Speaker 1: Welcome to another odd man rush here on the SDH network.
Speaker 1: And for this one, we head to Montana and I
Speaker 1: can sit here and say that I have played golf
Speaker 1: in Missoula, Montana before. It has been quite some time
Speaker 1: since I've done it. But we get to catch up
Speaker 1: with friends, and I got to test my Latin out
Speaker 1: for our friends at Wildfire FC, because when you look
Speaker 1: at the crest Ignorno integra and so I remembered how
Speaker 1: to pronounce it, but then I had to go back
Speaker 1: and look it up through fire nature is reborn a hole.
Speaker 1: And for this we get to catch up with our
Speaker 1: friends at Wildfire Shandon flanning it and Charlie vandam. Guys, thanks
Speaker 1: for dropping by for a two v one.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having us. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Speaker 3: We're glad to be gone.
Speaker 1: Oh and big news is it at Bellavista Field coming
Speaker 1: up on the seventh at Spokane Shadow See it's an
Speaker 1: exhibition match. So let me ask Charlie what it's like
Speaker 1: to get it to this point with the franchise, to
Speaker 1: where you're getting to that first exhibition game and the
Speaker 1: level of excitement And I can't you know, the I
Speaker 1: can't believe we've gotten it to this point of the stage.
Speaker 3: Well, I have to tell you, for us to put
Speaker 3: on one match, it's been her killing an effort. I
Speaker 3: can't imagine what is gonna be like once we start
Speaker 3: in the league next year. But it's been a lot
Speaker 3: of work, a lot of fun. I've got some great
Speaker 3: partners I'm working with to put this all together and
Speaker 3: we just can't wait for this game to happen and
Speaker 3: just see what kind of crowd response we get.
Speaker 1: For So, Shannon, why the np Because with all of
Speaker 1: the leagues that are out there these days, and I
Speaker 1: know that there's alphabet soup and all this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: What steered you guys in the direction of the NPSL
Speaker 1: for the future of this franchise.
Speaker 2: Well, I think you know, there are quite a few reasons.
Speaker 4: And on those initial telephone calls, and Charlie can probably
Speaker 4: back me up on this, definitely had a moreh of
Speaker 4: a better feel that that league was more engaged with
Speaker 4: us than other leagues that we were approaching, And in
Speaker 4: terms of just that back and forth collaboration between the
Speaker 4: two parties, I felt like it was really solid. They
Speaker 4: answered our questions and you know, here we are, so
Speaker 4: to speak, this is our dry run to see what
Speaker 4: the interest in Missoula is going to be to support
Speaker 4: a pre professional soccer team. So far, all indications are
Speaker 4: super positive.
Speaker 2: We've got you know, we've got.
Speaker 4: Good social media support, we've got good local support when
Speaker 4: we're walking around town.
Speaker 2: Missilla is a.
Speaker 4: Town of about nine eighty five ninety thousand people, so
Speaker 4: it still has a little bit of a small town feel.
Speaker 2: So our friends are pretty excited about all of this.
Speaker 4: We of course have a big soccer community here and
Speaker 4: we're looking forward to bringing this over the finish.
Speaker 2: Line for them.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, Charlie, for those that may
Speaker 1: not know the footprint and what soccer means to Missoula,
Speaker 1: in that section of Montana and to the northwest, how
Speaker 1: would you break it down for somebody that doesn't know.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, it's you think of Montana, you think
Speaker 3: it's going to be a desert for soccer. But in actuality,
Speaker 3: we have a higher percentage of participation of youth in
Speaker 3: soccer than we then against the national average, national average
Speaker 3: around eight percent of the kids that are are participating,
Speaker 3: and we're above ten percent. We all you know of
Speaker 3: that town that the population, and Shannon mentioned there is
Speaker 3: probably between forty four forty five hundred people that are
Speaker 3: involved in soccer, whether their kids are playing, they're playing, coaching,
Speaker 3: supporters of it. We have a pretty big percentage of
Speaker 3: our population that's engaged in soccer. Plus we also have
Speaker 3: a very successful women's college team here at the University
Speaker 3: of Montana. They've they've won, have the most Big Sky
Speaker 3: Conference titles out of any team in the conference, and
Speaker 3: they get a great following. They get, you know, a
Speaker 3: thousand people are more at every one of their matches
Speaker 3: that that that they host. So we just have a
Speaker 3: really solid engaged soccer community.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Shannon, go for it, go ahead, and elemt
Speaker 1: I was just going to pile on top of that.
