to the DCFC podcast, which we still haven't figured out a better name for. I am John as you know, along with Sean Broder. Hello everyone. And we are at the Tracy Clubhouse sitting down with DCFC co-owner Sean Mann.
I thought this would be a good opportunity to sort of be quick check in before the season starts on Stay the Club and some things have been going on and have a little discussion along those lines. Before we get started, as always, these are our opinions and not those of the club other than obviously Sean. Thanks. Where are those in the Northern Gresport or anybody else if you have problems?
You know, who do you wanna say? I'm surprised you're my dental shield guy. I'm not a good take notes. I'm just gonna take some of this stuff off.
So we just recently had the National State of the Union after it was like, oh, so how about the State of the Club? You see it out there in front of the Assemble Bowl to do Sean Mann. How is the State of the Club? I think you're supposed to say traditionalized.
The State of the Club is strong. I mean, there's so much going on right now. And I think one of the characteristics of the club is its like continual growth. And this off season, the last 18 months, it's just been meteoric, which is surprising given how much we've already taken on as a club.
So yeah, right now, daunting. It was like the term I would use to describe, but the post-doc point is like, you know, really unparalleled levels of excitement. Yeah, I walk around here at the Fieldhouse on a daily basis now and it's just like, kind of sticking in, you know, we're gearing up for the guy starting to show up and like actually training here. And like, we're building out like a club, you know, like, rec room for the guys to hang out with PeeFo and ping pong.
And like, all of a sudden there's a notion of like 30 guys, you know, pro soccer players like hanging out here and like, just really being in the hub and we're standing here in the bar and the club house like, they end-sanging out here, supporters hanging out here. All this energy happening, you know, right here. It's kind of caps like everything's going on with the club right now and it's a, yeah, it's a click. So it's been sort of since the last time we sat down with you guys.
It's also been a period of, you know, sort of personal growth for many of you. There's a lot of new sort of like ownership babies running around. I mean, that's got to have changed the sort of dynamic a little bit as you guys are just, you know, getting together and doing stuff. And then you also have, you know, taken on the, you know, actually sort of being the, I don't know what's your technical owner representative or?
Yeah, see, I'm CEO for like a better term. It's called president, probably more act. I don't know. I've had that hung up on titles.
But yeah, now there's a lot going on off the field as well. You know, between, well, among four of the owners now, we have six soon to be seven kids under the age of five. So, you know, it's just, you know, that's what happens when you have a group of guys in their early 30s, mid 30s who launched a soccer team that like, you know, were officially on time, like families happen, right? And so that's certainly put a lot of stress on the back end, the second thing is that we don't really, you know, the public doesn't know about, you know, it's funny at the, it's all ownership meetings, you know, we have talks about branding, social media, you know, whatever, best practices.
And I keep talking, like, we really need to have, like, a breakout session about like, managing like domestic affairs. And work like balance. Yeah, exactly, like, you know, how to avoid the divorce. And like, it's, it's funny, like sometimes it's sad, I guess it's weird, not funny.
But like, you know, people are like, yeah, you know, how many times they're divorced. And I'm like, is that, is it really worth it for like, my early soccer to go through these many divorces? And like, certainly don't make enough money for a talent or whatever. So, so what is that in terms of things that people might not see, I mean, people sort of see the, oh, you know, you've got a soccer team, it's really cool.
It's no run, I mean, what, from your perspective, what is the coolest part of your jobs and stands right now? It sounds to have to be, but honestly, like, it's the realization that like, we've been a part of creating something that like, we don't actually totally appreciate like, the number of the ripples that it's had on other people's lives. I was here yesterday, I'm here every fucking day. And, you know, yesterday's Sunday afternoon, I'm here, we're meeting with, you know, a family that's, you know, hoping out with the club with some stuff and, and the table over from us was a whole bunch of supporters and like, not North and Gard folks, just folks I always saw on the West Green's Day and like the Gold's section.
And it's just a weird mismatch folks I've seen over the years. And I was hanging out together for no apparent reason on Sunday afternoon. And, you know, I go up to my cables, and my guys, you know, and they're like, oh, you know, we're just getting together, playing or chit-un chan-nuga, you know, and I'm like, you know, and these are all like older folks, too, probably in the 40s and 50s, you know, and not, you know, why people generally associate with being like DCFC supporters. And in fact, like these people are getting together on a random Saturday or Sunday on like February, and they built up this friendship, like, you know, that buys, you know, I think an area to run this club.
That's, that's pretty powerful, right? Like, you know, like, you know, their owner and I were there just like, kind of like, set back and like, that's pretty amazing. That's what this like, comes back. It's like those kind of bonds, like the, you know, the club becomes like, you know, we're always saying that the life of the party with the hosted party, and those seen that kind of play out.
That's pretty special. I think it's nice to hear because I think a lot of the supporters whom I know whom I've talked to about it feel the same way, that it's really, you know, the soccer matters and the actual team matters, but the community that's growing up around the club and the friendships that people make, especially those that they probably never would have made otherwise, just people that in the course of daily lives probably wouldn't have come into contact with each other, that's a really important part of what keeps people coming back over and over again. And it comes to having people to like, explore talents, like whether it's photography or writing or you know, whatever, they're interesting. Podcasts, you know.
