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Epic Center KC: Empowering Community Through Sports
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Transcript
Adapting Epic Sports KC: Community Feedback & New Activities
00:00:00
Speaker
In this episode I got to talk to Bobby Hawk and Kevin Main with Epic Sports KC. This facility has been around for a long time and has transferred brands and hands and names. And what I love the most about what Bobby and Kevin are doing there is they're really listening to community.
00:00:15
Speaker
and figuring out what the community wants and giving it to them. So they went from basketball, volleyball, soccer, games, some other things, and now they've added pickleball. They're bringing in a brewery and food and beverage concept. And so one of my favorite things about talking to them is how they learned and how they listened to their community to really give them what they want and how that's really changed their business. This episode was a lot of fun to learn and talk with this team, and I hope you enjoy.
Introduction to The Facility Playbook Podcast
00:00:44
Speaker
What's up, everybody? Do you own or manage a facility while you're in the right place? Welcome to The Facility Playbook. I'm Luke Wade, CEO and founder of Facility Ally, and this podcast is about helping facility managers and owners learn from veterans and pioneers in the industry.
Streamlining Facility Management with Facility Ally
00:01:00
Speaker
who have built and managed successful sports facilities, entertainment venues, and clubs. Did you know that most of the facilities I just mentioned use between four and six different softwares to manage their memberships, rentals, leagues, lessons, and more? Facility Ally to the rescue.
00:01:16
Speaker
Facility Ally's all-in-one systems can help you revolutionize your facility management. Check it out at facilityallie.com.
Leadership Transitions at Epic Center KC
00:01:22
Speaker
And today, I'm really excited to be here at Epic Center KC with Kevin Main, General Manager and Bobby Hawk, Executive Director. Thanks so much for joining me today, guys. Yeah, man. Good to be with you, Luke. Really appreciate it. This facility's amazing. Yes, nice to. Thanks for coming in and seeing the place.
00:01:36
Speaker
Yeah. So before we get started, I'd love for you each to jump in and kind of tell me a little bit about your background and what led you here if you'd like to start first, Bobby. Yeah. So actually, we had a facility next door and I pastor a church. We were there for several years. The Epic Sports Lodge was the Casey Sports Lodge at the time, now transitioning to the Epic Center. So we've had a lot of name changes. But we just said, why not? Why not see if that's
00:02:01
Speaker
something we could buy and purchase. We were next door. Listen, Luke, we've talked before. We love families. We love sports. We love for people to be able to connect over that. And so it just made perfect sense for us. A few years later, we sold the building next door and we love this enough that we kept it and decided to stay involved. So our motto kind of is eat, play, improve, connect. Because here at the Epic Center, you can do any or all of those things. That's awesome.
00:02:29
Speaker
It's very true, and actually I was in the business before Epic got into it. When it was Casey Sports Lodge, I was here, and then prior to this, I had a facility going into this. And when that facility closed its doors, the sports lodge at the time came to me and said, not one or two, but multiple teams, multiple people, you know, want you over at our facility kind of running our programs. And I was like, well, I mean, I'm not going to throw my shoulder out pat myself on the back because I kind of don't have too many options.
00:02:54
Speaker
But one of the things they came over here for is like, they felt appreciated, they felt valued, and they knew that that's something I was going to take with me. And then when Epic came over and they're like, hey, that's what we value also, it's like, well, then we're just going to continue this going great. What was your background before you got in the facilities? Have you always done facility management? For the professional part of my career, yeah. I mean, obviously the teenage angst years, there wasn't all facility management, but when I actually grown up and started to actually make a career out of it, it was sports management. Awesome. So tell me a little bit about Epic Center Case T.
Rebranding and Expanding Epic Center Offerings
00:03:24
Speaker
Well, we uh, so Epic purchased the facility in 2017 and it was the KC Sports Lodge. We just kept the name. We just added Epic, Epic Sports Lodge. Um, just from this summer actually, Luke, we're doing our rebrand for a couple reasons. One, we, we've started
00:03:40
Speaker
pickleball we've got eight indoor courts now four outdoor courts so we've kind of remodeled we're in the process of remodeling adding smoke brewing company on the inside so incredible partnership there and really kind of rebranding ourselves and so we thought let's do a new name so that one it's not connected to the past
00:03:56
Speaker
before we took over with the sports lodge. And two, we're getting rid of some of the things that said sports lodge. Originally, there were moose heads hanging on the halls and some different things before we were ever involved. But so the rebrand, but from 2017, we jumped in, got involved. And that's when we met Kevin. And it's been a fun ride since. It has really been. And one of the things that we try to look at, you know, like Flintstones versus Jetsons.
