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Scheels Sports Complex: A Soccer Haven in the Heartland
66 Plays1 year ago
Scheels Sports Complex has been the epicenter of soccer excellence in Overland Park, Kansas, for over a decade. In this insightful podcast episode, we sat down with the facility's dedicated manager to delve into the journey of building and managing this complex, its role in the community, the challenges it has overcome, and its vision for the future.
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Transcript
Mike's Vision for Shields Soccer Complex
00:00:00
Speaker
In this episode of the Facility Playbook, I got to sit down with Mike from Shields Soccer Complex. My favorite thing is how Mike took his knowledge from the NFL and translated it into this huge soccer complex that's ultimately owned and operated by a Parks and Rec department.
00:00:15
Speaker
It's clear that Mike has some great knowledge around this and he's able to turn this complex into the top soccer complex in the United States and they've won a title around that. So if you're looking at learning how to run a huge soccer complex and how Mike has dealt with his issues around parking and how they've looked into food and beverage and what works the best for them, you're going to really enjoy this episode.
00:00:40
Speaker
What's up, everybody? Do you own or manage a facility? Well, you are in the right place. Welcome to the Facility Playbook. I'm Luke Wade, founder and CEO of Facility Ally, and this podcast is about helping facility managers and owners learn from pioneers and veterans in the industry who have built and managed successful sports facilities, entertainment venues, and clubs. Did you know that most of those facilities I just mentioned use between four and six different softwares to manage their facilities?
Introducing Facility Ally and Mike's Journey
00:01:06
Speaker
facility ally to the rescue revolutionize your facility with facility allies all in one system learn more at facility ally dot com speaking of facilities we're at a mega facility here today and i can't wait to introduce you to michael plant uh... manager of soccer operations here in overland park thank you so much for joining us today glad to be here look can you tell us a little about yourself and what led you here i know you've been here quite a while before the world of shield soccer complex where were you uh...
00:01:31
Speaker
very roundabout sort of way, went to college in California.
00:01:39
Speaker
Decided to go to grad school when the sports marketing industry was kind of just taken off in the early 90s. Went to grad school in Florida. Did a bunch of internships down there. Moved to Dallas. Ended up getting a job doing special events for the NFL. Did that for 12 years. My wife was originally from here and wanted to get back. So we moved back up here and that was in
00:02:05
Speaker
early 2006 and about that time the city was working with Sporting KC then the Wizards and they were talking about building a facility with youth fields and all that stuff. So if anybody remembers back in 2007 they had a bond initiative to build their stadium down at 159th and 69th highway which the city wasn't part of other than it was in their city limits.
00:02:31
Speaker
That did not pass because it involved raising the property taxes and people voted that down and the city immediately after that said hey, you know Maybe we can do something and they got together in about three
Construction and Unique Features of the Complex
00:02:44
Speaker
weeks. They had a plan they had the financing and
00:02:48
Speaker
They posted the job, and I'm like, I think I could do that. In March of 2008, I was hired to run this place, and we opened in September of 2009. So it was a real quick construction, 32 months. And we opened and really kind of been learning ever since. Yeah, well, that's awesome. I didn't know you had a background with the NFL. That's pretty cool. Yeah. And has any of that knowledge transferred over to what you do today?
00:03:17
Speaker
Yeah, you know, the NFL kind of set the bar really high and for everything they do, the power of the shield they used to call it. And, you know, when I was looking at how to run this place, I used that experience and I'd been to Disney in their fields at ESPN a number of times. And so I kind of use that as my frame of reference of what this could do and how to program it, how to monetize it.
00:03:45
Speaker
taking care of it operationally was a whole different ballgame but you know when you're trying to generate revenue streams that's really where I came at it from and I think it was unique at the time because everybody had one or two fields but to have this many
00:04:00
Speaker
multi-purpose fields rectangular in one location was unique at that particular juncture in time. Sure, so 15 years ago was really unique and still today it's huge. So tell me a little bit about Shield Soccer Complex today and maybe try to explain the enormity of this place. Yeah, so you know we have 96 acres which you know
00:04:20
Speaker
Today with some of the other facilities out there around the country is probably would be considered small but I think the advantage that we have compared to a lot of places that we're located right in the middle of everything. We're surrounded by homes and apartments and retail and commercial and so the accessibility to our hotels and restaurants is unique because
00:04:42
Speaker
generally soccer facilities or any large facilities on the outskirts of town where there's the most availability of land. With that in mind, you know, the traffic, you know, 250,000 people going up and down the streets around here every year or every month, sorry, we're located next to another city facility, Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead on one side, St. Andrews Golf Course on another. So this corner coupled with a softball complex is heavily trafficked.