Speaker 4: Know that it's a fairly diverse community as well in
Speaker 4: terms of age. We both mentioned men's and women's. There
Speaker 4: is an international i r C which is they help
Speaker 4: immigrants immigrant into the United States. So we have for
Speaker 4: Western Montana. It might seem like it's a fairly not
Speaker 4: a fairly diverse population, but we have some kids from
Speaker 4: Africa plan you know, in our Strikers organizations. Now, so
Speaker 4: the soccer community was a pretty cool thing to be
Speaker 4: a part of.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I know that when you look at how
Speaker 1: the game has grown. You guys mentioned what it's like
Speaker 1: on the collegiate level. What has it been like, Charlie,
Speaker 1: let me start with you. What's it been like to
Speaker 1: see the game grow to where it is in You know,
Speaker 1: everybody may sit there and go, well, yeah, the game
Speaker 1: has really taken off, you know, recently. But what has
Speaker 1: it been like there in that footprint to see the
Speaker 1: game get its foothold? And we'll get into talking about
Speaker 1: I am here in a bit too, but what I
Speaker 1: wanted to find out about is just the growth and
Speaker 1: what it's been like for it to take a foothold.
Speaker 1: In addition to all of those other things that folks
Speaker 1: gravitate toward, whether it's the Griz or the Bobcats or
Speaker 1: whatever it is, what's it like to see soccer have
Speaker 1: its placed there as well?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: We do have a pretty vibrant soccer our sports community here,
Speaker 3: a big following for Universal of Montana Griz football. But
Speaker 3: you know, I think the important thing is how much
Speaker 3: our community, this community in Missoula just rallies behind teams sports.
Speaker 3: They're very engaged in other aspects of our community. We
Speaker 3: have a pretty amazing arts and music seeing here in Mizula.
Speaker 3: So it's really vibrant with soccer though I've been involved
Speaker 3: in soccer here in Missoula for oh gosh, I shouldn't
Speaker 3: date myself, but I will forty nine years and and
Speaker 3: so it's we've we have a really strong youth participation rate,
Speaker 3: as I mentioned before, a really strong elite players coming
Speaker 3: out of here. We have one player that's going to
Speaker 3: play in our match on on Saturday night. He's been
Speaker 3: on the national team for the Olympic Development Program, He's
Speaker 3: played with the Colorado or Rapids Next Pro and and
Speaker 3: so we have just these people that are committed to excel.
Speaker 3: And it doesn't matter what it is, whether it's sport, arts, music,
Speaker 3: we just have a great community that people just love
Speaker 3: to invest everything. They jump in it with both feet.
Speaker 1: So, Shannon, you know, you mentioned all of the things
Speaker 1: to get to this point. How far back a process
Speaker 1: are we talking about here when it comes to Hey,
Speaker 1: you know, let's this idea, and you know, you guys
Speaker 1: are you know, hanging out at you know, either in
Speaker 1: a in a conference room someplace or you know, you're
Speaker 1: you're hanging out at your favorite restaurant. From genesis of
Speaker 1: idea to coming up to this weekend in the dry run.
Speaker 1: How long of a runway are we talking here, Well.
Speaker 4: I'd say that the concept has been there for a
Speaker 4: really long time, but in terms of just any kind
Speaker 4: of significant energy put behind it, I'd have to say
Speaker 4: that that was sixteen to eighteen months ago, and then
Speaker 4: more recently, I would say September August September that is
Speaker 4: when we really started to get serious about putting pencil
Speaker 4: to paper, figuring out what the finances were going to
Speaker 4: look like, legalize ns in that sort of thing. A
Speaker 4: lot of that was initiated by a guy that a
Speaker 4: lot of people in the Western United States know.
Speaker 2: His name was Jeff Bernbaum, and.
Speaker 4: He was killed in a car accident this February, so
Speaker 4: you know, we're looking to carry the energy that he
Speaker 4: kind of got things started with across the line. And
Speaker 4: then finally June seventh, so frankly, you know, it's roughly
Speaker 4: a twenty to twenty four month runway, which is pretty crazy,
Speaker 4: you know, from just talking about it over beers to
Speaker 4: like having a live soccer game with a professional atmosphere
Speaker 4: and people are willing to pay for a ticket.