00:04:19
Speaker
You know, the sports lodge had a very old time rustic feel to it, but we know we wanted to be more malleable. We want to be more future thinking, more future looking, more future believing. You know, like this, you know, this isn't, we're not looking back at everything we've done in the past. We want to look ahead to what we can bring to you in the future. It's awesome. I love it. I love it. I didn't know the lodge was actually the lodge. They had elk heads and all that kind of stuff. We didn't either. By the time I came in, most of that was gone, but there's still some semblance. And so just as we reinvent ourselves, we're like, well, let's drop the lodge theme because we're really not a lodge anymore.
00:04:48
Speaker
And the center describes what we do, too, because we have partners that are here. And so from select physical therapy, aging in place, National Guard and others, we want this to kind of be the hub, the center for all of those places and not just limited to what may feel like exclusive to epic sports. It's an epic center.
00:05:06
Speaker
Sure, that makes sense. And so how many total square footage is Epic Center? Yeah, so it's between 68 and 69,000 square feet. Most of that's main level, about 60,000. We've got it upstairs. We've got a martial arts tent upstairs. And we're actually converting the rest of the upstairs to a party rental space, a corporate venue. Smoke Brewing Company is going to have a space upstairs as well where they can host events. So we're pretty excited about 200, 250 people at one time.
00:05:32
Speaker
could be up in that space. And then down here, two basketball courts that are also volleyball courts, the full soccer field, and the eight indoor pickleball courts. Then outside, the additional square footage would be the four additional pickleball courts, some area to play, cornhole, things like that. Sure. The outside of managing the church, did you have any background in facility management or facility anything? Zero. Kevin's probably like, yeah, trust me.
00:05:58
Speaker
No, actually, this was kind of a learn on the go. You know, we started a church here in Independence in 2009 and started the movie theater and quickly were able to move into a facility that was vacant. It had been built for something else and started the remodel, kind of the retrofit. And you just learn a lot really quick in facilities. But what I appreciate the most is having a facility that can be used for multiple venues or multiple options.
00:06:26
Speaker
uh man look i'll be honest as a pastor one of the things that drives me crazy is churches that sit empty 167 hours a week for that one hour on sunday right and the space is just not conducive for anything else so we've always tried to say how can we have spaces that are conducive for a lot of different things versus one hour a week and so this space certainly serves that we've tried to actually do that with our other spaces as well that we have or the church owns it operates
00:06:52
Speaker
Makes a ton of sense. And one of the things I love doing is building communities. And what you've done is taken your church community and activated it through other things like physical activity and all that stuff is really important when building a community. So I love to hear that about that focus. What are the biggest challenges you have? I think, Kevin, obviously you've been doing it for so long. What are the biggest challenges you have of maybe in general running a facility and then maybe just specifically to Epic?
00:07:16
Speaker
So facility just even just their nature of the beast itself is that you invite all sorts of walks of life in you know from different levels of competition to differ what people want to get out of a facility to what they bring to a facility you know try and find ways to fit them into what was going to be more value for their dollar and then also where they leave also feeling appreciative and so some things like a negative tone the lot of the facilities will have is well we don't want to play there because they there's not a family place
00:07:42
Speaker
and that's really what you heard a lot in the area was it just weren't family places or places where people could meet beat each other up and leave and so Epic when they came in it was really more focusing about kind of trimming that and getting that that element kind of out of here so that we can bring in an element that might not be like the most
00:07:59
Speaker
Oh, we're D1 athletes and we want to go out and relive our glory days. It's like, no, mom and dad want to play with the kids or, you know, friends or families want to get together and have a place where they can actually enjoy their time, feel safe while they play here, feel valued while they're here, and then want to come back, you know, not leave here and like, well, we can't go back to that place because the inmates run the asylum. So the challenging part of that is to kind of change the stigma that comes with a lot of facilities of just like, oh, it's just sports. You just show up, you play and it's the Wild, Wild West.
00:08:29
Speaker
You know, we wanted to be a place that, you know, maybe you don't do sports. Maybe like we we have other things we can offer here, you know, they do different different crafts, shows, events, you know, those kind of stuff that, you know, might not always be sports orientated. You remember the world closed in 2020. And so when
Adapting During COVID-19: New Uses for Epic Center
00:08:45
Speaker
we were finally allowed to reopen, we weren't even sure if sports was going to be on the future because nobody knew what the future held. So we looked to kind of gear, you know, some turned the kaleidoscope a bit to see what else can this building provide? Like Bobby said, nothing needs to sit empty. What else can we provide?