00:05:10
Speaker
Monday through Friday, obviously, for a lot of reasons, but especially on weekends. So I think that's unique in and of itself when you look at us compared to a lot of other places. On top of that, when we opened, 12 contiguous fields, all synthetic, all with lights, was unheard of.
00:05:28
Speaker
And that in and of itself was something that appealed to their early users, to the folks that were coming here from other locations from the north because it was too cold, folks that were playing at other facilities because it was too wet, just the fact that you could play irregardless of the climate and
00:05:48
Speaker
play later into the night because we had lights. And so it was a combination of things that hit at the right time, coupled with sporting Kansas City becoming their name change. The NWSCL coming into town at that particular juncture with FC Casey. And it was just a perfect combination of events that led to
00:06:11
Speaker
tapping into that soccer popularity at the time.
Operational Autonomy and Challenges
00:06:14
Speaker
So you mentioned 96 acres, 12 fields, all soccer, right? And the baseball across the street, that doesn't fall underneath you. That does not fall underneath. So can you explain a little bit about, you know, this is technically Overland Park, it's owned by the city of Overland Park, but are you a subset of the parks and rec department, or how does that directly connect to the parks and rec? So yeah, I'm an employee of the city, and I fall under the parks and rec umbrella, just like the golf course would, and the pools, the rec centers, and things like that.
00:06:40
Speaker
The benefit is that I have the resources of the city at my disposal. So whether it's public works for when it snows, whether it's the facilities if we have something going on with one of the buildings. Don't have to worry about HR or accounting or all that good stuff. But at the same time, we're relatively autonomous because we're considered an enterprise fund. So all the money I make, I keep. It doesn't go back to the general fund. So I have to be able to
00:07:07
Speaker
fulfill my financial obligations operationally plus since I get to keep the money I make over and above my budget I have to pay for everything that I do repair wise or upgrades and things of that sort. Now I have the benefit of the city behind me if I don't have that but the goal is to be self-sufficient and that's where the challenge really comes in. Sure and in 15 years how's it going so far?
00:07:34
Speaker
We've been really fortunate from that standpoint. Like everybody knows, the prices, especially in the last two years, have changed the dynamic with cost increases. And we're able to roll with that a lot. But at the same time, that's the challenge. Because again, you're still talking youth sports. And you've got to be really cognizant of not pricing your
00:07:56
Speaker
availability for the product that you're trying to offer, which is field rental in our particular case, so far out that people can't afford it. And that's a challenge for a lot of sports, because youth sports has become more and more expensive. And it's become more year round. And so we try to have some assemblates of balance, it doesn't always work out well, but that's the goal at least. Sure. That's awesome. So 12 full size turf soccer fields. There's what is your biggest challenge day today?
00:08:26
Speaker
Weather. We have over the course of the calendar year, we'll have 18 to 20 tournaments.
00:08:41
Speaker
The weekends that we don't have tournaments will have league play going on. Monday through Thursday, we have practice from four till 10 o'clock. You couple all that with the activity over the summer, which is camps, adult play, things of that nature, which will run from 6.30 in the morning till 10 o'clock at night. So you add all that up, and generally, and very conservatively, we estimate we get about 1.2 million people through here a year.
00:09:10
Speaker
So, with that in mind, Friday you're done cleaning up, Monday you start cleaning up. And, you know, cleanup is, you know, mowing and trash and putting everything back. And just like when you have the family over at Thanksgiving, get the house back in order because you have guests coming again the next weekend. So, that's our biggest challenge. And because it is a nice, appealing location, you know, we want kids to be able to come here and kick around during the summer when
00:09:39
Speaker
not out causing trouble. We have a skate park so that's always busy. The basketball courts are always busy. The tennis courts and the pickleball courts. So it's not just the soccer component of it and even when we don't have soccer going on we've got lacrosse because lacrosse is really looking for space and summer is one of the only times we can offer them availability and so you know it's
00:10:01
Speaker
we just transitioned between the sports primarily more often than not. Sure. So you said 1.2 million. That's probably why you guys were named the top soccer complex in the United States. Yeah, and that was a great honor. And again, I think it's a testament to the location, the availability of amenities, and kind of what we
00:10:24
Speaker
started off hoping to build and it's transformed into that. That's awesome. Yeah, I hadn't really thought about you being centralized in the city. You know, 15 years ago was, you know, obviously we've grown a lot as a City of Kansas City Metro in Oakland Park. Was there this many houses and this much stuff going around it 15 years ago or did it kind of just spring up around it?