Speaker 1: Charlie Vandam Shannon planning and dropping by here to talk
Speaker 1: about Wildfire Missoula and their first ever dry run going
Speaker 1: up against Spokane this weekend up there in Montana. So, Charlie,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of things that folks may not
Speaker 1: necessarily know or understand. You know, a lot of folks
Speaker 1: may just sit there and wander up on the weekend.
Speaker 1: Hey there's a soccer match. Let's go. I ask this
Speaker 1: of folks when they're starting something new. There's got to
Speaker 1: be that to do list that you guys have had
Speaker 1: for say the last sixteen eighteen months. And it could
Speaker 1: be in a Google doc, it could be, you know,
Speaker 1: it could be on a could be it could be
Speaker 1: in a notebook. You know, it could be you know,
Speaker 1: on one of those big six foot by eight foot
Speaker 1: dry erase boards that's got a lot of squiggles and
Speaker 1: lines and things go on a bunch of different directions.
Speaker 1: Where are you guys on that to do list when
Speaker 1: it comes to getting everything squared away? I guess A
Speaker 1: for the development of the franchise and then be getting
Speaker 1: ready for this weekend.
Speaker 3: Well that's a loaded question.
Speaker 4: Let's just put it this way we burned all the
Speaker 4: hair off of our heads.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Oh you know you have you have a checklist a
Speaker 3: mile long, and you know, you you think you can
Speaker 3: get through all of it, but in the end, you know,
Speaker 3: you go like, oh, what about this other page that
Speaker 3: we forgot to deal with them? But you know, all
Speaker 3: in all, I really like, you know what, how we've progressed,
Speaker 3: what we've done, how we promoted the game. We're getting
Speaker 3: exposure on the radio and TV and you know, in
Speaker 3: print media and and so and you know, as men
Speaker 3: Shannon mentioned earlier, we run across people in town and
Speaker 3: going like, oh, how I can't wait for the game
Speaker 3: this weekend. And so it's just so we're not we
Speaker 3: haven't got everything completed. I mean there's there's some still
Speaker 3: some things that need to get done. But you know,
Speaker 3: when it comes Saturday, we're just going to enjoy the day,
Speaker 3: enjoy the ride, enjoy the game, and we're going to
Speaker 3: have fun doing it. That's what it's what's that's the
Speaker 3: most important thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, in terms of like I can speak to volumes
Speaker 4: to it, like volumes of emails. I don't think we're
Speaker 4: quite at a thousand yet, but I'm sure we're approaching
Speaker 4: back and forth, and in terms of the game, you know,
Speaker 4: I've got a hit list that's probably fifteen items long
Speaker 4: between now and Saturday night at seven o'clock when kickoff is.
Speaker 4: But the thing that's really wonderful about all of this.
Speaker 2: Is that the.
Speaker 4: Energy that I have for it is actually I'm fifty
Speaker 4: five years old. I've had a professional life, I sold
Speaker 4: a business, and now this is something that actually stokes
Speaker 4: my fire pretty hard.
Speaker 2: Which means that I have the energy.
Speaker 4: To digest those thousands of emails and those fifteen bullet
Speaker 4: points that I have to take care of before Saturday night,
Speaker 4: and I'm really looking forward to the result. So, like
Speaker 4: soccer in a lot of people's lives, so it is
Speaker 4: in mine. It gives me a lot back. You know,
Speaker 4: I put a lot into it, but what I get
Speaker 4: back is far exceeds any energy that I expend.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Shannon, it's good to know you only have fifteen.
Speaker 3: I can give you another ten.
Speaker 2: Charlie, easy, doesn't buddy.
Speaker 1: I mean the two of you seem to be Now,
Speaker 1: how many are there in addition to the two of
Speaker 1: you that are full bore into this process to get
Speaker 1: Wildfire up and running. How many other folks are we
Speaker 1: talking about.
Speaker 3: Well, we have two other partners with our investment group,
Speaker 3: and so there's kind of like a natural, oh, I
Speaker 3: guess division of labor. Shannon comes with a marketing background
Speaker 3: and and so he's kind of taken up beating our
Speaker 3: He's our our marketing guru. We have Eric Peterson, and
Speaker 3: there's another partner, former soccer player in Missoula, and he
Speaker 3: comes from a finance perspective, so he's our finance guy.