00:08:59
Speaker
the National Guard was able to come in. We gave a place for, you know, kids wanting to pursue a future career in that, so they have a place to come here. Aging in place is home health care, so we're able to train nurses. Well, we're not, but their business is able to train nurses. You provide the space for that. Exactly. We wear many hats.
00:09:14
Speaker
but nurses as well. But the challenging part of that was trying to put all those pieces like you know, Bobby always talks about having to take a 30,000 mile view of it like or 30,000 feet. Yeah, wherever planes fly to see where all the kind of fits together at one point and that's really what it is just making sure all the pieces fit and then all the pieces are fitting happily. Sure. And so what's one of the secrets you found on that and I totally relate to changing, you know,
00:09:38
Speaker
Based on the skill level of what you're doing, it brings a different person. If you offer a cash prize, you're going to get the serious people. All they want to do is win, right? And then if you don't and you do all this fun stuff, you're going to bring in a more social vibe. So what's maybe one of the secrets you've learned from changing to that bringing in people who beat up on each other to now the family bot?
00:09:54
Speaker
Well, for me personally, and what I try to impose on the staff is to accept criticism. Like, criticism is, you know, it's not so much indicative to your performance. It's something that, you know, shows that where maybe you're able to undo improvements. You know, you know, obviously, there is criticism just for criticism, but a lot of times you can take that and be like, oh, this allows us the opportunity to do it better. Like, it always, I always tell the staff about the oak versus the willow. You know, if that, you know, if you just want to keep trying, not change, not change, the wind's just going to snap you in half.
00:10:21
Speaker
But if you can move with the changes and try and change with it, you actually get a lot more success. So accept criticism is one of the biggest secrets I've been able to, you know, someone comes in like, I don't like your program. Well, what specifically don't you like about my program? And then, you know, maybe it's something that we can change and everybody leaves happy. That's awesome. I love the I've never heard that analogy of the trees. That's cool. Yeah. What's one of the biggest challenges you face day
Challenges in Staffing and Culture at Epic Center
00:10:45
Speaker
to day now?
00:10:45
Speaker
running Epic KC? Well I'm sure probably a lot of people would say to this is the officiating. You know officiating, one of the things that I got harkened back to that we wanted to make this a family place, well a lot of that starts with the officials. You know without refs you can't have games, without games you don't have teams, without teams you just have an empty field.
00:11:04
Speaker
So officiating is one of the challenges that we face because, you know, we want the best. We want them to also get a wage that they feel values what they bring to the table. But then also we want them to be part of the games as well. You know, we want them to know the players, understand the players, understand kind of the flow of the game. And not only that, but like I said, back to accepting criticism, we listened to the refs too. Like we've always been very supportive of our officials because we know once we lose them, the inmates run the asylum. So yeah.
00:11:33
Speaker
Well, every facility right now probably has a challenge of staffing, because that's a global challenge, right? At least in the US, it's a challenge. I think what Kevin's saying is, you not only have staffing, but then you have that really unique specific skill set, staffing. How do you take care of them, make sure it's a place that they want to be, but part of that also goes back to it's not just pay, but it's culture.
00:11:56
Speaker
And one of the reasons we did try to move some of the programs out and even some of the tenants is because it didn't represent our culture. It wasn't really a place where you said, that's where I want to come and play. It was more of, oh, OK, is there going to be a fight this week? And which fields are going to be on? Which courts are going to be on? And then officials don't want to come because they put up with enough.
00:12:17
Speaker
Criticism from parents. The last thing I need to do is deal with fights with players. So Kevin and his teams done a great job, but I think that's an ongoing challenge is to be able to hire the best people, but it also is make sure you've got the best culture to keep those people.
00:12:31
Speaker
Yep, I can definitely with my other business, Casey crew, we have the same challenge, staffing, finding good people were same sort of values of like, we want to find the fun people first rather than the best official who knows all the rules. We want it to be a really cool vibe and culture. So people have a good time while they're out there. So I completely relate to that. So that being said, like, are you guys, so officials means you're running your own programming.