00:10:41
Speaker
Yeah, that, you know, it's funny because so where we are right now was actually three holes of the golf course. So when they took the big puzzle and they took the puzzle pieces apart, they said, okay, well, we need to take these three holes away from the golf course. We'll build three new holes at the golf course, and then we'll add some other amenities to the golf course. We had to take two of the fields from the baseball side, which was owned by the city at that particular time.
00:11:09
Speaker
gave those to our neighbors next door, the other two, and we took that to make the parking lots in the building where we sit. There was three fields on the corner of 135th and Switzer, which were city-owned again, and they reconfigured those. So there was a movement of stuff just in this little space, and then the apartment complexes across the street on both sides next to Blue Valley Northwest.
00:11:32
Speaker
all the retail that you see, the Casey's, coaches, all that stuff, none of that was here. Were we the cause? I don't think 100%, but it didn't hurt because you were bringing traffic. And our relationship I think with Shields is a perfect example of that too because where they are
00:11:53
Speaker
down the road, they looked at that and they knew the proximity to the soccer complex and the traffic for their type of clientele would be consistent. Sure. Yeah, it doesn't help to have 1.2 million people drive by your front door or around you as a business, so that's great.
00:12:10
Speaker
You mentioned temperature is one of the weather being one of the biggest problems, and we're in the middle of this insane heat wave. I think it's supposed to get like 108 today, I don't even know. So maybe talk about that. You said you had a challenge this weekend with that for the first time ever. So maybe let's talk about how that heat weather and the heat was a big challenge and what you guys did to... Yeah, well, you know, the...
00:12:29
Speaker
Since we're all synthetic, that's always been the big knock. It's just not as cool as natural turf. And people are 100% right. It's just the nature of that beast. But with the weather that we've had, we've had to deal with the cold probably more than the heat. Kansas is known for being that hot.
00:12:47
Speaker
So, you know, we learned early on that when it snowed, you can clear these, you know, get a plow out there, there's a way to do it, but it's not ideal because of what it does. It doesn't necessarily tear up the turf, but the infill, the black rubber that's in there that makes it as soft as it is, does get rolled up in that snow, and then you have just these huge piles of black snow everywhere. And then, as everybody knows,
00:13:12
Speaker
typically when it snows it's even colder the next day so we had piles of hard snow right off the field and so there's a safety issue there and then we learned that you know we let mother nature do her thing we can get about three inches of melt a day if it's as long as there's no north wind and it's about 35 degrees so in two days
00:13:31
Speaker
you can get it done. With the heat, there was theories as this evolved over time that, oh, you water it and it'll cool it, which it's true, but is what it does. It actually increases the humidity that comes off the field and it evaporates within 30 minutes. So you're right back where you started. So really there's been an educational process that starts with us working with the clubs, who work with the teams, who work with the players to say, look, you got to be hydrated. You got to be smart. You can't run a 90 minute training session like you normally would.
00:14:02
Speaker
You have to take water breaks, you have to bring towels, you have to be prepared to deal with this, and you can do it. I think it's harder on the spectators and the referees just because they don't have that and even the coaches because they're standing out there for a longer time too. So there's been an evolution based off of experience and lessons learned that we try to pass along to people maybe who aren't familiar with it or people who are coming from out of town that don't have to experience that on a daily basis like we do.
00:14:30
Speaker
And that's been the biggest hurdles. And it happens every summer. We always had that one spell where it's really, really hot. We'll go into November. Last November, if you remember, we had that freak cold snap. And it was really, really, really cold.
00:14:48
Speaker
as uncomfortable it is to be out there when it's hot, it's actually more uncomfortable when it's cold just because you're standing on a block of ice for all intents and purposes. So we get both extremes. Sure. So with it being cold, how are you able to program and program this facility year-round? Do you only operate in certain months? Do you shut down for a season? How does that work?
00:15:07
Speaker
Well, we're fortunate that we have our season typically will run, for example, we're in the middle of the fall season. We'll call it August 1 to December 15. And that takes care of all of our tournaments and our league play.
00:15:19
Speaker
starting about that time teams typically go inside but again was it a year or two ago we only had like two or three inches even this past winter we only had eight so people will schedule one or two practices a lot more low-keyed in preparation for when the season starts in about March 1 so
00:15:39
Speaker
Whether permitting, we have practices as long as the fields are cleared. We are pretty much still full Monday through Thursday. Not as much on the weekends anymore, but that time period, people have learned to duplicate what they do inside and bring it outside and give the kids a chance to play on the bigger surfaces again so that they can be prepared for when their seasons pick back up again in the spring. So it's fortunate.
