkhe's also the major investor in
(30:39):
Arsenal, and the list goes onright, and you also have the
introduction of private equitycapital into the space.
So you've got a lot of peoplethat want to be an owner,
because if I could just dream upone of the things that I'd want
to be, you know, I would lovenothing better to be, you know,
(31:02):
an owner of one of these majorteams.
Like how cool would that be?
You know, and so you know it's,so it's.
It's an interesting frontier inthat regard, in terms of just
ownership.
I mean, heck, look no furtherthan even like Rexham, right?
I mean, like those guys boughtit for a million dollars, you
know, probably didn't hurt the,the, the publicity they put on
(31:23):
it, but they still do investcapital, right?
It's not free, I have, I didn'tdo this, but there was at this
chance there's.
There's a guy that I know thatjust bought, also for like a
million dollars, bought a teamthat's a third division Italian
team.
That's also from one of thebigger cities, the city around
(31:43):
the Croatian coast, right there,and just interesting watching
what he's trying to do with it.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Well, even you know, venezia is another example in
Italy, como is another examplein Italy that has kind of had
resurgences with differentinvestment opportunities.
I mean now we can just start toget into like, okay, why is
there so much capital flow intopro sports?
And that is just the valuationgrowth is going like this.
(32:13):
I mean we talked about it withthe Jerry Jones example and
soccer is really one of thosethings that is the right
combination of growth but hypergrowth but still early entry
opportunity and relativelyspeaking to other, you know
other assets in the sports assetclass and you're just seeing a
ton come into play here whereyou have the growth of the sport
(32:37):
relatively still can get inearly and then enjoy that ride
on valuation growth and thecontinued growth of the sport.
And there's been a few of thosein Italian soccer over the last
five to seven years where it'skind of struggled a little bit.
But now is back on thisresurgence a little bit here.
And you've seen that in some ofthese other teams where they
(33:00):
get in second, third tier andthen they put in the capital.
But you do have to invest.
It's not a sure thing but ifyou can get the right people and
coaching and all those thingsand, of course, to your point,
the star power and the publicitythat they got on the Erexim
example.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
it doesn't hurt.
Well, and being a global marketin soccer makes it also.
It provides more opportunity,makes it also it, it provides
more opportunity.
Um, you know, there's, it's,it's, it's got its own unique,
unique things about it, you know.
And so when I have friends thatask me about major league soccer
, and especially ones that don'treally understand it, you know
(33:39):
they'll, they'll have this viewthat like, okay, these stars,
like messy, show up but maybethey're, like you know, like
really in retirement, whichwhich really isn't true, you
know, like I mean, you take aguy like Messi, who went from,
you know, player of the year,winning the World Cup and then
moving right to MLS.
But their point is valid in thesense that they're older guys,
(34:01):
you know.
But really, what the MLS leaguehas done so successfully in the
last number of years is takingguys that are 18, 19, 20, 21,
developing them, and theybasically own the contract for
$1 and sell the contract for $10.
And that's a good businessmodel to be in.
And I think that Ozark Unitedcan do that same thing, you know
(34:24):
, because I think there's amarket to continue to develop
people and then sell thoseassets, you know, as as you also
grow your business.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
It's sort of like a business within a business it a
hundred percent is and there'seven there's examples of clubs
like this that do this reallyreally well at all different
levels of the game, all the wayfrom the Premier League, uh,
with clubs like you know, eventhough they just got relegated.
Southampton is always known asa developmental club and their
academy is super successful ingrowing those assets and
(34:54):
developing them.
Brighton, another one.
That's been more recently inthe last five years.
Clubs like Louisville, likeOrange County, that have kind of
become known and have hit theseyou know seven figure deals on
these players you know kind offor the first time over the last
couple of years within the USL.
(35:15):
So even within that you knowthese tiers and within our
league you're starting to seethis more and more and I think
it's still got a ways to go andyou know it's well.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
I think it'll continue to grow and get bigger.
I mean, I think that when Ilook at the challenges of soccer
, uh, from a businessperspective, you know, I think
that you know major leaguesoccer, um signed a contract
with apple which puts it behinda paywall, which I think that
that um, I assume it's workingfor apple.
(35:45):
But I think that what itdoesn't do is give the casual
fan or somebody who's not even afan, access to it, so you don't
find it playing at a bar,because just the way that what
bars will subscribe to aren'tnecessarily an Apple package,
that's just focused on that.
But I do think we're going tomove to a world where pretty
(36:05):
much every sporting event isavailable to throw onto a TV,
and I think it would beinteresting to see what we do to
attract those eyeballs and whatthe numbers are.
But it's another thing that Ithink is positive about soccer
it does continue to put butts.
You know butts in the seat, youknow.
So if you look at major leaguesoccer and I don't know all the
(36:27):
trend at USL, but the games Ihave seen in USL look really,
you know, like a lot of peopleshow up at them.
You know, so you know you'reshowing a lot of people showing
up in person and then theviewership just creeps up.
Now it's nowhere near football,but if you compare it to hockey
, basketball, baseball, it'sbetter or close to a lot of
(36:49):
those sports.
You know and so you know.
So I think that you know, andif you were to put it on a graph
right to show it over time,it's going the right direction.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Yeah, the growth is just insane, to be frank, and
especially if you look at itover the last, to be frank, and
and especially if you look at itover the last call it 20 years
um, both attendance, high schoolyouth, participation, I mean
there's all of that kind ofstuff going on too.
I mean the growth that we'veeven seen here in northwest
arkansas, even though we're, youknow, still young and maturing
(37:21):
soccer market.
The growth there has beenincredible.
I've been able to see it as acoach even in the last four
years, with the numbers thatshow up to evaluations every
year just growing, growing,growing, which is great, makes
your job as a coach a littleharder to get your eyeballs on
all those players, you know that.
But it's really, reallyexciting, and so I think it's a
(37:42):
great time for us, both in themarket that we're in and what we
have going here, just as aregion and the growth there,
which I don't know if you,having lived in Arkansas, for
not growing up here for a longtime, can talk to some of the
growth that you've seen in theregion and just what's really
stood out to you, and then alsohow that fits nicely with what
(38:04):
we're bringing here with ourproject.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Well, I think that a rural state, for almost any
sport, is a difficultproposition.