00:12:51
Speaker
What do you feel is the split of your own internal programming and other people just renting and partnerships as well? Yeah, that's a good question. So if we were just talking about kind of a purely financial split, we've got about a third that comes from tenants and rented space, which includes renting our courts to run their own programs, example, invasion of volleyball.
00:13:11
Speaker
great local club, very competitive, rent our courts out five days a week and also some office space. So if you take our tenants, you pull them out, then the other two thirds roughly financially is being driven by primarily soccer, now pickleball.
00:13:27
Speaker
some additional rentals on the weekends, on the basketball courts, and then just some of the miscellaneous events that we can do. So that's the financial side. Really from kind of a partnership side, we like to think of it as, we're all really partners in this. I mean, yeah, there's the breakdown of who runs their own programs and the programs we run. But if we don't have good partnerships, it really doesn't matter. And that goes back to that culture piece. If we don't have a place that Invasion wants to play and wants to be, then we lose that partnership.
00:13:56
Speaker
but why run our own program when a great volleyball club like Invasion is already running it well and we don't have to. That's what figuring that piece out of what can we do the best of our ability and what can we let other people do and we're always looking for those partnerships and that's one of the things that we've talked before you know whether it's KC crew like we don't want to reinvent the wheel if somebody else can do it way better than we can and they just need space
00:14:19
Speaker
Let's figure it out. We may have the space to accommodate it. And if they come in and it's not a good program, we don't just want them to be here because they're paying a check. We want to make sure it's representing our culture. And then that's the balance we try to find. Sure. I love it. So what's one of the biggest issues you've faced as you begin to upgrade, right? So changed over the last couple of years, a lot of things. What's the biggest thing you've challenged you face in this most recent remodel?
00:14:43
Speaker
Yeah, you know, besides, I mean, money is always an issue, right, for everyone. But besides that, I think it just continues to come back to what are the programs we want to be driven by? What does the community want? What does the community desire to come to? That's huge. But what are we good at? And then you got to find that bridge because I see people sometimes they start something because there's a demand
00:15:07
Speaker
but they don't necessarily have the right things in place. And we've made that mistake a couple of times along the way. We've, uh, did our own bar for a while that we subleased it to a couple other people that were doing startups. And we finally said, man, it is really important for us to have a food and beverage component here.
00:15:24
Speaker
We're going to go find somebody who's already proven they can do it, who sees the value in being in a facility like this. And that's when Smoke Brewing Company came to the table and we're able to develop that partnership. So I think it's taking established people, occasionally taking the risk on the startup, but really making sure that your DNA and your culture is similar enough that it's going to work.
00:15:45
Speaker
That's the hardest part of growth because we can fill this place with people and events and it's just not necessarily representative of us or we can take space and we can give people chances. But if they haven't proven something along the way, there's a good chance that we're just setting them up for failure. So I think we've learned a lot of lessons in the last few years of what does it look like to succeed? What does those partnerships look like? And how can we minimize failure for both us and for other people? We don't like to see people fail.
00:16:13
Speaker
We don't see a tenant come in and not be able to make it. So what does this facility need? And what does the community need? And how can we bridge those together with partnerships? That's awesome.
Enhancing Community Experience with Food & Drink
00:16:22
Speaker
So one of the questions I was going to ask is, you know, why is food and beverage so why is food and beverage important to you? So you obviously tried a couple of things over the years haven't really worked out. Now you've got some awesome partners coming in. So why do you believe the food and beverage is so important?
00:16:34
Speaker
Yeah, it kind of comes back to conversation. I don't know if you remember this we had it was probably took 2018 years ago, right with Casey. I remember every conversation. No. Yeah. But I remember. Yeah, you know, I remember because because we've done some events with football and some different things. And one of the things I remember was you were just talking about it wasn't just about people coming and playing sports because you can do that other places was about the connection. It was about the fun. It was about the relationship.
00:16:58
Speaker
And when you look at that and you just say, why do people like to come together? Well, activity is good. But what do people do before, after, sometimes during? They eat, they drink, right? And so if we're going to provide a place where people can truly connect, it's not going to be come play soccer for an hour or play pickleball for an hour. And then I got to go find something else to do. Let's have it all in-house. And so that's why it's really important to us. And again, I know for the people that have played here, it's one of the things they miss.
00:17:26
Speaker
is when we have had a successful bar and some food options in there, they miss being able to stay around and do that. Now we feel like we're taking it to a whole other level because it's not just a concession stand and a snack bar. It's a restaurant that's known in Lee Summit locally here but certainly also known for their beers and so we're excited for that.