00:16:05
Speaker
I was going to say, so there's really no downtime. You got January, February, March. I mean, people are here playing. Christmas and Fourth of July, we say, are about the only down times. That's so unique for an outdoor facility. Yeah. Yeah. I know that a lot of them struggle with that. Even my, we run sand volleyball leagues on the riverfront, and it's April through October, and that's it. There's no sand volleyball revenue through the winter at all. Right. So it's amazing you guys have been able to do that. So how important, obviously, I didn't see a restaurant or a kitchen directly on site.
Food Strategy and Community Integration
00:16:31
Speaker
How important is food and beverage to you guys, and how do you manage that?
00:16:34
Speaker
So when this was being designed, I had this great idea, having been to some facilities, that I wanted to get away from the, quote unquote, traditional hamburger hot dog mentality. And we have three concession stands here, which, again, is unique. We don't have any portolettes, so all internal bathrooms through brick and mortar and stuff like that. So that maintains the cleanliness of the facility.
00:17:01
Speaker
But the idea was probably a little bit ahead of its time. And I learned really quickly that soccer games are so transitionary. You come, you only have 10, 15 minute halftime, second half, and then you're gone. It's not like baseball where it drags out a while and you can go between innings and you can still watch the game.
00:17:19
Speaker
So the idea was sound, it's just the execution of it from a quick-serve standpoint. You can't have an elaborate meal prep time. And so we used a third party, we took it back in-house and we simplified the menu, went nachos, pretzels, hamburgers, hot dogs, real simple stuff. And that worked really, really well. As time has evolved and more restaurants have come into play and more
00:17:48
Speaker
convenience stores, it's actually changed the dynamic within the last three years, especially since COVID. People just know that if they want to get, it's an amenity really, it's not a service, it's turning into an amenity. So it's water, Gatorade, maybe some candy or chips for the kids, but that's really about it. And so we are actually in the process of reevaluating what we want our concessions and food service component to be
00:18:15
Speaker
in the next 10-15 years. And that's something that we're analyzing now and trying to figure out.
00:18:21
Speaker
What do we want to be? What do we think we need to do to provide that service? And how do we go about executing that? Sure. And so obviously being a part of the city, you guys work well with the community and are working on that, which is awesome. Can you tell us a little bit about your stay to play arrangement with the city? Yeah. So stay to play, again, when we started, that was kind of the buzzword of the time, right? If you're going to play at this particular facility, you need to stay in town.
00:18:47
Speaker
our partnership with the hoteliers because the hoteliers, based on the increase, we increased the hotel bed tax 3% and went from 6% to 9% in order to back the bonds that we got to build the facility. And the idea was that anybody who comes here to play has to stay in Overland Park hotels.
00:19:06
Speaker
sounds good, looked good on paper and all that stuff, but you've got to be able to execute it to drive that compression. And when you're dealing with Chiefs games, with races at the speedway, with any weddings, graduations, any number of events, hoteliers are looking to maximize that
00:19:26
Speaker
rate, room rate, as much as they can. And soccer parents are pretty savvy, especially if they have to go around the country and having done it for 16 years with my kids, you find loopholes. And people started finding loopholes. So even though our hotels were full, they also realized that
00:19:46
Speaker
Yeah, it's great to have a full hotel, but it's really painful to have a full hotel of a bunch of 10 and 12-year-old kids running around your hallways all the time. So there was recently a kind of, again, a recalibration of that and a reaffirmation with our hoteliers working with our Visitor and Conventions Bureau to try to really do that in a way that everybody benefited. So just this past,
00:20:14
Speaker
spring we put a new pricing structure into place that will actually go into effect in 2024 that gave an incentive to the tournament operators and the rights holders to bring in out of town teams and they would get a declining
00:20:30
Speaker
rebate based off of their rental. So there'll be a base rate and based off of the number of hotel rooms that'll go down. The more room nights you bring in, the lower your overall rental will be. So again, it works in favor of the hoteliers because they're filling their hotels. It works in favor of the tournament directors because they're paying less. It works in our favor because we're creating more transient guest tax. The only person that doesn't help is me because then my bottom line, I'm getting less money. However, with that in mind,
00:20:58
Speaker
in conversations with our council and educating them on the theory and the thought process that we were implementing, they saw the benefit because there's a greater upside on the economic impact than there is the actual dollars in hand from a rental. So it's taken a while and it's something that we have tried to massage. And I think we finally settled on something where everybody wins, especially the tournament folks, because they are their driver in that, even though they work with the third party housing company.