If we're focused on youth, fora second, you know.
So you know one of the thingsthat's different if you just
take something like Dallas Texas.
You know, in Dallas Texas, ifyou open up the paper, you know
they'll have the youth teamsscoring for the top, like 20
(38:28):
youth teams that play each other.
So you got a much higherquality.
That's all close to each other.
I think that for Arkansas, youknow, being a rural state, it's
just tougher, you know.
But I do think it's continuedto improve and you know, and I
would evidence that by toimprove and you know, and I
would evidence that by you know,more high school teams, more
(38:50):
fields, more people playing andthen just people that have
morphed out of the system, youknow, or matriculated up, that
have done really well, you know.
So I would love it if theUniversity of Arkansas had a, a
men's soccer team, I think.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
I think the only division one team we've got in
the state is uca, you know yeah,and you see that a lot with,
like, the sec, the big 12, thereally big football schools,
just because of title nine.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
I mean you know this, but yeah well, I think there's
two sec teams to have soccer.
So I think south carolina's gota soccer team and uh, I forget
the other one, but I thinkthere's two.
So I think most of the Big Tenhave a soccer team.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
Big Ten does.
Big Ten does.
It's more the Southern schoolsthat are power five to seven
conferences.
It's just that's the way.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
But all of the SEC has vibrant women teams.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
Yes, very much.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
And I would say that's also a big growth area.
There's just the women in thesport.
I almost wish that when MLS andthe USL, when they had a pro
team, they just made a women'sand a men's team, because I
think it would just be anotherattraction.
But because it's not set upthat way as a business, it's a
little bit more challenging.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
Yeah and you're right , but to be fair, just women's
sports in general too, is justone of the hottest things right
now, from an investmentstandpoint as well and
viewership.
It's incredible what's going on.
Oh yeah, and love what the USLis doing with the Super League.
(40:29):
I mean, the growth of the NWSLis fantastic.
I mean we have such a strongprogram here at the University
of Arkansas with the women, andCoach Colby Hale has done an
incredible job and they're, youknow, top five, top ten in the
country, typically on the field,but then also off the field in
attendance, which is incredible,you know, so in the country
(40:49):
it's awesome to see.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
Well, they've got great facilities.
I mean, you know so, reallynice facilities.
I think that's probably.
I mean I haven't been to allthe SEC schools to look at their
soccer fields, but I'm going toguess a lot of them have really
nice soccer fields.
You know just guessing, but Ido think the University of
Arkansas has really nice fields,you, but I do think the
University of Arkansas is reallynice fields.
I've watched a number of gamesthere over the years.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
It's a great atmosphere and if you're in
Northwest Arkansas or in drivingdistance and you want to have a
good time, very affordable foryour family, go please.
It's an incredible, incredibletime.
Andy, we're getting close totime here, so I'll just kind of
wrap up with this.
You've watched our developmentfor a long time.
We've several years beeninvolved in conversations with
(41:35):
you and just you're such a bigsupporter of what we're doing
and we just can't thank youenough.
What do you want to leave folkswith in terms of what excites
you about what we're doing?
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Well, there's a number of things that I like
about what you guys are doing,you know, I think that you know,
just beyond the soccer, I thinkthat the, which there's a lot
of nice things about that, youknow, I like that.
I'd love to see that inNorthwest Arkansas, but I'm also
(42:07):
pretty pumped about what thefacility looks like.
I think that's a reallyinteresting aspect, because I
think all of us can look atsporting facilities, even ones
that were built 20 years ago nowseem outdated, right, because
how they function, how they work, they just morph, and so I like
(42:29):
the idea that you guys have astadium, but also sort of mixed
use, other properties there.
I think that sort of being withthat much forethought, is going
to be really good for thecommunity broadly, in addition
to just soccer, so other thingsthat you could do there outdoor
concerts or whatever, justevents and just, but also just
(42:53):
the shopping, the restaurants,et cetera.
So, you know, um, and I thinkthat I think that's a real
positive thing.
So I, you know, I listen, Iapplaud everything that you guys
do and I'm, like I said, I'mcheering for it to actually come
to fruition, because it is abig, bold project, no question
about it.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
Yeah, absolutely.
And it takes a village, ittakes people like you and your
voices and leadership in thecommunities that you guys play
in.
So thank you so much again foryour support and we'll do our
darndest to continue to bringthat to fruition.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Wes, thanks for having me.
I really appreciate it, andbest of luck for uh and I'll do
anything I can.
I'll do more than cheer, youknow.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
You know it's so anyway, no, thank you, Andy, and
I can't wait, uh, to have youthere with us for opening day.
Man, so excellent.
Andy McNeil, thank you againfor joining me.
Uh, that's going to do it forthis episode of the Pitch to Pro
podcast.
Folks in Northwest Arkansas.
Find us on pitchtoprocom, Apple, YouTube, Spotify, wherever you
(43:53):
get your podcasts.
For more content Until nexttime, cheers Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
Thanks for joining us on this episode of the Pitch to
Pro podcast.
Be sure to tune in again in twoweeks for the next installment
and check out the stoppage timeseries for a recap of today's
episode.
Be sure to find us at pitch topro on youtube, instagram and
everywhere you get your podcasts.
Until next time, northwestarkansas cheers.
Pitch to Pro is the official podcast of Ozark United
FC.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
This will be our platform to tell our story about
the club and the special placethat we call home, Northwest
Arkansas.
This is a journey we want tobring you along for the ride.
We'll share what's going onbehind the curtain, help educate
the community at large aboutsoccer, our league, and give
updates on the progress of theclub along the way.
Together, we'll explore andunpack our journey to
(00:30):
professional soccer, the magicthat is NWA, our community, and
talk all things soccer from onthe pitch to behind the scenes,
telling the story of our club.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Pitch to Pro Podcast is proudly sponsored by
PodcastVideoscom byPodcastVideoscom.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Podcastvideoscom is Northwest Arkansas' premier
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The recording studio andservices save you time, money
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They are dedicated to helpingyou create, record and publish
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Be sure to check them out todayat podcastvideoscom.