00:17:49
Speaker
And one of the things like Bobby kind of lead to like a local business serving local people is something that's definitely been in demand for all of our programs, but also allows us to look outside on a broader scope when people want to come in town and do certain events. You know they look at where where's the best place because you know essentially a park with a roof on it.
00:18:06
Speaker
is what a sports facility is.
Epic Center as a Community Hub
00:18:08
Speaker
You can open a window and throw a rock and you can hit 10 of those, like we need to be something that sets yourself apart. And without that option, we, I kind of felt like we, and Bobby may have felt this way also, we weren't being able to present everything that we had the capability of doing. So having food and beverage is part of everything else we already offer, gives us a much wider net we can throw, we can bring people in here, and like I said,
00:18:27
Speaker
a park with a roof on it they're going to leave here knowing their experience here. The building is a beautiful building it offers a lot but the experience they leave with the building is what they they hop on google and review and stuff like that. That's what we want to tell us. What's interesting about that is somebody asked me the other day they said will you not have the largest pickleball facility
00:18:46
Speaker
that we know of in Kansas City, if you're counting the number of courts and said, well, we don't want to just have the largest. We want to have one of the best, right? It's one thing to have the biggest. It's another thing to be the best. And that doesn't, that's not a competitive statement. You know, when somebody said, are you competing with chicken and pickle? I'm like, are you kidding? Like chicken and pickle in the North and an Overland park? No, we're in independence. Like we're not, I look at it as we're complimenting each other. Now if they move in next door, maybe it becomes competition. But right now we're complimenting each other. We're providing something for the fastest growing sport in the US, pickleball.
00:19:16
Speaker
combining it with food. And we've even had one of their one of their main people in here playing just because they live close. And I look at that and say, Hey, how cool is that that we can cross over and connect in that kind of way. So same with what we talked about with Casey Kurt, no reason why competing with each other. We're partnering to make Kansas City a more fun
00:19:33
Speaker
I think that's what I love the most about Kansas City and Midwest in the general is like we're always trying to help each other, right? And I've always said that is there's enough to go around and people typically want to play closer to their house So to your point Casey crews all over the Metro So pick the one thing you want to play out right if it's here play here, right? And so same for you guys is I don't want to drive all the way to chicken and pickle as much as I love it I'd rather just pop in play and if I got a sandwich and a beer at the same time even better for me, right? And so
00:19:58
Speaker
You're really, again, driving home that community and serving the locals of your community, which is what I love the most about what you said. And I also think it's really important, too, because the difference between someone sticking around your facility and leaving is, can I grab a sandwich and a drink? Right. And so one or two, three people do that. And then it's like, well, now we got 15 people just hanging out. Maybe they stay longer. Maybe they come back more. And so.
00:20:17
Speaker
That to me is the food and beverage difference of like, I go play and then leave or I stick around and have more community time. And I love that. Well, and one of the cool things too, this opened a door for one of our soccer reps and employees who does a fantastic job, but also has this cake business on the side. So he's going to start offering coffee and pastries in the morning. And then we got Smoke Brewing Company for the afternoon and evening. And so it's nice too, because even our food, we're trying to make it to where they're not competing.
00:20:43
Speaker
where they're complimenting and working with our people. So we're pretty excited about the future. So come September 1st, anyway, we should have the food option open. Yes, you won't leave hungry. That's for sure. I typically don't. So one of the good things to also just to piggyback on that also is that having a food and beverage in a place where people can sit and reflect about what the experience they just had
00:21:04
Speaker
allows you to keep a pulse on the nature and what's going on in your own programs. There's been a lot of times I've been able to speak, you know, when we had the food and beverage option before, speak with the players after their games. Enjoy, you know, when they're not running out the door to try and get somewhere to have a sit-down meal, they can actually stay and talk and decompress and, you know, you can actually keep a good, like I said, finger on the pulse of the health of your own program.