Yeah, it becomes like a judge. It becomes to having people from finding like a sport of community that, you know, through their all, near mutual interest in this club, like people to like, do things they probably want to otherwise, and that's, you know, pretty exciting to watch them afar and shoot, like, yeah, how many DCFC couples, babies, relationships have like grown out of this and broken up or whatever, you know, like, natural life cycles, but yeah, that's, you know, I think we're the lasting power of this club as long as we stay true to that. And like, we still be that kind of place that's welcoming and bringing new people and those kind of bonds are happening. You know, that's our long term viability.
Speaking of things that people didn't think they'd ever do and discovering hidden talents, you run like a soccer facility now, probably not part of your life plan. How are things going just in general with the clubhouse? Well, yeah, so you have to feel the house, like the fields themselves, and like, it's slowly picking up pace, like we had built in because like we still run the adult leagues DCFL. And so we had to build up population for the week nights.
So we're kind of the flip side of like, most indoor facilities where like the adult side, we already were pretty built out to start with. The weekends, like usually it's taking longer to get going there. And then, you know, we're the only indoor facilities city. So like there's a lot of random, I say random, but like football, like clubs, you know, like drum racing, like La Crosse, like a lot of different sports are very eager to get in here.
So it's really not just soccer. So for us, you know, one is us keeping active and like doing something throughout the year. It's a hub for the club in terms of training facility and everything like that. But also it's a huge marketing tool, right?
Like it's our brand and the community, you know, as an accessible affordable place that people from all kinds of backgrounds are utilizing on other basis. So that's awesome. And then in the middle we got the clubhouse. So like, the clubhouse is far restaurant, but in many ways it's the clubhouse, right?
So it's kind of modern day, also, where a lot of familiar faces come here on regular basis and that's in community around the club. It's a regular gathering spot. So we're building it up over time. Clubhouse itself, like, thanks on new life when the team comes here.
Like it's the commentary from the team. Like, team will come here for breakfast, you know, we have a dietitian who will build out menu. So they're not even pies. All right.
All right. It's a big deal. It costs problems. It's a huge fuel bed pie.
It's a huge amount of pie. There was a game where the player was eating a pie on the bench. It was just coming in. Yeah, last year or two years.
Yeah, yeah. That's a good thing. We'll be done by June. But the team will have breakfast here.
They'll train. They'll do video sessions or a new video room. And then they'll have lunch. And then they'll have one on one's which rubber or a few fun in the back room.
And so, you know, it's really, I think, kind of like encapsulates, like, all around club they were open for. You agree with what you were willing to talk about somebody else's club, as up to you. But did you see the Ann Arbor announcement of their treehouse in a former political campaign office? I mean, I saw the headline.
Yeah, right. That's great. Like Minneapolis has done something similar. It's great.
Like I think clubs should have a help for activity and I wish them luck. So in here you mentioned that you're building out some things like video rooms and stuff for the team. Like how much of that is there in here that people haven't seen like private areas? So I mean, all of our front offices located here in the like the back rooms, you know, we're still kind of like working with Trevor.
I'm like what he wants to see in the space and he's like training. So like, it's equipment, you know, stuff of that nature. So it's really kind of like with him on board full time now, like getting his feedback in the put. You know, right off the front office in the backspace, we got a locker room for the team, you know, for them to love a tape room for them.
It picked up for the field. So, you know, try to translate everything here. How much of in the past sort of on game days, there's been a sort of the official bar afterwards post-party type thing. I've personally never done all that much.
I've exhausted on the matches over. Are you planning on weaving the clubhouse into match days more than what's your vision for that? I mean, I don't think it's going to change up so much. I certainly like we want to like incorporate somehow we're still figuring that out in terms of like, you know, we're two miles away.
It's a straight shot down Mount Elliott, you know, to the stadium, but it's still two miles away. So trying to figure that out. I mean, certainly we point out like huge kickass away parties like here and streaming and you want to make it a help for that. But I don't even want to change up the game day experience too much.
I mean, certainly a full-aware house. You know, they're great partners of ours and we still want to continue the parade and so I think they'll carry on. And yeah, kind of like a, you know, we have major impact on the entertainment. Like, you know, the bars, every time we go into a restaurant in the entertainment community, they see the DCS and Cress, they're like, this is coming out, we want to play accordingly.
So, yeah, we don't want to draw too much of where from that. Back to the fieldhouse side of things for a second. You know, you talked about youth leaves. How are things going with the city youth teams?
And I guess it's sort of stepping back even a little bit further. I'd be interested in serving if you could give a little bit of flavor on how it came about that Harvey Bautista's back running that. You know, for us, we as like city residents had seen, you know, Powell's great job was like on the recreational side, but there really wasn't a place for competitive select soccer. And so the kids who were interested were getting poached by his ribbon clubs or they were just not playing, or they're playing in-house leagues and top-of-us.
And so, you know, that seemed like a perfect, easy way for us to partner with Detroit Powell. And what we found is like we've actually been pulling kids from beyond Powell. There's like kids who are off the radar. And so, you know, we started out with four teams, so like roughly six of kids.