(01:07):
Hello everybody and welcomeback to the Pitch to Pro podcast
.
I'm your host, wes Harris,managing Director for Ozark
United FC, northwest Arkansas'pro soccer club playing in the
United Soccer League Today.
I'm super excited about ourguest, mr Andy McNeil.
He's an Arkansas-basedentrepreneur and investor in
environmental services and justloves the game, the beautiful
(01:29):
game, and has just made his waythrough and found Northwest
Arkansas and all other places oflife in the US and investment,
and we'll talk about all of yourbackground, man, but just Andy.
Thank you so much, man.
I think you have just a reallyfascinating background and so
happy to have you on our showand thank you for your support.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Wes, I'm super pumped to be on.
You know perhaps the thing thatI you know, when I think about
just my whole, just life journey, soccer has been a part of the
whole thing, and so soccer isjust one of those sports that I
that I love for many differentreasons.
I like lots of sports, but inparticular, I like soccer, and
so I'm very grateful for all thehard work that you guys are
(02:13):
doing and I'm really I'mcheering you guys on to be, you
know, actually get it on thefield and get it over the line.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, thank you so much.
It's, uh, as we've told people.
It's, and you know we've hadWarren on Chris on a bunch of
times.
Uh, it is a process and it Ithink we've been a little bit
more out in the publicthroughout the process than
maybe typical.
You know, markets as they comeon board, they typically just
kind of say, hey, stamp.
(02:43):
Markets as they come on board,they typically just kind of say,
hey, stamp here's, here's theowner, boom, um, and you know
you have soccer in a year.
Versus, hey, this is what wewant to do, and it takes a
village and we're going to bringyou along for the ride and we
want you to know what we'redoing.
And then they're, you know, outin the public and and along for
the ride for those multipleyears that these projects take,
(03:03):
um, and so this is not, uh,warren's first rodeo by any
means and he's been verysuccessful, uh, and then you
have that combo with the passionof Chris, the local guy, and
and just the market growth andall the things you know we've
talked about, and it's just arecipe for what is we know is
going to set us ourselves up forgreat success.
Um, but I really appreciate youjoining me here on the show
(03:27):
today to talk about you know you, your background, how you found
the game and what's excitingabout just soccer in general in
the U?
S and then our project as well.
So I always start with folks uh, a little bit about you and
your background, man, and justkind of your journey.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Excellent.
Well, I guess I'll just start,you know, going back a little
bit.
So I've lived in Arkansas for anumber of decades at this point
, but I'm not really from here.
I grew up in Atlanta, georgia,and Portland, Oregon.
When I got out of college Imoved to Arkansas.
It just was going to betemporary.
(04:03):
It was just going to be verytemporary.
It was actually for a largecorporation and I was going to
only be here for a few monthsand then move away.
And I ended up meeting a girl.
I said hey, don't marry me ifyou want to live in Arkansas,
because I'm a big city kid.
And then, of course, I've livedin Arkansas Pretty much all the
time.
That's a slight exaggerationhow long, but pretty long.
(04:25):
And so, at least from abusiness perspective and I'll
make this short and then we cango into the soccer side so I've
been pretty fortunate with thedifferent things that I've done.
I did management consultingafter I got out of college and I
lived in Europe for a whilewith that.
When I was a little over 30, Imoved back to Arkansas really to
(04:49):
take care of a relative thatwas terminally ill, and again,
that was supposed to be shortterm but it ended up being.
I've lived here ever since thenand really I joined up with a
couple of small entrepreneursand I've been broadly in the
waste specialty waste recyclingfor a very long time.
Since then I've had a number ofdifferent companies and I've
(05:11):
been lucky with those.
I don't know that you reallyhave any reason to know any of
these, but I'll mention a coupleof them.
So one of the more recentbusinesses is a company called
Denali.
Denali is a Russellville-basedbusiness but we operate
throughout the United States.
We are the largest recycler oforganic waste or food waste in
(05:33):
the US.
It's actually become a fairlybig business.
I give Arkansas Business themagazine a little hard time
because they don't include us inthat magazine on their list of
privately held businessesbecause we have capital from
private equity firms and theyhave a controlling share at this
point and so they don't countus as an Arkansas company.
(05:53):
But if it was counted as anArkansas company it'd be like
the 24th, the 25th largestcompany in the state of Arkansas
, which perhaps being on thelist isn't all that important.
But we're really proud aboutwhat we've all accomplished.
Also, we had a trash business.
That business now has morphedinto a larger business called
LRS, which perhaps in NorthwestArkansas.
(06:15):
You've seen that I do a littleprivate equity work and I still
have a few little smallbusinesses.
So that's a little bit aboutthe business side.
Shall I tell you a little bitabout the soccer side, unless?
you want to know any more aboutthe business side, because I can
tell you a lot about that too.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, I think give people a little bit more like
that's such an interestingbackground, how did you get into
the waste business?
It's such an important industryand it's not one I think that's
talked about enough.
I want people to kind ofunderstand what it is that you
(06:51):
guys really do and focus on andhow did you find that and kind
of where is that going?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
So one of the things that happened when we think
about waste just in general,historically, we've just gone to
landfills, okay, and today,here today in the US, we've got
landfill scarcity.
It's about 1,200 landfills leftin the United States.
Very difficult to permit them.
Look no further than the wastemanagement Tontitown landfill in
(07:19):
Northwest Arkansas.
Right, that was under a lot ofpressure.
Will they extend the permit,will they not, etc.
But there's not anotherlandfill up there, you know, so
you have to leave the state orgo down to fort smith, um, and
so, um.
So a lot of things that havebeen in landfills historically
are coming out of landfills,because we can recycle them, and
(07:41):
, of course, anything that's aliquid or any hazardous waste
it's got its own process, soI've been involved in a lot of
different types of waste.
Because we can recycle them,and then, of course, anything
that's a liquid or any hazardouswaste, it's got its own process
, so I've been involved in a lotof different types of waste.