00:21:27
Speaker
just by having them stay longer. I love that. One of the things you mentioned was in all the all new pickleball courts that are behind us and outside. So obviously you mentioned earlier about criticism, feedback. I'm assuming you got a lot of that probably here, like people wanting to play. And that's one of the reasons obviously on top of it being one of the fastest growing sports in the United States or globally. So what was the big decision of why to do the pickleball? Because and I'd love actually sorry, I'm leading into a million questions. What was there before? And what was some of the stuff you tried out there before before deciding pickleball? So we had to
00:21:57
Speaker
soccer fields basically and that was great in one sense of soccer fields you could do a lot on there are a lot of different options but here in our local community what we were running up against is there are a lot of soccer fields going in outdoor fields that are heated and you got indoor soccer complexes and I think sometimes you have to adapt
00:22:17
Speaker
right in your own facility to make it the best that it can be. So we said, well, we don't want to get rid of soccer, but we feel like for the future, we need to embrace something other than soccer. And what can that be? Well, for us, pickleball became the thing. And, you know, to throw props out to Jeff Wilkie, who we originally bought the building from, he's a national player, plays in national tournaments, incredible. And he's been talking to us about pickleball for the longest.
00:22:45
Speaker
So the idea kind of morphed really starting with Jeff and saying, hey, there's a lot of people I play pickleball with and we're driving out to other areas for these indoor facilities. Outdoor is great for a certain amount of time, right? But too hot, rain, too cold. So started with that. We just said, how many can we get in? We measured the space and we're able to also keep soccer. And so that was a win for us.
00:23:08
Speaker
Criticism, be honest, some of our soccer community wasn't too happy about going down to one field. They like the ability for two, but I think that's been balanced overall with the number of people that are in our building now that have never been in our building for before, because either you had kids who played soccer.
00:23:25
Speaker
Are you an adult to play soccer? It was pretty limiting. Now we've got an entirely different group of people and pickleball is great because my daughter's 13. She plays up here with me and we've got guys even out there right now playing in their 60s, 70s. It's just cool. The diversity of who can play pickleball is probably a little bit more than who's going to play soccer.
00:23:45
Speaker
And so that's been a good addition. That's a look across the aisle. A pickleball player looking across seeing soccer is like, well, I'd really like to maybe play soccer, but there's a learning curve to playing soccer. You can come out here and get beat up pretty quick. But likewise, a soccer player looking across seeing pickleball, like, wow, I've never seen it. I've heard about it. I've read about it on TV or seen it on TV, read about it in a book.
00:24:07
Speaker
Um, but they can actually try it now. Like after they, they, as a place for them to try a new sport, as a place for them to maybe expand things with their own family. Like maybe their wife and their kid comes and watch them play soccer, but they've never been able to step on the pitch with them. But after their soccer game, they can grab a paddle and go play pickleball. Yeah.
00:24:22
Speaker
No, I love that. A couple things there. I love your soccer field. You have floor to ceiling glass over here. So you can, this is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I've never seen the floor to ceiling. So you just, you feel like you're almost on the field while people are playing right there. So I love that too. You're absolutely right. I used to play soccer a lot. I loved it, but it was more of a workout. I wasn't very good. But I played a couple of days a week and then as I got older and my body started hurting, I just started worrying about injury and I did get injured a couple of times. And so I've switched to pickleball. So I think you're absolutely right there. And that's one of my favorite things about pickleball is you can play forever.
Pickleball Courts: Responding to Community Interest
00:24:50
Speaker
You can play as a young person all the way up to I've been beaten by people in their 60s, right? And so I think it's my favorite thing about it. And as longevity goes, you've now put in something that you can get people for their entire life. Yeah, I love that. For sure. And I just steal words out of Bobby's mouth. Pickleball is exercise that you don't feel like you're exercising, which is the best kind of exercise. I agree. It's a lot better than the elliptical. We just need to get some Netflix out there so we can watch it while they're playing.
00:25:13
Speaker
then it really doesn't feel like you're playing. So you mentioned a couple things you guys do your own leagues, you have some outsourced programming from clubs. Do you do any one day events or tournaments or anything like that? Or is that in the future for Epic? Yeah, that's the point. You want to speak to that because that's that's that's the goal. So when with the two fields, we had options to do tournaments with soccer, but that was kind of like our only like Bobby, it said our only sport. That was kind of what we hung our hat on, you know, with having now branched into the pickleball world.
00:25:40
Speaker
You know, we're able to look at these tournaments events and, you know, Cornhole has always been a big thing too that they've always wanted to bring in, but they always limited coming in here because we didn't have a bar option. And Cornhole is one of those sports that kind of goes hand in hand with a bar option. So we're looking ahead to do a lot more tournaments that invite other sports in.
00:25:58
Speaker
that we might not have the space to do before but now we definitely have the space to do and the interest is there too like you know people started playing pickleball with their families they build to a league and then from league they want to test their mettle against other people in tournaments and so that's it's just the natural growth of it that's it's that's the dominoes fault sure um so i know you're pretty new to facility ally but i'd love to hear maybe something that you've liked so far about and how maybe how it's helped you automate the facility
00:26:23
Speaker
A facility ally has given us an option that we've never had in the past, and that's an online booking option.