We covered the cost, the vast majority of it, through our alcohol sales at games. And hence the drink for the kids, chance at halftime. Yeah. And that's worth our great and we'll continually develop on that.
You know, the coming year, we'll look at two more teams. You know, it was interesting. Like first of all, we're kind of hodgepodge. So like our youth 10 team is actually all the stuff I think we want to keep like you eight.
And they're doing really well in this ribbon league. And so, you know, we'll last more bodies to that. And there's some really talented kids that like finally have like a place to like play, not just in like house leagues in Southwest, but on a regional level. And so, yeah, it's been a big hit.
Obby, you know, we knew Obby was looking to get into coaching ranks. He had been in coaching ranks in college level. And he's got a great report of kids. And you know, he's a great brand ambassador and he's all in DCFC.
So, you know, he was really the first, and one person we reached out to when we were building on this program. So, how much work did you personally put into like, there's a whole bunch of different league options for youth kids. Like how would you decide where it plays your team? Yeah, it's such fucking best, right?
It's like, I feel like it's fine. Like working out in Lansing politics, I thought I knew like every acronym possible. Some of you are just doctors like beyond my mental reach. And so, you know, we clossed the board.
We were spending an advisor to the club. We really charged him before Harvey came on board to like help us get the thing launched. And so, he just wanted to reach out to some of the clubs in the area to figure out like which was the best ever before us. And so, you know, it's still like he was running for us.
But like, you know, it's great that our kids are going up against like, you know, wolves, you know, Jaguar teams, you know, Kittens in the world, you know, and holding their own. I mean, how far off I know sort of the supporters are looking at the same point. So, someday they want some kid who came off in the system. I mean, how many years off is that in a realistic world?
Oh, all right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A little while. The teams are pretty young right now, right?
All right. Yeah, we got you 10, you love in your 12. So, I mean, in best case, you're looking like eight to 10 years off. You know, I think that like before you're starting to see kids, but I think we're, you know, there's some high school, like we're looking to consolidate like the Detroit high school.
It's great like a competitive team, like a U19, uh, uh, swad. And, you know, it'd be hard to plug them into the pro side, but they're certainly now there. You know, like, you know, our goal on the use side, like we've always been conscious, like there's a small percentage of kids wherever you go on to play pro soccer. And we don't want to sacrifice experiences for the massive kids for those few, like we have great opportunities for those few to excel, but our focus is on like great and positive soccer experience.
So those fans are those kids become like fans and DCFC for life. It's not of interest when it comes to the self affiliation on the DCFC West, you're wearing a DCFC West warm up jacket right now. Who approached you on that? They approached us actually.
You know, frankly, a lot of clubs have approached us over the years. We've had advanced conversations with you. For us, you know, it's something that we went into cautiously. You know, it had to make sense.
It had to be the right club. You know, for us, it was a club that, you know, was community oriented, affordable. And, you know, that, you know, wasn't looking for us to be a miracle elixir to fix their, the ills of their club. Like those had issues and like, you know, we weren't going to be a panacea to solve all their ills.
And so, again, there's a, you know, well, respect to the club. It's self sufficient, great administratively. They built out one of our DC's terms as a region. And, you know, I fully bought into like the process of soccer.
So, you know, it's still details like well out, but it was, you know, I think it's the foundation for, you know, finding other, you know, like-minded, kind of community based clubs. So, you know, growth is so open to other relationships like that. Yeah. The thing I think this creates the administrative foundations like make further affiliations more feasible for everybody both.
How difficult, because just in background, Cantons and Under Armour and DCFC has been Adidas and I fully can't and has a long-term contract with Under Armour. How hard was that to like work around or how much of a sticking point? Yeah. I mean, we'll cycle through strings and then like, you know, frankly, it gets all this a lot more leeway and leverage next time all of our deals are open.
We can go straight. One of the other things that sort of as clubs across the world get bigger, but I'm talking to this system, there's some buzz around. Somebody discovered that the NDSL or somebody affiliated with that had caught, had put in a trademark for like NDSL women or something like that. I can't remember though.
Is that something I know you guys have talked about that a little bit here and there? I mean, any thoughts or anything on where that might stand over the course of time? Yeah, when I was making like an announcement timeline, but certainly, the personal side of things like more of us having daughters and also like, you know, the sophistication was like a large club that has a big background in women's girls soccer. It's with pressure on us.
They're like, you know, getting more serious about it. And it's not that, you know, we weren't serious about it in the past. It's just like, we always want to make sure we were able to position to do it right. And I guess, you know, the men's side or current side, first team has always stuck up so much energy that like we never felt like we had to be able to take it on.
But now we're getting more serious about building that out. And so, you know, it's something to, you know, we're committed to figuring out this has got to be the right time and situation. Also nice opportunity for a segue. Speaking of seriousness and right time, affiliations, you got to pro team.
Not if you listen to the Lansing night, but otherwise, apparently the Lansing Chamber of Commerce, that's what we're doing. Yelling us about that. Oh really? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I thought that one. To start with, can you give a little bit of just sort of, I mean, this came up some, in some discussions and when we're talking about it. Like, how did this all finally end up happening that it's the founders' top and sort of, can you give the readers' digests version of years of being in anguish and discussions? Yeah, I think it's the most like DCFC thing possible, right?