00:21:27
Speaker
We've got them on board to help them understand what we're trying to achieve, because if they fill Overland Park hotel rooms, then the tournament operators are making more money, paying less on the rental, and everybody wins. That's awesome. It sounds like a very complicated partnership to work with so many different groups, and to be able to recognize, you know, I call it a win-win-win. Obviously, you had more than three people there, and so we always look at things. If my customers aren't winning, if I'm not winning, and the partnership I'm working on aren't winning, it's not a win for everybody.
00:21:55
Speaker
So it's really, congratulations, it sounds like a lot. And like you said, to be able to explain that in a way to the city to understand like, yeah, we're getting less money here, but it's actually impacting everything else in a positive way. That's awesome. So do you own any of your own programming or are you just purely renting space?
00:22:13
Speaker
Yeah, no, we just straight run it. We say we unlock the doors and make sure the place doesn't burn down. That's a real oversimplification of the process. You know, we looked at having programming, but because of our partnerships with Heartland Soccer Association, which runs leagues with Sporting Blue Valley, which is one of the local clubs, they have a rec league with the tournament operators that already had pre-established tournaments.
00:22:36
Speaker
We just determined we were coming into a space where the wheel was already created. And so we would just be really, really fighting an uphill battle to try to take over something or even become active in a space that was really established already.
00:22:52
Speaker
So we made a determination that the partnership route was going to be better for everybody than it was to be a competitor. I love that. Partnerships is one of my favorite things. And speaking of that, you know, you talked a little about the hotel partnerships. You also have some hospital partnerships and some cool sponsorship programs. And we talk about that.
Sponsorships and Community Role
00:23:07
Speaker
How did the hospitals get involved and what are your sponsorship program look at from from a city level? Right. So the sponsorship was kind of one of the things when I was interviewing for this job, I had this grand idea because
00:23:20
Speaker
There are assets out here that lend value to the local community, whether businesses, restaurants, or whoever it might be. We had a really good initial partnership. It was originally with HCA. That was just expired a year or two ago. Now we have a partnership with AdventHealth.
00:23:43
Speaker
with all our partners out here, whether it's Advent, whether it's Go Car Wash, Tide Cleaners, our naming sponsor with Shields All Sport, those are really meant to
00:23:57
Speaker
intertwine with what they're trying to do in the community and you talk to all three of those and and it's always like you know we want to have a presence we want people to know that we're here we want to be able to help them with their with whatever drives they've got going on to raise funds you know they're the type of businesses that want to do that we also have the the local mom and pops whether it's a deli or the the real estate agent and things like that to where
00:24:21
Speaker
We had to create a sponsorship level that their marketing budgets could handle. So we have banner rates for $600 for a season or $800 for the year. And the overall marketing budget, that's pretty nominal. So if they get one return on that ROI, then it's definitely paid for itself. And so that's what I tell them. I said, look, a banner's a banner, and it's just going to be a matter of how much
00:24:49
Speaker
that resonates with the person when they walk by. So we try not to get them too convoluted in there. I don't place any limitations on, other than size, what they do graphically and how they want to do it. We try to
00:25:03
Speaker
lend a partnership for them with Heartland Soccer Association because they have the tournaments that they want to get in player bags and things like that. So we have a kind of an understanding with Heartland, you know, with stuff like that. And that's where if somebody wants to get literature into somebody's hands, I say, well, you're better off probably going with Heartland because you can touch more people that way. At the same time, if you just want to advertise, this is what I can bring to the table.
00:25:26
Speaker
So, you know, it's evolved over time and we've gone through a couple economic ups and downs where people have more money to spend at one time or sometimes they don't. So, you know, hospitals were easy. We've been looking for that phone tech thing for a while and it just hasn't worked out. Vehicles, you know, we've looked at a couple times too.
00:25:50
Speaker
96 acres sounds like a lot but we're so condensed and when you get ten or fifteen thousand people on here there's only so many places that you can put things where they're not going to get hit by a soccer ball and so we kind of run into some hurdles with some of that stuff and we try to you know
00:26:05
Speaker
do a trial run, see if it works, and sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't. Sure, and so you have the Shields name obviously on the whole soccer complex, and you've got some banners. Any thoughts around why you've thought about field naming rights and things like that? Yeah, and we do have some of that. The price points on that stuff, we've got to make it worthwhile for those guys, but we've also got to make sure that
00:26:25
Speaker
There's some longevity with some of that stuff. So the ones that we do have, Tide being one that's been here forever, Shields, the hospitals, and things like that. But those run anywhere from $8,000 to $10,000 a year. And so that's a big chunk of the marketing budget for folks. And we were putting our price points together at a time that we thought that those were reasonable asks.