Improving Efficiency with Facility Ally Software
00:26:31
Speaker
It's worth its weight in gold alone, because it used to be you had one chance to make a first impression, and that was when they walked in the door and met the person at the desk.
00:26:39
Speaker
But now ultimately the reality of the world is they already know a first impression before they've even stepped foot in your building. So we needed to make our presence known online and also open a door online. We don't want to keep putting hurdles in front of them like well I really want to play pickleball there where the seven hoops I have to jump through to do it. Facility Ally has just kicked all those down to open the door where now we can just run that up the flagpole in any time.
00:27:02
Speaker
from their jammies can sign up, figure out a time, and come inside and play. And that's something the facility ally solely has allowed us to do. That's amazing. I feel like you're the king of analogies. You've got so many great ones. And the one you just mentioned about the first impression. I've actually never heard that before. That's your first impression is people going to your website or signing up online.
00:27:22
Speaker
before they, before you even shook their hand, they know all about you. That's awesome. I love that. Thank you. So if you started all over today, what's one thing you'd do differently? I love each of you to go, because I know you've been through a bunch of facilities. So if you started your own facility today, what would you do differently?
Effective Communication in Facility Management
00:27:36
Speaker
Well, in a practical sense, I'd have more meetings, less emails. Like I know a lot of people always say like, couldn't this meeting been done in an email? I would totally flip that on and say like, couldn't this email been done in a meeting? Because when you try and do something of this caliber and this size, you have a lot of a lot of ideas, a lot of options, a lot of opinions.
00:27:51
Speaker
And I think a lot of people try not to step on each other's feet. Or also, everyone has an end goal in mind, but maybe the road to get there winds and twists. So I think if to do it all over again, crack goal wise, I would have more meetings than emails. Because of face to face, have everyone know each other, have all the ideas on the table at the beginning, the middle, the end, it's a growing process for everyone involved.
00:28:14
Speaker
And that's the best way to start. Just everyone start on the same step and keep stepping in time the whole way through. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think from just a sports sense, I would have started pickleball sooner. Because I didn't start playing until we actually put the courts in here. And I'm just enjoying it. My family came up yesterday, and so I'm playing with my two daughters and my wife.
00:28:40
Speaker
And I come up in the mornings, I can play before work against some guys and it's a little bit more competitive in nature. And so it's just, it's been a blast. It's been good for my family. It's been good for just even exercise. So I think I would have put those in sooner, but that goes to maybe speaking to not holding on.
00:28:58
Speaker
to what you're comfortable with and being willing to adjust. And so if COVID taught us anything, and I know we hate talking about that, at least I hate hearing about that, but anything gets that whole pivot thing and a willingness to pivot. And I would just say pivot on purpose. Don't wait till you're forced.
00:29:15
Speaker
Don't wait until you have to do something. We didn't have to do something. We were packing out our soccer fields with leagues and different things, but it was more of what else can we provide the community. In a way, we really didn't have to give up a lot to gain that. Plus, we've already mentioned this, I won't belabor the point, but the whole food and beverage thing, just how huge that is for connecting.
00:29:37
Speaker
If you want a place where people play, you don't need food and beverage. If you want an experience where they connect, you need food and beverage. And so we wanted more than a place where people come and play. We want a place where people come and connect and have that experience with one another. So again, kudos to you because that whole genesis of that idea, I really feel like you were a catalyst years ago with what's the importance of people coming around something recreationally, but being able to connect over it more than just playing for competition's sake.
00:30:06
Speaker
I mean, I'm a competitive person. I like to compete. But it's the connection that really outweighs the competition. Thank you. I appreciate that. And I mean, that's the idea, right? We're way past going pro anything, right? So it's that you can take it as serious as you want. But at the end of the day, we're playing for connection and health. And so if you can.
00:30:22
Speaker
you know, find the right people who care about those things and you're going to be a lot easier and a lot more fun for all of us. So I love that. So what's the next three years look like for Epic Center?
Community Engagement Through the Epic Foundation
00:30:31
Speaker
That's exciting. So from kind of a 30,000 foot view, you know, as we're looking down, we're going to finish our rebrand this summer. And so you'll see Epic Center more and more hopefully in the community.