Like, we didn't have a team, we created one. Like, we didn't feel as we have, we feel a gas stack. We outgrew that and he had like a proper home, like we rehab Keyworth. We need like a proper league.
We didn't have one. So we went out and created one with a couple of like-minded teams who are in a similar situation. And, and, yeah, I mean, I think that's kind of narrative, right? Like, you know, like biting off too much maybe.
But like, yeah, it wasn't called it the sense for us. You know, the American soccer landscape doesn't make sense, you know, for who we are and a lot of clubs like this. And so, you know, the, you know, we never really said no to the USL, it's just never something like really appeals to us or, from our perspective, made sense financially. So, thinking of that for just a second, because I think that we, some of us who spend more time thinking about this stuff, assume that others get why and what that all means.
Like, what is it about USL that makes it a bad, different club that's trying to do with DCFCs who would need your mind? Yeah, I mean, it's hard to go into like all the machinations of it. I mean, just from the sheer business sense, like the franchise fee, I don't think there's a return on that, right? Like, you know, to say that you have to pay $7 million to enter the championship, you know, like, nobody's making money off this.
Like, you know, most of the reports that come out for teams are losing a couple million maybe a year. Yeah, a couple of the very top end ones are profitable, but you got to have big mandates to do that. Yeah, and even that's questionable, right? Like, so the sheer economics of it, I just want to buy in didn't make sense.
Like, league structure and there's like, league do's and fees. Like, didn't make sense. Like, I mean, I think yourself is not a very impressive product, like from a league perspective, but then a day, like, I don't know how teams ultimately can afford it. Like, what's the same ability?
Like, their expertise is being the salesman, right? Like, they hit a bunch of your commerce and they do a brilliant job of like selling, like, your team, your city needs soccer teams. Same way it needs an aquarium or monorail. And that's, it's like, right?
And so, you know, they've, and they've hit up the minor league teams, and like, you know, I was holding on, my lead baseball and said, hey, this is a way to get 18 more nights in your stadium, right? And, and their experts on their pros, like, they put best of all money in that, you know, business development side and they've done a great job. But ultimately, like, our team's thriving under that system. No.
So I think we're looking at a more, you know, open as like, kind of a third-rail kind of word, but like, you know, a more accessible league with lower cost structure and more owner buying, right? Like, you know, somebody's like, trust me, I get totally frustrated by the fact that we all have the same things, right? Like, it makes things harder that like everyone has the same things. But at the very least we know, we're creating a league that like, we have to say, and we're, we're directing it.
How does that work in, like, I mean, is this regular meetings or conferences like a slackshine, I mean, how does a new league of owners coordinate? So what does actually goes on? Yeah, with the founders got a group of us, 11 of us, it's small enough that like, you know, we all like, it's basically one lunch committee. And like, we break off and we have each chef committee, so we're responsible for, you know, we do report back on a weekly basis.
So, it's very manageable at that level. You think PSO, you got over 90 teams, it's on the building, the state of the league. Like, I was on the board the last couple of years, and that was a very exhausting process. Like, I was basically the one person representing 24 teams in the Midwest.
And so, you know, not only are you trying to like implement strategic vision on the board level, but you're dealing with, you know, you name some city in Wisconsin, doesn't have game balls and something in the sort of the stock letter, right? Like, you are the intermediary, he's thrown into like resolving that. And so, that's difficult, like, from government perspective, it would be that large. And there's certainly days where I'm like, I would have been an ethly dictator who dictates everything and just like go with it.
But it's not that easy when it comes to U.S.L. It's a franchise, right? And so, like, we're in touch with teams, we want to get out of U.S.L. because it's a franchise.
Like, they are barred from being in the sport of soccer for X number of years, like, once they sell their teams. Like, you're once you're in it, you are in it. And so, it makes it, you know, I think we've got to tell a story about a small open system, you know, the coming and going, you know, there's more flexibility to that. And there's also more to say, in like the direction of league.
And that's, that's what we're talking to people perspective teams right now is like, you know, we're still shaping this. Like, our name is the founder scope right now. We still don't have an official league name yet, like going forward. Like, so like, you can come in and you can have a, I mean, same with this.
Like, let me say those like, DCS, like, you have a chance to be part of this and like, shape the direction of the soccer in some small like, and that's what we're talking to people. So we're to kind of know what this year's gonna be like 2019. How much discussion has gone on for 2020 and like, maybe the way it's gonna grow or the format of it? We have a vision, I'm not in a position like a TQA, but like, you certainly have the interests to grow significantly.
So, you know, we're working on all the expansion materials now. We've had a lot of conversations now, we're getting serious until like more depth conversations and betting of like, potential causes joining. But I would see significant, hopefully not, you know, unsustainable growth for 2020, internally by 2021. Yes, things like, you know, our expansion efforts is like me and a couple others, right?