The way that it started, though, was there was two guys that
had a business, and thisbusiness was taking wastewater
residuals, and what that meansis it's the when you clean water
and you turn, dirty water goeson a pipe into the black box,
(08:04):
that cleans it and clean watergoes into our watersheds.
Well, you're going to have abyproduct that comes out the
other direction, so you mightcall it sludge, bile solids.
It has a lot of different namesand there was a small little
Arkansas company and this isgoing back 20 plus years ago,
and there's two guys.
They wanted a third partner andit was just sort of a fit, and
(08:27):
so they made me a partner intheir business.
At the time I didn't knowanything about any of these
waste streams zero and so andwhat we were doing is we were
taking these waste streams andwhen they had a beneficial reuse
purpose, we used them asfertilizer on farm fields.
And that's actually fairlycomplicated in the sense that
(08:48):
you're looking at what's theconditions in the soil.
So you're measuring all sortsof things in the soil
mathematically, looking at thecover crop and then what you're
going to use as fertilizer tomathematically calculate things
like nitrogen, just as anexample.
And so that business morphedover time.
We did things like nitrogen,just as an example, and so that
business morphed over time.
We did things like we investedin the Fayetteville Shale and we
(09:10):
built a saltwater disposal wellhere.
So that's taking frackingfluids and putting them down
whole.
We had a business where we'recollecting fryer oil from
restaurants.
We ended up growing all these,selling them in pieces, and then
I started businesses that weresort of similar, slightly
different and, let's say,adjacent waste streams, and so
one of those was food waste, andso 25% of what goes into the US
(09:33):
landfills is food.
Now, most all of it still goesinto the landfills, but at scale
.
Grocery stores, hospitalschools, prisons, casinos,
things like that you're going tosee start coming out of
landfills, specifically incertain parts of the US.
You might think about them asthe blue and red states, but in
these blue states there's not asmany landfills in general, so
(09:54):
there's more pressure to takethings out.
So that's what those materialsare, and I can tell you more if
there's any parts that you findinteresting that you want to
hear about.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
That's really, really interesting.
I think the one thing that kindof rang true and you tell me if
it's uh, if it's incorrect, butit it's.
It's just another reminder, anexample of you know, it's not
necessarily the what, it's thewho, um, that kind of helps make
the world go around and justsurrounding yourself with good
people.
(10:23):
You said you had no experiencewith waste whatsoever and you
got introduced to these guys whoyou know were good folks that
you surrounded yourself.
They were looking for goodfolks and you try to do some
good together.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
For sure it's a people business.
I mean, I think that it's.
It's.
It's one of the things Wes, Iwould say too, is um, uh and,
and I'm actually hoping to teacha class on this at the
University of Arkansas.
We're working that direction totalk about entrepreneurship and
how you start some of thesebusinesses, because people are,
for sure, a huge element, justlike what you guys are doing.
(10:57):
Right, it requires all thesedifferent people, but it's more
because you also have to reallyget the capital structures
correct, you know.
So the strategy's correct,there's all these little aspects
, and so one of the secretsauces for what we're doing is
just to give you a sense of this.
Our business, you know itstarted off with just a few
(11:19):
people and it's now got, youknow, like you know hundreds and
hundreds of people that workfor the business.
But formulating and putting thecapital in the business is
really, really important and,just using Denali as an example,
it has over a billion dollarsof invested capital in that
business and attracting thatcapital.
(11:40):
That's a hard thing to do andone has to understand, just like
you guys are doing, for whatyou're doing right To get the
capital to, because, as much aseverybody wants pro sports.
It's also not charity, right?
You know everybody wants areturn on their capital and they
want to understand the gameplan of how it works.
It's no different places likeDenali, you know.
So you know you capitalize ontrends by seeing the trends that
(12:02):
are out there and you knowservicing customers as best you
possibly can with the bestpeople with the right capital
structure.
So I think if you can do that,you can create businesses that
aren't necessarily the sort ofentrepreneur journey that is.
You know that a lot of times wetalk about where it's somebody
(12:22):
starting a dot-com from scratch,you know, or a new product or
something.
These are existing businessesthat we launch by doing all the
things that I just said.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
And I love that and I was going to say this more
towards the end, but it's here.
These things navigatethemselves a lot of the time in
these conversations, which isgreat, but you hit on it is
these are businesses at the endof the day, they're not charity
projects and people invest inthese things not because it's
charitable and they want to seegood come from it in the
(12:54):
community.
Yes, they do those things andthey want to do good as sport
through the vehicle, but they'reinvesting in them because
they're getting return on theirinvestment.
Um, at the end of the day.
And so, from your lens I don'tknow how much you are watching
or involved or not in the prosports landscape, but as
somebody who deals with largeamounts of capital and handling
(13:18):
that and watching deal flow andall of those things in kind of
the VC world and being anentrepreneur and investor, Speak
a little bit about, if you can,anything that you have seen
from pro sports and maybe soccerin general from that lens.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
It's been an incredible transformation in pro
sports over the last 30 years.
No doubt about it.
And who would have dreamed?
Even if we go back and we lookat what jerry jones did with the
cowboys and I don't have thesenumbers memorized, but I think
he put 250 million dollars,which people thought was insane
when he did it, and you know,and I think it's one of the most
(13:55):
valuable pro sports franchisesin the world, you know, probably
worth somewhere.
You know, north of six billiondollars, just guessing, maybe
even even more.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Maybe it's even close to 10.
Yeah, I think the last number Isaw was like 9, 9.3 or
something like that.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
And, as it relates to soccer, one of the things I
think is super interesting towatch the growth is that you had
I'm closing in on 60.
And when I was in high school,both high schools that I went to
I went to two different highschools had soccer teams, but
plenty of people that I knowthat are my age went to places
(14:32):
that didn't have soccer teams.
Now that's not true today.
I'm sure there's high schoolsin Arkansas that don't have
soccer, but the vast majority ofhigh schools all over the
United States have soccer teamsand most people that are younger
generations played FIFA on anXbox.
They can tell you who Messi is,even if they don't love soccer.
(14:55):
They still have some sort ofworking knowledge.