00:26:49
Speaker
That's rate card. So a lot of it just depends on the person, what they think they're looking to do, how long they're here. Tide's a perfect example. Those folks had kids that played here. They were here all the time. They have multiple locations around the city. And so that was their way of giving back to the community because they knew what we were doing, putting it back into the fields and making sure everything was nice for their kids to have a place to play. They felt that that was like their contribution even though it was coming through their business. And it's been a great partnership from that standpoint.
00:27:18
Speaker
Shields, again, they're a family owned, private, you know, sporting goods store and their whole philosophy has always been built around community. So it just was perfect aligning of the stars that the store and the complex were so close together to. And we were looking for naming rights at that particular juncture.
00:27:37
Speaker
We haven't talked about values very much, but it sounds like you're finding a lot of partners and a lot of sponsors and a lot of like meshes that all go back to your value, which is like helping the community. Right. You know, as a city facility, right, and we are beholden to the taxpayers, obviously, and trying to be good stewards of the money that we're given. And just like our pools, just like the farmstead, just like the golf course, we're an amenity for the local community. We just have the benefit of extending that
00:28:03
Speaker
bubble a little bit wider because we do bring in so much out of town business. We are at a destination and that's one of the things that we are working with the CVB to do is that if we're a destination, what other components of the city do we bring to the table that people can visit as part of that destination? The farmer's market, Prairie Fire, whatever it may be.
00:28:26
Speaker
We're learning and you got to have the right people at the forefront to kind of promote that because I'm so singularly focused on making sure this is ready Friday, Saturday and Sunday and getting it ready Monday through Thursday that helping that evolve is difficult and it's getting people into the room and everybody pulling in the same direction and we're getting to that now where we haven't been in years past.
00:28:49
Speaker
So we've talked about a lot of challenges obviously working in a you know government parks and rec department typically there's a lot of transition or changeover but you've been here 15 years so what's one of the reasons you feel like you've stuck it out this long and why you like staying here? Oh I think there's probably a it won't run without me kind of mentality which I know isn't true.
00:29:12
Speaker
This was a flyer for me when I took it. I had a background in events. I knew how to do a lot of that stuff, but facility in the bigger picture was where my steepest learning curve was. I had a crash course in turf technology. Two years ago, I learned about asphalt technology, which was a whole another, you know, laying asphalt and stuff like that, and building maintenance and facilities and things. So I think it's just been one of those things where as time evolved,
00:29:43
Speaker
Do I stay here because I love it? Yeah, and this is where my kids grew up. My kids started playing here. I got a picture in my office on our grand opening and now they're both, one's graduated from college and one's going to graduate from college. So, you know, I see some of that. There's kids that were here when I opened and now they're bringing their kids here, which is frightening.
00:30:03
Speaker
It's one of those things and I think there's a part of me too that wants to compete against those bigger guys. I don't want this to be the D2 site. I want it to be the D1 site. So there's a little bit of pride that comes with that. The guys that work with me kind of feel the same way.
00:30:24
Speaker
We're a small staff, but we do a lot with very little, you know, we do a lot ourselves and I think that's what helps too. Sure. How, you know, in that period of time, how have you seen the soccer industry change? Yeah, that's, you know, the sport has grown significantly. I had the benefit of traveling with my girls to a lot of different facilities around the country.
Soccer's Growth and Future Plans
00:30:52
Speaker
The first hour I was there is all I was doing was walking around and evaluating what they had, what I didn't have, what did they do, looked like they were doing well versus maybe what they weren't doing well. And size always kind of lends itself to awesome, right? And then as time has gone on, I've realized that we have this nice little compact entity that really lends itself to the intimacy of a tournament as long as everybody's behaving.