Like, there are other interests like, you also have full-time staffs who are like, hustling. So, you know, I think we have better stories as mayor, like getting out there and like telling us. From the perspective of, regardless of what things look for like for the league next season, do you have any perspective on what things look like for cities at still, is sort of an amateur NPSL team and a pro founders cup league, TDD, name at the same time or what's what's it look like to you? Do you figure that out for the next season?
Yeah, I mean, our our own good nation is to have like the U23 side. You know, we're not in a place to like fully commit to that at the moment. That's certainly something that I think ties inside all these affiliations that we're talking to is like, grading that gap in the pyramid between, you know, the first team and our partner clubs. So, it's always where those kids go out to college and come play.
It's also a place where also like, bring in still like national caliber college guys, you know, without being in place. Like, I think you start seeing like, some college pickups late for this coming spring season, they're gonna be, you know, significant like great additions that, you know, because of the dynamics of politics of college soccer, like we weren't able to have before. So, you know, you don't want to be part of this club, like, from college side. And so we're just going to bring them anywhere, give them a great experience and scout them for the pro team for once they graduate.
A big chunk of what made the league possible was the ability to sort of swap out the US Soccer Federation and plug in the US Adult Soccer Association. Can you give some sort of background on, for people to get in, don't follow this stuff away. Some of us more disturbed folks do why that was necessary and what those kinds of discussions look like to get USA-SA involved. Well, so USA-SA has always been involved.
Like, we've always been, if it's always been sanctioned or USA-SA. So, nothing has really changed. The only difference is like, basically like, we're playing in a league, which is affiliated with the PSL. That's a utilized professional roster as well.
Back to those like, the last two, three of PSL champions have been teams with professional rosters. Like, the West Coast has had professional rosters for ever. So, nothing's new in that sense. I think the, what differentiates us is that, you know, we're not doing the process of meeting US Soccer as professional league standards.
USA-SA is a precursor, actually US Soccer. And so, if you want to call it the loophole exists, that USA-SA, you know, US Adult Soccer Association has allowed professional players. Let's go back to, you know, Sean, who's really close to that long disappeared, right? That, you know, he's paid guys.
So, you know, we are opting out of participating professionally standards, you know, certification process. And so, you know, that's what's unique about this. So, we don't really easily fall into, you know, the first division, second division, we're just who we are. Who's in the friendly, the Bear Caster right now?
We're looking out the window in the close right now. In the close right now, I'm friendly, the Bear is walking by. Someone's been paid on hourly basis. I'm probably not enough.
He had a major not bad. When's the last time it was cleaned? Never. It's never been.
It's not the dumpster. Yeah, it's never been cleaned. Even once I got out of the dumpster. I actually wore it.
We did a Kids Party New Year's Eve, which was awesome. And I wore it that night, or afternoon, we did it like in mid-day. Like, we opened up Field House and kids came in and ran around for a few hours and then we simulcast the ball drop from Moscow because it's like eight hours. That's what it's like 4PM and eyes weren't in front of the lane.
I was wearing balloons and it was awesome, but it was so gross. So I could just read something. Just dripping and sweat. So there's a long lineage of interns who have left their mark.
Not to shift gears too much, but how far along is the roster building process right now and how long do you expect to still be talking and signing to players? I mean obviously, trials are still a little while, so I expect to go for a while. Yes, a question with Trevor. I went into this way.
We're going to be signing guys up until August 5th. You know, I think you're going to see, you're seeing right now a wave of DCFC guys. Here is what they're doing. They're staying a wave of DCFC guys returning.
A couple of those guys are under contracts and go through the year. Other guys are coming in as more like, it's the spring season, the MPLCs will be a trial. And depending on how they go, we'll sign up to the contract and call. I think in the next month, you're going to see a wave of the type of guys who have been cut from MLS, you know, fall through the cracks, or looking for pro contracts, who those are guys who get picked up in April.
And some of those could be a trial and some of those guys are going to get straight contracts and they'll be through with us for us a year. And then there's probably going to be guys, honestly, who are dumb at school, we're playing in the PSL teams to spring, who we're going to pick up and sign them. So there might be a stud playing for you named some other team in the Great Lakes. They might piss us off.
And then like a week later, we're going to sign up to a pro contract by the Swiss receiver. If it's Dario, we might Ryan. He signed with Miami, so you know, he's off the table. Is there a transfer deadline for Founders Cup specifically?
I know the regular PSL ones like a couple weeks before the end of the before playoffs start. That's not in terms of commitment that the the Founders Cup clubs have made in terms of how many years you all are going to try to make it go of this. I mean, is it like, okay, if it's not working within two years or years, I mean, is there some along those lines? No, I think we're all pretty committed to it.
I mean, you know, it's like classic game theory and we saw it within ASL, right? That like, certain teams got picked off and then it was like a dance, you know, it's like who's getting off. I think our goal is to get a critical mass where, you know, the Carolina's or the world get posted by USL. That's not going to be the tipping point that everything falls apart, right?
So our goal is to stay above, you know, the eight teams where 12% of the league leaves and all center things falls apart. So, you know, this natural essence of like, my early soccer, that teams do come and go. I think our challenge could be having critical mass that we maintain so that we're not subject to that instability. Is your vision that city grows with this league or grows out of this league?