If I went back to when I firststarted working in the 80s, if
you had suggested at that time,let's take a customer out to a
soccer game, that would not havebeen a thing.
First off, you couldn't havedone it.
But let's just say you couldhave done it.
You wouldn't have had guys thatwere running the things back
(15:17):
then.
The 56 year olds then wouldhave been like, yeah, no, we're
not going to do that.
That's not true today, right?
So that's a big change and justin terms of how people think
about what they want to do andspend their time.
But if we look at the MLS oreven the secondary leagues, the
USL, et cetera, these franchiseshave started off at small
(15:39):
dollars.
You could get into the MLS for10 million bucks, not even that
long ago Today, I think.
San Diego I think they had toput $500 million up and build a
stadium and I don't think theyused a lot of public money on
the stadium, but I could bewrong on that and they're doing
it because they look at it andgo this is the new frontier, and
(16:03):
so I think it's superinteresting in that regard.
Let me say one other thing too.
I think that's interesting asit relates to Arkansas, and this
is true for me in a businesssense, but I think it's true in
sports too.
I think that, look, if we couldgo leap forward 20 years in
(16:23):
time and reflect back on today,right, and we just think like,
what decisions could we makewith, let's just say broadly,
we're the governor of Arkansas,with all sorts of powers, let's
say we can wave magic wands?
What would be some of thethings that we would do today
that would set up Arkansas to beone of the best states in the
(16:44):
United States.
I think one of the things thatwe would do is have pro sports
Right, because pro sportsattract people to their neck of
the woods, and I think that asoccer team makes a lot of sense
.
And at least soccer even ifwe're saying okay and turning it
into more common language forpeople, the minor leagues or the
(17:06):
second league right, but it isone of the few sports where you
could move up to the big times,right.
It's got a possibility thatdoesn't exist in minor league
baseball, right.
It's not really a thing forbasketball, nor is it really a
thing for football, right, andso it is the gateway for us.
(17:26):
So not only is it, it's goodfor Arkansas, it's a sport with
a lot of trends.
You know, it's something thatyou know, um, that we probably
need if you were looking out 20years.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
And that's such a huge thing.
I mean even you know theWalmart uh local headquarter
associate survey.
You know, one of the mostpopular things uh over the last
several years has been, you know, what are we missing?
What do you wish you had?
And this is, you know, I think,evident and showcasing across
(18:03):
right.
They just are the largest,probably the largest employer
here in the state, but at leastin Northwest Arkansas with their
headquarter campus.
And they what do you wish youhad?
Here Pro sports in their surveywith the associates for the
last several years.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
It's it's it's it really is important for the
state.
Yes, the state's not probablygoing to put a lot of money or
any money into the program, butthe state is a beneficiary, just
to give you like anothertalking point on that.
So I happen to be with some youknow some a group of people
that would be the type thatwould put money into the NIL
(18:35):
programs at the University ofArkansas in a big way and they
all looked at it interestinglyas business development for the
state.
They love the Razorbacks butthey viewed it as super
important that the Razorbackshad, you know, good teams.
They don't have to win thewhole thing.
(18:55):
It doesn't have to be likeAlabama per se, although people
might like that but if they'rejust consistently putting a high
quality team on the field,whatever sport it is, that
that's good for the state, and Ithink Ozark United is the same
way.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Yeah, I think it's really interesting.
It's really interesting is toyour point is how can these
companies incentivize and andmake it easier to recruit some
of the top talent?
Uh, you know, globally, notjust in the U S, but I mean
you're you're talking aboutglobal talent now and competing
on the world stage.
You know the more and more thatNorthwest Arkansas and Arkansas
(19:32):
as a state is kind of showingup and you know good places to
live, quality of life, all thosethings.
You know that's great and it'sit's kind of coming.
But you know, as we kind ofcontinue to evolve, what are
those things that we're stillmissing or that we need, that
aren't necessarily going tocompletely snap your fingers and
solve like, oh, that's thenumber one place that I have to
go to, but are they additionallevers that you know you can
(19:56):
point to and say look at thegrowth, look at all the things
that we have now and and placesto go, things to do, uh, and
then things that continue todrive and build community and
bridge some of those gaps thatthat exist.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Yeah, you know, I don't think it is you know, so
it's part of it for sure.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Well, I love that and we talked a little bit about it
, but how did you find the game?
I always ask people thisquestion, like how did you get
introduced to soccer?
What's your experience with thegame?
How did you either find it andgrow up with it, or you found it
later in life?
What's your experience with thegame?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Well, so there happened to be a league close by
my house when I was a littlekid and I sort of played soccer
when I was a kid and I playedother sports too and I played,
you know.
So I played growing up, butwhat I would say was more of
maybe more of an inflectionpoint was when I was in my early
twenties.
I started playing with a groupof guys in like a men's league
(20:56):
Okay, Just, you know, a recmen's league but that meant so
much as just an experience, youknow, and so I would play every
weekend.
We had an indoor arena that weplayed at, and I have all of
these fond memories and I hadthis opportunity to move to
Europe and I got to play on aEuropean team.
I had to try out for this teambut it was still and we had a
(21:19):
coach, but it was still like awreck men's league.
But I had so much fun with that.
And then, you know, I alwaystease my kids.
So my kids are in theirtwenties or at least most of my
kids are in their twenties and Itease them.
If I could go back and, like,hop into their body, I'd go play
soccer Not that I couldn'tnecessarily play today, but I
can't do the same things that Iused to do.
There's just no way.
(21:39):
And then, as my kids grew, Iwanted to be the sort of dad
that coached, and so I coachedsoccer for 18 years.
And if you coach especially ifyou coach like in Russellville
Arkansas like in RussellvilleArkansas you end up also having
to ref, because we don't haveenough refs, and so guys like me
would ref your team if you werecoaching at the same time.
(22:00):
I had a great time doing that.
I also coached other sports, butI coached soccer and there's a
lot of things about that I tookparticular pride in.
I had people on the team thatmade I know it's not a thing
today, but they made the stateteam.
(22:21):
That was part of the Olympicdevelopment program when it
occurred, which is a programthat sought to identify pools of
people within a state, thenwithin a region and then in the
nation, and I coach players thatdid a really good job doing
that.