00:31:23
Speaker
and and people come here and they're like this is just absolutely amazing because again if you think of most soccer complexes they're in a park right and it's beautiful you got trees and next to the river or wherever it is but it's just a wide open space without any confinement this is really dedicated to the game to those kids coming in and having the best experience they can and I know and I was
00:31:46
Speaker
asked my girls, I'm like, what was it like? And they're like, it's like nothing else. And even when they both played in college, it's like your facility is still better than anywhere we go. And, and that's what I like to hear. And I said, well, what's better? They're like, it's clean, you know, it lends itself to the atmosphere that
00:32:05
Speaker
you're looking for when you're coming to a soccer facility. And that's what we hope to achieve. And even for the lacrosse guys, it's different because it's intimate and you're in one space and it's all about you and that sport at that particular time. That's awesome. So you mentioned lacrosse and soccer. Anything outside of those two that you've done here? No, because we're so packed with soccer. I mean, it's unfortunate.
00:32:28
Speaker
You know, we joked early on and I realized by year three that we probably could have had more fields. And it just, lacrosse is at that stage where soccer was 20 years ago. They're looking to find the space so they can grow the sport. And we may eventually get there. It's just hard because soccer here is, you know, like I said, the defined season, but even outside the defined season, there's still a lot of soccer going on, even with the other facilities coming up around
00:32:58
Speaker
Sure. What's one of the coolest solutions or something you've implemented in this space that you were like, wow, I'm glad I figured that out, or that was really neat that we figured that out as a team? You know, I think, I think for us, we have a running joke around here, as long as the bathrooms are clean, then mom's happy. And we can't control the weather. We can't control the refs. We, you know, there's a lot of things we can't control. But if we can do that,
00:33:31
Speaker
curb appeal, nice curb appeal, then a lot of other stuff takes care of itself. And like I said, I've got two guys that work for me that are phenomenal, and even our part-time guys who have been with us for years and years. They understand what it means. We try to be really cognizant of the experience. We don't like people when they kind of get out of hand. So we have a lot of rules that a lot of places might not have. We don't want animals inside. It creates potential problems.
00:33:50
Speaker
keep it picked up, keep it clean, keep it
00:34:01
Speaker
And I realize people like to travel with their dog, but it's still synthetic turf, and we can't really handle that like you could with a natural surface. So it's just little stuff like that, I think, that's kind of evolved. And we don't apologize for it, because I think the experience at the end of the day is what really matters. So people say, we want to go back there next year. Sure. Did you have the dog rule from day one, or did you learn the hard way? No, we learned. We did put that up, yeah, from day one.
00:34:31
Speaker
Sometimes you have to be a little bit flexible. And that's unique, actually. I wouldn't have thought of that. Is there any other rules that maybe are unique to your facility or something like that that you think is one of the reasons that maybe people look as a negative, but it creates a positive experience? Well, the whole sunflower seed thing, right? Oh, OK. No seeds. No sunflower seeds? Yeah. So that doesn't mean it's actually followed. Sure. Signs are just a recommendation. They're not a rule. But those are small little problems in the grand scheme of things.
00:35:00
Speaker
It's one of the things that we have to deal with, and most people are pretty good. And we're not afraid to say, look, we want you to come enjoy it, but this is why it is. And most people are like, OK, I understand. And so as long as we go about approaching it correctly, then hopefully it works out in the end.
00:35:21
Speaker
Sure. So if it all started over today, what would you do differently? Oh, yeah. You know, that's that's the favorite question that people always ask when they're saying, hey, I've got some space. What would you do different? And, you know, I don't know if there's a lot. I mean, there's a lot of little operational things that we wouldn't have known when it was being designed. The parking flow is probably one of them. This place was designed with 1100 parking spaces and grass parking to offset that.
00:35:50
Speaker
So that's 95 spaces typically per field, which is more than is recommended by, you know, whatever the governing parking rules are. But
00:36:02
Speaker
the thought process of when you break those fields down into small-sided, now all of a sudden you've got two teams on a field and then mom and dad are coming in separate cars and grandma and grandpa are coming in in their own cars, so now we've gone from one parking space for that player to three. So it gets really, really, really crowded. And then our entrance and our egress, you know, going out to major streets, having to deal with stop signs. I don't think you could have done a lot different, but I would have looked at that if I had known
00:36:31
Speaker
you know, had a frame of reference. Because again, when you go to most facilities, they're gravel and it's just wide open, right? So, but I always say, what do you do when you go to a Chiefs game? What do you do when you go to the mall during the Christmas? I mean, it's the same idea. I've come here for 15 years and if I ever need a parking spot by my field, I usually find it within like two minutes.
00:36:50
Speaker
So that's one thing. I would have probably looked at doing some different stuff with the building that we're in just because I know how it can lend an appeal even though we've got some great positives that come with it. But I think it could have lent to the experience if the back was glass and opened up and just made that whole thing a lot more visually aesthetic.