This is our home. It's going to be our home for quite a while, I think. I don't, you know, I think we're a flag bearer for this league. I don't know the obvious place we would go from this league and there's an obstacle to build this league out.
I think there's the interest there. I think there's an interest in even building something out below this pretty quickly. There's teams at the NDSL level now who weren't ready. I was waiting for the conversation for this for the NDSL for the last three years.
Their teams that weren't ready to go playing like a more national schedule, who won the display in the midwest or, you know, they want to play March the November, they just don't want to travel that far. So, I think pretty quickly we could within two or three years build out a second level below this. And that's where it gets exciting. I'm never going to say like commit to pro-rel because, you know, it's something that's, yeah, it opens up in the absurd conversation.
But, yeah, I think this league has a lot of potential. You know, yeah. So, I don't know an obvious place where we go from here. So, part of, you talked about Trevor a little bit, but part of that being ready for this league was finding a coach to take you there.
One of the things that one of your fellow owners said to me, and what I think during the actual party where I was announced was that he liked the fact that Trevor didn't need to be here. He was fine where he was and he's here because he wanted to be part of all this. Give a little bit of background on how you guys found him and sort of decided that he was the right guy to take Sadie into the next phase. So, I led the search.
I probably did an hour-long interview, initial interview with over 20 candidates. Local, national, some absurd. Yeah. I'm absurd for much perspective.
Like, how is this person actually talking to us or how does this person think that they would be justified in Go to City? More like coaches who had national team experience, but well, cop experience, right? You know, that we're just like, all right, like, this doesn't make sense for anybody, but all humor the conversation, right? Like, so, in some, yeah, in like, famous players, you know, who don't make sense as coach, right?
But somebody in Taco World put us in touch with Trevor and, you know, so that kind of conversation going. And, yeah, I mean, you know, he checked a lot of boxes for us, right? Like, we were looking for somebody who had that professional experience building out a roster. So, we had experience building out, like, a creative roster at this level.
Like, he built out an 11-roster last year with very constrained time frame and, you know, parameters. And so, in a lot of credibility in soccer circles. You know, maybe not a name, they're like fans new, but, you know, as soon as we had talked to him, you know, we got a flood of calls from people across American soccer who, you know, practically took advantage of his chime in and tell us, you know, about him, their experiences with him, that spoke highly about him. And so, that helped a lot.
But it wasn't easy. Like, I mean, there's a couple of great quality hands that came down to him. It was one of the decisions we turned into as well. With the coaching turnover comes, obviously, some staff turnover and then obviously some of the pro world, some of the players that have been key for all this, you know, you, you, we've obviously seen some of the announcements, Cyrus and the like, guys, is there a plan for how to sort of recognize some of the players who've been key for City for a long time that just aren't going to be making a jump to a, to a program.
And I guess how much of the discussion that you have with Trevor about, it's like, hey, you know, we have expectations, you've never had expectations about what kind of carryover there would be from S.Y. to reduce the time. Yeah, I mean, you know, we told Trevor our expectation versus foremost is to win. Like, you know, we love where the club's at, but it does mean us, like, we don't have more trophies and trophy cases.
And, you know, I think everything about this club is really kind of hit the mark, except, you know, we want more trophies. And so, you know, we, early conversations, you know, we were all in the same page about giving the guys who committed so much this club, a fair shake about like carrying on and, you know, guys who love wearing this crest, like, you know, Trevor Wentz and Game Tape and found the guys from recent years who made sense of like early on to bring on and, and then, you know, a lot of the other guys that have conversations with about, you know, they want to give a go of it, like, where do you give them a chance to give a go of it? You know, so we're going to see more fan favorites in the coming weeks. But there's, we have to do work, you know, to make that swap because, you know, we're just paying, bringing in a team of some win trophies for us.
And I mean, you've done some stuff obviously with the past players in off field position, even, you know, obvious, a good example. I think, I mean, is there a mindset of trying to look at opportunities as the club gets bigger and more complex to try to find those sorts of opportunities to? Yeah, I mean, we're going to try our best. Like, we've been having those conversations at the same time.
Like, we're so small business, right? Like, we've got pretty small versions. And so, you know, we don't have a budget for, you know, our Willie Barnes and Al K-lines, you know, like, like, I aspire to get there at some point, but like, we're just not there yet. So, but that being said, like, you know, we've been a lot, a lot of relationships and connections community and we, it's family here.
So we want to help guys, you know, as a transnationalist, whatever's next in their lives, like, they're a part of it. You know, I mean, Trevor's first day here, we brought in some alumni, so he had a chance to meet with them in person. And, you know, we want to, we want these guys to feel like they're a part of the school program. And actually, those things, like, all our alumni have like a plastic credit card, you know, that they, it's theirs.
I'm like, they can show it at the shop or discounts for forever or, you know, for tickets, you know, like, once you wear that card, it's like, we can see before the family. One of the other ways that things are changing is actually physically at key work for the upcoming season. What's the standpoint on the renovations there? I know Sean has a question about the turf.