One of the legacies that Ireally like and you may or may
not know this, but RussellvilleHigh School has won a lot of
(22:44):
state championships under thiscoach, jared Fuller.
In fact, they just won theirfourth in a row and I got to
thinking about this my oldestson's.
When he was a freshman.
He was on the team and that wasthe first year that this coach,
jared, who was a younger guy atthe time, took them to the
(23:04):
state championship, and both ofmy sons got to play in state
championship teams, which wasreally cool, and I am
particularly proud that a lot ofthe teams that did really well
were boys that I coached.
So it's probably not true, butthe story I'm going to tell
myself is that I handed theRussellville High School coach a
(23:28):
state championship team and hejust got to inherit the team
that we grew me and the othercoaches that we worked with.
Probably not true.
If he was on this podcast, hewould probably say that's not
exactly true, although I thinkhe would be thankful for guys
like me.
So not to make this too long,but I've also been a fan, so
I've always felt like that for asport that did a lot for me,
(23:52):
that I owed it something back,more than other sports that I
played.
So I've always been one thathas been.
You know, I'll subscribe toapple, in this case to watch mls
.
You know, um, and I like otheryou know and, and you know I've
had all these I can go into I'llI'll pause there, but I can go
into all sorts of fandom thingsthat I've done Soccer.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Let's do it.
I'd love to hear the stories.
These are great.
I tell people I was.
You know, everybody knows I'm amassive Liverpool fan.
I'm a massive Steven Gerrardfan and I spent much more than I
should to go to Anfield for hisvery last match at Anfield.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
So I got I have two stories.
I love these stories Twostories for you.
So, um, so this is going back,I don't know, 15 years ago maybe
, maybe a little longer.
I can't exactly remember whichyear was the very first year, um
, but so I made it a point,cause I lived in Arkansas, of
course, so I didn't get to see alot of the games live, to go to
the MLS championship game eachyear.
(24:51):
Okay, so, not the first year, Ithink, but maybe the second
year.
I happened to pick the hotelwhere all the media and the
teams were staying.
Okay, now, if you go back farenough, you could have arrived
in that city and you would havenever known there was a
championship game going on.
Okay, not like if you know,versus like if you go to like
(25:12):
the Super Bowl is not a greatcomparison because it's in the
different stratosphere, but but,but you know.
So when I got there, they hadlike like the floor mats where
you might have, like you know,like wiped your feet on and it
said like mls.
I was like, wow, this city'sreally embracing this and
literally there was like apicnic table with like a banner
(25:32):
over it that said mls vip andlike had two girls sitting there
and they had like some likelittle teeny blow up soccer
balls.
So I went over to say like, andI I just thought it was like a
welcome for anybody who's intown.
So I went over there, talked tothem and they said, oh well,
you know, you know, they juststarted explaining it and and I
didn't quite understand.
But what it was was, if youwere an owner, maybe a player
(25:56):
that wasn't playing media,foreign teams, whatever, you
would have been invited to thispre-game event, which was a
really nice tent set up outsidethe stadium and connected to the
stadium.
But, more importantly, theywould drive you in a bus to the
stadium and connected to thestadium.
And, but more importantly, theywould drive you in a bus to the
stadium.
(26:17):
And so I said, well, like.
They said, well, hey, well,here's two extra passes.
So I go to the MLS VIP and whenI get inside, of course it's
all the guys that were like notall, but I recognized all sorts
of people that were on the 94 uhworld cup team and um, and so,
(26:38):
anyway, for years I went to this, but as time went on, I
couldn't like my contacts had,by the way I took everybody's
name that I met that worked formajor league soccer, and I kept
emailing the meet.
You're like, oh hey, and theywere wonderful.
In fact, one year I couldn'tget tickets and they got me
tickets the last second and Iwent and watched one of the
(26:59):
games.
So anyway, I had this uniqueexperience.
I doubt they would consider mea VIP today and I probably
couldn't get anywhere near thetent, but for a number of years
I did that.
My second story that I would sayis that I also tried to go to a
number of the World Cups.
So in the 94 World Cup I joinedthe lottery and I got a lottery
(27:21):
to watch the finals.
I ended up getting sick and Ihad to give a ticket to my buddy
that went to it for me.
I went in France, I went inKorea, I went to Africa, I went
to Qatar and so, like this lasttime in Qatar, I went and
watched all the Mexican games,the US games and the Canadian
(27:42):
games, and I don't know if youcan see this picture behind me,
but this is a number of yearsago.
But I was looking at wastefacilities, just coincidentally,
in France and with the CEO ofthis company.
As we were finishing up, I wasleaving, like on a Friday, and
he said like hey look, do youthink you can kick your travel
(28:05):
back a day and do you want to goover to England and watch one
of the championship the PremierLeague games?
And I said sure I'll go one ofthe championship the Premier
League games.
And I said sure I'll go.
And he asked me, like do youhave a sport coat, which you
know, like you might not carry asport coat to wastewater
facilities, but I did have asport coat with me and what I
didn't know was that this guy'scompany, the major investor, was
(28:30):
, oh my God, the Russianoligarch that owned Chelsea at
the time.
Um, um, oh.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Abramovich.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Yes, yeah, roman Abramovich.
So we actually sat and this isthe game that Chelsea beat
Watford to win the the the theleague that year and Drogba
scored that day Wow, and I'm inthe box, and which is its own
story, just like the box.
So there's a lot to that story,but it was awesome to be out
(29:02):
there in the owner's box forsomeone who really didn't
deserve to be in the owner's box.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Well, I mean, those are incredible and those are.
I mean you'll remember thoseforever, you know, and people
that you tell will rememberthose, and I think it's also an
interesting thing to just whereit's.
It's incredible Sometimes thethings that you can accomplish
just by walking up and talkingto people.
You know your MLS story likeand, and part of it is you may
(29:31):
not have known any better andyou're just like, oh cool, like
all right, they're justwelcoming people.
But it's also things thathappen just by chance and you're
just walking up and beingfriendly and making conversation
and saying hello andinvestigating things, right, and
you never know what comes outof that.