00:37:12
Speaker
But again, you know, you have a finite budget and you can only do certain things, and that's the hard part. I mean, this whole complex was $36 million, and we spent all $36 million at the time. And there was a lot of value engineering that had to come out of it, but at the same time it had to look...
00:37:28
Speaker
it had to appeal to the look that met the vision that those folks had at that particular time. Sure. And so the 12 soccer fields were sitting in the field house. There's also some training areas in the field house. How does that tie into what you do? Right. So the field house is 16,000 square feet. So we have our offices up here. Then we have a first floor tenant space and a second floor tenant space. So second floor is local clubs, Sporting Blue Valley. Again, Synergy made sense to have a soccer club here. The first floor space
00:37:55
Speaker
it's technically two spaces and early on I was introduced to Scott Moody and he was at another facility and I said hey come take a look at this and see if that's something that you'd want to do and it's essentially a gym you know to oversimplify it but it's a training ground for
00:38:14
Speaker
primarily soccer, but all athletes. And that has evolved in the 15 years that he's been here to where it was heavy in the iron and weights and all this other stuff. And now it's translated to really help soccer players become better athletes, to help prepare the young ones for the rigors of the game, introduce them to the world of weights and nutrition and development. And then the older players,
00:38:43
Speaker
come back from college and train in the summer or in the off season. The more elite players are getting specific training to help them achieve their goals of going to college. So there's just been a lot. And I've learned a lot from him having my daughters go through that and kind of philosophically and stuff like that. And so when you look at it again, you talk the synergies and the relationships and partnerships, Sporting Blue Valley and him, it just made sense. And it worked out well.
00:39:13
Speaker
That's awesome. So, been here 15 years. What's the next three years look like? The next three years are busy. We're going to get LED lights in the spring, which is, you know, those weren't really around in 2009 and those have evolved and their efficiencies and all that stuff. We're hosting the 2024 and 20, no, I'm sorry, 25 and 26, 24 and 25 US youth Midwest regionals in June.
00:39:41
Speaker
So those will be 250-ish teams that will be here for a week looking to qualify for the national championships for USU soccer which is a big deal because we hosted the Nationals last time in 2019 and then we were supposed to host them in 2020 and that got cancelled. Turf replacement in 27-28 and then by then I'll be
00:40:07
Speaker
thinking about what am I going to do before I retire. Are you going to get any of the World Cup stuff that's coming?
00:40:13
Speaker
So don't know yet. In the next, I think at last I heard in September, they'll have a tentative schedule of games, game times, not necessarily who's playing where. And they will, I think they were gonna announce who's going to house out of which cities as their home base. So once that comes out, that will help us have a general idea of who's gonna be staying in town, when the game times are gonna be,
00:40:42
Speaker
But again, you're going to have a lot of people traveling from around the world, and so it'll be interesting. We're kind of having some preliminary discussions on what that would look like, but it's really in the down season. The latter part of June and July are quiet because everybody goes on vacation, right?
00:41:01
Speaker
Are people going to be still want to go to the lake when all that activity is going on in town? I don't know. I don't think so. I mean, it happens here how we've never had it before. I would hope that people. Yeah. And you know, and if you think back to when it was here, what it was that back in 84 or whenever a long time ago, that's when soccer kind of got that uptick, you know, and it'll be interesting to see what how much of an uptick there is in participation in the game and people being introduced to it for the first time.
00:41:28
Speaker
and showcasing the city itself to a lot of people who may have heard about it, but didn't really believe it because there's a lot of soccer in this town. Sure. Yeah, it's getting bigger and bigger. I see it all the time. I got one more question, but before we do, gotta remind everybody, check out Facility Ally. If you want to revolutionize your facility, all in one system for reservations, leagues, camps, clinics, memberships, and more, check it out at facilityally.com. And then you mentioned 2728 turf replacement. Are you going to change anything or put the exact same thing in? Or maybe there's new technology by then?
00:41:56
Speaker
There's some new technology out there. Actually, that's on my to-do list to start having those discussions with those guys since we're far enough out. It does take me about two years to kind of educate myself with the different technologies, the pros and cons of stuff.
00:42:13
Speaker
And, you know, it's a really simple thing, but there's a lot of science in it. And I'm sure it's evolved since 17 and 18 when was the last time we did it. So we'll just have to wait and see how, what kind of new bells and whistles they have, if anything, that could help, you know, make it even better. Sure. Well, thank you for all you do for the city. Really, really appreciate it. Love it. And thanks for being on today, the Facility Playbook. No, appreciate it very much. We'll see you next time.