Yeah, especially if he'll just put it in, because it's pretty narrow, when do we get it in, right? Yeah, so, I can say we, the RFB went out, back in December, back, you know, we got a grant, and I say we like collectively like, and traumatic, a couple schools, city of Ham, traumatic, like, oh, we all partnered together and got a grant from Ralph Wilson Foundation for 800,000 to change. Like, 450 of that was for the new turf of Keyworth, the rest is for a planning study for the whole area, Veterans Park, Keyworth, developing like a business plan to like, create like a regional sports, store sports destination. So, you know, we're excited about being part of that, being us being leveraged to like, the early stadium rehab, with, you know, things are like, hey, you know, you're just in a tough spot, like GM plan shutting down is like, 20% of the city revenue, so it was like, it was an 800,000 in tax revenue per year out of like, like 11 million dollars or something.
Right, yeah, they're right, so they're, you know, they're gonna become police and like, fire requires pretty soon. So, they're a tough spot. So, you know, us being kind of a positive in the city, like, we want to leverage our positions most possible, my personal issue with Ralph Wilson, he'll facilitate this, and you know, we're excited to hold this first step for a bigger investment. Yeah, turf was absolutely crucial.
Like, we couldn't get, you know, yeah, it just wasn't safe for kids, for us, you know, and we kind of reached our peak in terms of like, clubs we could get to come visit us, with the turf we had in place. Thankfully, St. Paul is incredibly accommodating, the Cox was used to playing on shit turf, frozen honey was pretty pissed, but you know, it is what it is. So, incredibly tight timeline, we just ordered the RFP, and we just signed off on the shop drawings, church being produced right now in Georgia, demos in beginning of March, turf gets installed, first week in April, barring weather, barring simple or vertex coming down again.
So, you know, our goal is to be done by mid April, and that being said, like, we're pushing off our first home game until later in May, like May 19th, just give us like a month window in case anything happens, and we were even more cautious than that, like, you know, past years, you'll see, like, you know, we just, the game kind of a calling call, we're just having these May friendlies and ask friendlies, like, we didn't line up any May this year, because we weren't confident that the turf would be done in time. It's one thing to like, reschedule a game against FC and AN, as another thing, reschedule a game applying over from Germany, right? So, you know, the friendlies are going to be in July and in fall, but share around. So, we noticed last time we heard that there was some drainage issues with the field, how much is possible to do on that?
How much do you even know about what's under there? Yeah, so, if you actually go up to here with right now, like, they cut up sections, they did percolation tests, where they flooded them with water, like, last week was like, 30 degrees, and it's finally warm up, they flooded the field, and they measure up, quickly the field drains, and it's like below average, you know, the north part of it. So, it's a combination of other like drainage and just like, city of So, part of the turf replacement is redoing the drainage, and like, leveling the field again, but like redoing the drainage. All the dunk that's stuck in there.
Yeah, and so, they're going to do their best. I mean, in the day though, like, you know, we're still sorting through, like, hem-traming doesn't, the water doesn't drain well in the and it's open, so they're good to inherently be hem-traming sewage issues that we're dealing with. They'll be honest, the crest will be old in the water. Water infrastructure problems in Michigan would have thunked it.
Yeah, I mean, does this have any impact on sort of the size of the international friendlies we can expect this year? I mean, you got a thought, something bigger than a red bix, more than a cepali. I mean, what are we looking at? Yeah, I mean, we're certainly working in like one of the things like the Necox match for us was like, we'd worked since we were very beginning to get the like Southwestern community out to the game, especially like, you know, and that worked out perfectly for us.
Like, I mean, you know, we had corporate people there who were like, you know, how much money we spent in the community, we've each watched in a community, we've never gotten this kind of reaction, right? And so, you know, I think that's helped us build up our credibility in city limits with soccer families, and that really springboard our youth program. And so, you'll, you'll, we're doing our best to like, lock in another league at a next team. And then, you know, European teams have been harder this year just because, without a well-caught and without a Euro championship, the club season is longer than the last year's, a lot of teams are just trading as like a Euro off your backs.
So, there's just fewer teams coming over to the US this year. And then again, not scheduling games in that neighborhood, the main one is ideal because it's post-season, the teams are super relaxed. And so like, you know, when you get into July, it's pre-season, everyone's really in all about nutrition and lodging accommodations, and it's really kind of a pain to deal with. The, the making's are like, it's festive, like players are fucking around, like, it's singing on beer tote, you know, like on table tops, like, it's all around great times.
Like July, it's tense and it's a drain on staff. So, you know, of course, when we're at that window to play with here. So, later in the past years, there's just a lot of conversations going around, like, lock in all the details. But, it's only by mid-March, we'll be able to announce all those.
That was another one of the things that people talk about is the idea of heading down to sort of South of Mexico, Central South America, to find what they know that people go to see, you know, what it's like Argentina or elsewhere, or the funny thing that's said, if you guys had discussions down in any of those markets or those leagues? I can say no, definitively. No, not yet. Maybe something day, but not yet.
Do you have just a little tear with down the spot? Yes, no, not yet. What are you guys expecting in terms of the attendance difference between the regular NPSLCs and the founder stuff stuff? We're treating it as one continuous season.