So I always tell people neversay no to a conversation.
Hardly anything harmful hasever happened from having a
(29:56):
conversation.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeah, you know one of the things that this is one of
the things that's interestingtoo about just pro sports,
specifically soccer, and this isanother trend.
Can I go back a little bit, isthat okay?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, andof course, maybe people talked
about this as well with you.
But what I find interesting isyou know a lot of people that
(30:19):
own like an NFL team also own asoccer team.
So the folks that own thePatriots own the New England
Revolution, the folks that ownthe Buccaneers also own
Manchester United.
The Glazer family, stan Kroenke,who owns the Rams, owns the
Colorado Rapids, and I thinkhe's also the major investor in
(30:39):
Arsenal, and the list goes onright, and you also have the
introduction of private equitycapital into the space.
So you've got a lot of peoplethat want to be an owner,
because if I could just dream upone of the things that I'd want
to be, you know, I would lovenothing better to be, you know,
(31:02):
an owner of one of these majorteams.
Like how cool would that be?
You know, and so you know it's,so it's.
It's an interesting frontier inthat regard, in terms of just
ownership.
I mean, heck, look no furtherthan even like Rexham, right?
I mean, like those guys boughtit for a million dollars, you
know, probably didn't hurt the,the, the publicity they put on
(31:23):
it, but they still do investcapital, right?
It's not free, I have, I didn'tdo this, but there was at this
chance there's.
There's a guy that I know thatjust bought, also for like a
million dollars, bought a teamthat's a third division Italian
team.
That's also from one of thebigger cities, the city around
(31:43):
the Croatian coast, right there,and just interesting watching
what he's trying to do with it.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Well, even you know, venezia is another example in
Italy, como is another examplein Italy that has kind of had
resurgences with differentinvestment opportunities.
I mean now we can just start toget into like, okay, why is
there so much capital flow intopro sports?
And that is just the valuationgrowth is going like this.
(32:13):
I mean we talked about it withthe Jerry Jones example and
soccer is really one of thosethings that is the right
combination of growth but hypergrowth but still early entry
opportunity and relativelyspeaking to other, you know
other assets in the sports assetclass and you're just seeing a
ton come into play here whereyou have the growth of the sport
(32:37):
relatively still can get inearly and then enjoy that ride
on valuation growth and thecontinued growth of the sport.
And there's been a few of thosein Italian soccer over the last
five to seven years where it'skind of struggled a little bit.
But now is back on thisresurgence a little bit here.
And you've seen that in some ofthese other teams where they
(33:00):
get in second, third tier andthen they put in the capital.
But you do have to invest.
It's not a sure thing but ifyou can get the right people and
coaching and all those thingsand, of course, to your point,
the star power and the publicitythat they got on the Erexim
example.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
it doesn't hurt.
Well, and being a global marketin soccer makes it also.
It provides more opportunity,makes it also it, it provides
more opportunity.
Um, you know, there's, it's,it's, it's got its own unique,
unique things about it, you know.
And so when I have friends thatask me about major league soccer
, and especially ones that don'treally understand it, you know
(33:39):
they'll, they'll have this viewthat like, okay, these stars,
like messy, show up but maybethey're, like you know, like
really in retirement, whichwhich really isn't true, you
know, like I mean, you take aguy like Messi, who went from,
you know, player of the year,winning the World Cup and then
moving right to MLS.
But their point is valid in thesense that they're older guys,
(34:01):
you know.
But really, what the MLS leaguehas done so successfully in the
last number of years is takingguys that are 18, 19, 20, 21,
developing them, and theybasically own the contract for
$1 and sell the contract for $10.
And that's a good businessmodel to be in.
And I think that Ozark Unitedcan do that same thing, you know
(34:24):
, because I think there's amarket to continue to develop
people and then sell thoseassets, you know, as as you also
grow your business.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
It's sort of like a business within a business it a
hundred percent is and there'seven there's examples of clubs
like this that do this reallyreally well at all different
levels of the game, all the wayfrom the Premier League, uh,
with clubs like you know, eventhough they just got relegated.
Southampton is always known asa developmental club and their
academy is super successful ingrowing those assets and
(34:54):
developing them.
Brighton, another one.
That's been more recently inthe last five years.
Clubs like Louisville, likeOrange County, that have kind of
become known and have hit theseyou know seven figure deals on
these players you know kind offor the first time over the last
couple of years within the USL.
(35:15):
So even within that you knowthese tiers and within our
league you're starting to seethis more and more and I think
it's still got a ways to go andyou know it's well.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
I think it'll continue to grow and get bigger.
I mean, I think that when Ilook at the challenges of soccer
, uh, from a businessperspective, you know, I think
that you know major leaguesoccer, um signed a contract
with apple which puts it behinda paywall, which I think that
that um, I assume it's workingfor apple.
(35:45):
But I think that what itdoesn't do is give the casual
fan or somebody who's not even afan, access to it, so you don't
find it playing at a bar,because just the way that what
bars will subscribe to aren'tnecessarily an Apple package,
that's just focused on that.
But I do think we're going tomove to a world where pretty
(36:05):
much every sporting event isavailable to throw onto a TV,
and I think it would beinteresting to see what we do to
attract those eyeballs and whatthe numbers are.
But it's another thing that Ithink is positive about soccer
it does continue to put butts.
You know butts in the seat, youknow.
So if you look at major leaguesoccer and I don't know all the
(36:27):
trend at USL, but the games Ihave seen in USL look really,
you know, like a lot of peopleshow up at them.
You know, so you know you'reshowing a lot of people showing
up in person and then theviewership just creeps up.
Now it's nowhere near football,but if you compare it to hockey
, basketball, baseball, it'sbetter or close to a lot of
(36:49):
those sports.
You know and so you know.
So I think that you know, andif you were to put it on a graph
right to show it over time,it's going the right direction.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Yeah, the growth is just insane, to be frank, and
especially if you look at itover the last, to be frank, and
and especially if you look at itover the last call it 20 years
um, both attendance, high schoolyouth, participation, I mean
there's all of that kind ofstuff going on too.