00:30:43
Speaker
One of the big things that we love is the ability to help support the Epic Foundation, and that's our giving arm. So we give back school supplies, scholarships. Just a couple months ago we gave out 75 scholarships to students, seniors that were graduating. We provide school supplies for an entire school district, for all the kindergarten students.
00:31:02
Speaker
special education students as well. So it's seeing that continue to morph and grow as a result of this facility growing. So it's just our give back to the community. I think pickleball is gonna be huge. I think we're gonna have to continue to evaluate what does soccer look like as we see, it is exciting that the World Cup's coming, I'm excited about that. But at the same time, man, there's facilities everywhere. And so you gotta be thinking ahead and saying, what is our role in that? What is our piece of the pie?
00:31:32
Speaker
And then just continue with good partnerships, hopefully even more partnerships. The upstairs space that we have for events and rentals on top of, as Kevin mentioned, maybe cornhole. Things that we didn't do before because we either didn't have the food and beverage component or we didn't have the space necessarily. And so now we feel like we have both. So I'm excited. The next few years, I would say it comes down to more partnerships and hopefully a lot more pickable.
00:31:57
Speaker
Yes. Going on the analogy saying it's bigger, brighter, better, and barbecue. All the bees. All the bees. Awesome. Well, before we wrap up here, I want to remind everybody to check out Facility Ally at facilityallie.com. If you want to automate, start taking bookings online like Epic Center KC has done, check it out, facilityallie.com. Love to help you guys out, automate your facility, get you more rentals, leagues, memberships, those sort of things.
Leadership Insights: Recommended Resources
00:32:19
Speaker
And what's one book or podcast you'd recommend for our listeners at home?
00:32:23
Speaker
I'll just kick it to Bobby because he has one of the better ones that I listen to.
00:32:28
Speaker
Oh, well. I should have. I need to listen to it before I've done this so I can learn how to do it from the master. Well, we do epic leadership podcasts. And myself, another guy, Chad Mitchell, sometimes we have guests on. We always talk about practical leadership, you know, feel like that's something we can all benefit from. And as far as a book, I think Culture Wins by Van der Blomen is a book that, you know, for anybody thinking about facilities, it's so much more than the construction.
00:32:57
Speaker
or the concrete, it's the culture, right? That's what's gonna not only gain people, it's what's gonna keep people. And so I think sometimes we miss out on the most important part, which is that culture piece from staff to the people who come in your facility to partnerships. And I think some of the people listening facility wise are probably trying to figure out some of those pieces. And I would just say the end of the day, culture Trump's strategy
00:33:23
Speaker
I think someone said culture eats strategy for breakfast, right? So culture wins by Vanderbilt is just a really good read to get you thinking in that direction. I appreciate that because it's all about the people. You got the right people you can pretty much do. A beautiful building can sit empty. Yep. Awesome. So what's one last piece of advice you'd like to give to the listeners at home managing or trying to open their own facility? I'll just go back to stay malleable. Take the criticism. Don't take it personal. Understand that this is a chance for you to find out what might be working, what might not be working.
00:33:53
Speaker
Listen to the ideas that are brought in front of you and don't be afraid to take them. Pivot with a purpose, I think was said earlier. You know, be willing to take that chance. If something isn't working, be willing to change it so that it works.
00:34:05
Speaker
Yeah, I would just try to throw out know your why or lose your way. And the reason I say that when we first bought this facility, our why was we wanted people to connect over sports or at least recreation, right? And then along the way, especially with COVID, you get people
00:34:24
Speaker
who are trying to turn it into something different, or even people who offer you. They want to buy it for a warehouse, or they want to buy it for some different type of business. And when you're looking at the bottom line sometimes, especially through challenging times, you're like, oh man, maybe that's what we have to do. But I'm glad we came back to our why, and we had a very strong why to begin with.
00:34:46
Speaker
And that's what's helped us not lose our way. But I think, as Kevin said, you know, sometimes there's some detours along the route, but we're still headed in the right direction versus making a U-turn going the wrong way. So know your why. Think even in a facility, it's really important, or you'll lose what you could be best at just because you're chasing something different, or you just don't even know why you exist. So know your why.
00:35:08
Speaker
Yep, I love that. Because at the end of the day, if it gets hard and you don't know your why, you're most likely to give up. But if you got that forward kind of north facing star, you keep going ahead, the challenge is you know why you're doing it, you can keep moving forward. So love that. Thank you so much, guys. Really appreciate you having me out today. And we'll see you next time on the Facility Playbook.