So, from like a marketing messaging perspective, it's like one continuous campaign. Now, like, when August 17th, or one of the first home game that founders come up like, yeah, we'll push it as like, historic or first like, you know, being able to pro roster at keyword. But, as far as like, season tickets, single game tickets, it's all like one campaign. That's all sponsors.
Yeah, we're treating it like one big campaign. Does scheduling get any more difficult in the fall when the high school programs start back up? Isn't it in the summer, it's been super easy with the soccer teams that are playing the football teams not playing? Yeah, I think we have great partners with Hammers with Hammers with Hammers with Hammers and the Hammers and the Hamlet director.
And so they don't play any games football games on Saturdays or high school soccer. High school soccer with their league is mostly like Mondays and Wednesdays and Thursday. So, they never play on Saturdays. So, thankfully like, founders come up every game Saturday night.
Like, once we get past, you know, once we get August, every game Saturday night, we're home our way Saturday night. So, no conflict. The turf at Keyworth is going to be soccer specific. There's like, football lines on it.
So, we'll paint football games like the day before, but like, then we'll take them off. So, what is the logistics? Is there like, special paint that's washed up, washed off? Or?
Well, it's paint over. Unless, or were there any dates, like, make sure there's enough gap between home games and like, that paint fades pretty quickly, actually. Okay. It's usually gone.
I'm surprised about that on turf, but... It's what you'll notice, like, it's usually try paint like every other week, but like, within two weeks, it usually starts like, they don't like it. One thing that people noticed very appreciatively is how cost effective the sort of per game cost the season tickets ended up being. I mean, how much, I think you guys are always balancing income and revenues versus expenses and all that sort of stuff.
I mean, how much did you guys, average you guys put in to try to keep that sort of average single game cost down in season tickets? Yeah, I mean, it was, it was absolutely important to us. Like, you know, we know where we spent into the landscape here and it's being the accessible, affordable team, right? And so, you know, I was being myself up at like, 120 markers, season tickets, like, hot, too high, we're to lose people.
And, you know, then the day, though, I started looking at all this new USL team to me online and like, you know, there's supporters that season tickets with like, $225. And I'm like, oh, let's do that. Like, you know, like, we're gonna have a better fan experience than X team, you know, you know, new team and D3 or whatever they're calling it. And so, one thing that's going against us, honestly, is like, the other pro teams in Detroit, like, because of like, where they're at, like, you know, they're inadvertently affordable, right?
Like, you can get into a business game on StubHub for under $10, right? So, we're not... You'd have to go watch a business game. Yeah, you know, that's reality landscape, like that, you know.
So, I think it broke down like, $7 in change with what the average game is, with season ticket. You know, we, we want to like, we built in new features now that we have new features as well, like $10 or 10% off, like at the club, right? Because like, this should be the hub for DCFC fans and like, you know, national supporters, like, you know, now that we have a full-time head coach, like Trevor, right? One of the things we've gotten from folks is like, they don't understand the game.
And so, like, we built in, you know, like with the gold package, like Trevor doing monthly talks, like going over the elements of the game, you know, like, you know, what, he's a really licensed coach who's been at PSV and, you know, Barcelona and international team. Also, that guy's at your disposal to talk about like, then it's an ounce of soccer, right? So, you know, us, what we can do is provide the best value. So, that was like, 12 point this year.
But, you know, we increased games, right? You know, 25%. So, and we added Pro-Fire. So, it was going to have to be an increase.
So, we need to let you go, but before we do, any sort of last last thing that we didn't ask about or that you wanted to switch, or would be understood or whatever, it was the last thing that we wanted to switch. No, I mean, I can't... The last thing is... I have one last question.
I just thought, oh, I just thought, oh, so we missed this in the renovation section. That last section stands, that hasn't been completed. Are there any plans to complete that section? We got some more announcements.
Like, big announcements about improvements are going to happen in a very short time frame this spring. So, yeah. So, more announcements coming. I like to do that.
I think we've got Jersey Reveals, Quarter Prom, I mean, it seems players. Yeah, I mean... An announcement a day. Yeah, I know.
It's just, it's like, we've got the support of Goldram's win. I know, it's, you know, working with Lindsey just to make sure, like, things don't get lost in the mix because we do have so many things just like queued up over the next 90 days leading up to the season. But yeah, more improvements to Keyworth. Yeah, one of the things like, I think it's like the Community Investment Campaign with the Pro-season.
You know, people paying more for season tickets with the longer season. Like, you know, we're on pace like paying that off even more rapidly than we have before. And so, the club, the Alpha-Miner, you know, the next year is very exciting for us. Especially for some pro-shaftors.
So, yeah, more improvements to Keyworth, your partnerships, and then all the popular signings. Like, yeah, I think we're doing our part to like, you know, this year for the Key people entertain. Jo-Man, thank you very much. Well, thanks guys.
So, that's it for us for this episode. It's already about an hour, so we're not going to go even longer. We'll come back around some footage here and talk about player signings. So, when we get a couple more, there we go.
I am John Mozzan-Clitter. I am John Groug, and I rise I am, under score. You can find us both at DCFC on Twitter, or I think it's the website still there at JustCan'tGetInoff.City. And thank you very much.
Thanks, Sean. And we'll be back at the point later.