I mean the growth that we'veeven seen here in northwest
arkansas, even though we're, youknow, still young and maturing
(37:21):
soccer market.
The growth there has beenincredible.
I've been able to see it as acoach even in the last four
years, with the numbers thatshow up to evaluations every
year just growing, growing,growing, which is great, makes
your job as a coach a littleharder to get your eyeballs on
all those players, you know that.
But it's really, reallyexciting, and so I think it's a
(37:42):
great time for us, both in themarket that we're in and what we
have going here, just as aregion and the growth there,
which I don't know if you,having lived in Arkansas, for
not growing up here for a longtime, can talk to some of the
growth that you've seen in theregion and just what's really
stood out to you, and then alsohow that fits nicely with what
(38:04):
we're bringing here with ourproject.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Well, I think that a rural state, for almost any
sport, is a difficultproposition.
If we're focused on youth, fora second, you know.
So you know one of the thingsthat's different if you just
take something like Dallas Texas.
You know, in Dallas Texas, ifyou open up the paper, you know
they'll have the youth teamsscoring for the top, like 20
(38:28):
youth teams that play each other.
So you got a much higherquality.
That's all close to each other.
I think that for Arkansas, youknow, being a rural state, it's
just tougher, you know.
But I do think it's continuedto improve and you know, and I
would evidence that by toimprove and you know, and I
would evidence that by you know,more high school teams, more
(38:50):
fields, more people playing andthen just people that have
morphed out of the system, youknow, or matriculated up, that
have done really well, you know.
So I would love it if theUniversity of Arkansas had a, a
men's soccer team, I think.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
I think the only division one team we've got in
the state is uca, you know yeah,and you see that a lot with,
like, the sec, the big 12, thereally big football schools,
just because of title nine.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
I mean you know this, but yeah well, I think there's
two sec teams to have soccer.
So I think south carolina's gota soccer team and uh, I forget
the other one, but I thinkthere's two.
So I think most of the Big Tenhave a soccer team.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
Big Ten does.
Big Ten does.
It's more the Southern schoolsthat are power five to seven
conferences.
It's just that's the way.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
But all of the SEC has vibrant women teams.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
Yes, very much.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
And I would say that's also a big growth area.
There's just the women in thesport.
I almost wish that when MLS andthe USL, when they had a pro
team, they just made a women'sand a men's team, because I
think it would just be anotherattraction.
But because it's not set upthat way as a business, it's a
little bit more challenging.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
Yeah and you're right , but to be fair, just women's
sports in general too, is justone of the hottest things right
now, from an investmentstandpoint as well and
viewership.
It's incredible what's going on.
Oh yeah, and love what the USLis doing with the Super League.
(40:29):
I mean, the growth of the NWSLis fantastic.
I mean we have such a strongprogram here at the University
of Arkansas with the women, andCoach Colby Hale has done an
incredible job and they're, youknow, top five, top ten in the
country, typically on the field,but then also off the field in
attendance, which is incredible,you know, so in the country
(40:49):
it's awesome to see.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
Well, they've got great facilities.
I mean, you know so, reallynice facilities.
I think that's probably.
I mean I haven't been to allthe SEC schools to look at their
soccer fields, but I'm going toguess a lot of them have really
nice soccer fields.
You know just guessing, but Ido think the University of
Arkansas has really nice fields,you, but I do think the
University of Arkansas is reallynice fields.
I've watched a number of gamesthere over the years.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
It's a great atmosphere and if you're in
Northwest Arkansas or in drivingdistance and you want to have a
good time, very affordable foryour family, go please.
It's an incredible, incredibletime.
Andy, we're getting close totime here, so I'll just kind of
wrap up with this.
You've watched our developmentfor a long time.
We've several years beeninvolved in conversations with
(41:35):
you and just you're such a bigsupporter of what we're doing
and we just can't thank youenough.
What do you want to leave folkswith in terms of what excites
you about what we're doing?
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Well, there's a number of things that I like
about what you guys are doing,you know, I think that you know,
just beyond the soccer, I thinkthat the, which there's a lot
of nice things about that, youknow, I like that.
I'd love to see that inNorthwest Arkansas, but I'm also
(42:07):
pretty pumped about what thefacility looks like.
I think that's a reallyinteresting aspect, because I
think all of us can look atsporting facilities, even ones
that were built 20 years ago nowseem outdated, right, because
how they function, how they work, they just morph, and so I like
(42:29):
the idea that you guys have astadium, but also sort of mixed
use, other properties there.
I think that sort of being withthat much forethought, is going
to be really good for thecommunity broadly, in addition
to just soccer, so other thingsthat you could do there outdoor
concerts or whatever, justevents and just, but also just
(42:53):
the shopping, the restaurants,et cetera.
So, you know, um, and I thinkthat I think that's a real
positive thing.
So I, you know, I listen, Iapplaud everything that you guys
do and I'm, like I said, I'mcheering for it to actually come
to fruition, because it is abig, bold project, no question
about it.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
Yeah, absolutely.
And it takes a village, ittakes people like you and your
voices and leadership in thecommunities that you guys play
in.
So thank you so much again foryour support and we'll do our
darndest to continue to bringthat to fruition.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Wes, thanks for having me.
I really appreciate it, andbest of luck for uh and I'll do
anything I can.
I'll do more than cheer, youknow.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
You know it's so anyway, no, thank you, Andy, and
I can't wait, uh, to have youthere with us for opening day.
Man, so excellent.
Andy McNeil, thank you againfor joining me.
Uh, that's going to do it forthis episode of the Pitch to Pro
podcast.
Folks in Northwest Arkansas.
Find us on pitchtoprocom, Apple, YouTube, Spotify, wherever you
(43:53):
get your podcasts.
For more content Until nexttime, cheers Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
Thanks for joining us on this episode of the Pitch to
Pro podcast.
Be sure to tune in again in twoweeks for the next installment
and check out the stoppage timeseries for a recap of today's
episode.
Be sure to find us at pitch topro on youtube, instagram and
everywhere you get your podcasts.
Until next time, northwestarkansas cheers.
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