Speaker 4: We have a.
Speaker 3: The Nick Layer is a physician assistant, lives outside of Missoula,
Speaker 3: but he comes with a lot of passion and operation
Speaker 3: of soccer leagues, and so he's going to lead up
Speaker 3: our operations. And because I'm more of the.
Speaker 4: Oh, Charlie knows everybody in Montana who plays soccer and
Speaker 4: coaches soccer.
Speaker 3: I'm I'm the general manager, so I don't have any
Speaker 3: specific expertise. I've just my task is to heard these
Speaker 3: cats into place.
Speaker 1: Yes, with all of these chainsaws that the four of
Speaker 1: you seem to be juggling here, how would you how
Speaker 1: would you grade how you guys have done in the
Speaker 1: last say year and a half. Have to get to
Speaker 1: forty eight hours away from the dry run, how would
Speaker 1: you grade yourself?
Speaker 4: So I'm a really critical person. I'm going to give
Speaker 4: myself like a BD minus C plus right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And of course it's a learning curve as well.
Speaker 2: This is something that's brand new to me.
Speaker 4: Uh and there are idiosyncrasies with a soccer community, just
Speaker 4: like you would expect worldwide. You're getting that sort of thing.
Speaker 4: So but I'm a quick study and we're going to
Speaker 4: have it nailed down.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd agree with Shannon, and I think that we
Speaker 3: you know, we we we're going to learn. That's really
Speaker 3: what we're trying to do right now is learn, you know,
Speaker 3: the process, what do we do right?
Speaker 2: What do we miss?
Speaker 3: And so we're going to have a deep brief next
Speaker 3: week and just go like, okay, how do we do
Speaker 3: this differently? How can we improve? What did we do well?
Speaker 3: So that's why we're doing this trial run, just to
Speaker 3: kind of see how it all works and and get
Speaker 3: ready to be get an A plus for next year's season.
Speaker 1: So when you're trying to get a roster together, and
Speaker 1: I guess this is me trying to talk to the
Speaker 1: GM a little bit. What has it been like to
Speaker 1: has your phone been blowing up?
Speaker 3: Is it?
Speaker 1: What's apps and texts or emails or phone calls? How
Speaker 1: are you recruiting? How did you recruit the roster that's
Speaker 1: going to be there for the weekend. How did the
Speaker 1: player recruitment process come together?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, we're trying to bring in players for
Speaker 3: just one game, so it's not like we're going to
Speaker 3: get some a player that's on another NPSL team or
Speaker 3: playing in another Tier four team.
Speaker 2: To come over.
Speaker 3: So we are we leaned into former Missoula players that
Speaker 3: are currently playing college and you know, so we have
Speaker 3: probably a handful of five six players coming from out
Speaker 3: of town that are former youth players in their Mozilla
Speaker 3: system and they're bringing over a couple of players with them,
Speaker 3: a couple of their buddies. We have some you know,
Speaker 3: players that are a little bit older that have a
Speaker 3: lot of experience playing that played in college, played in
Speaker 3: at you know, pre pro soccer, and they're on our roster.
Speaker 3: And we have some young talent, some really good high
Speaker 3: school age young talent that are you know, many of
Speaker 3: them are graduating this year that are on the squad too.
Speaker 3: So it is a little bit of a challenge to
Speaker 3: try to pull together a team for just one match,
Speaker 3: but got a roster of twenty three players. So I
Speaker 3: think we we did pretty well and there's some good
Speaker 3: talent on that.
Speaker 1: That's a that's a big poll to pull in almost
Speaker 1: two dozen players for a first ever match, especially where
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, I need I need to get to
Speaker 1: talk to you. Can you talk to folks? Folks come
Speaker 1: back in you Since you know everybody in Montana soccer
Speaker 1: or Charlie obviously, you know, it's just like you pick
Speaker 1: up the phone, make two phone calls and you get
Speaker 1: twenty four players. Am I am?
Speaker 3: I Well, I'd like to think it's that way, but
Speaker 3: it doesn't work that way at all. But actually, you know,
Speaker 3: we've got for most of the Missoula players we reached
Speaker 3: out to, they were more than excited to being able
Speaker 3: to come back and play. And there's probably probably a
Speaker 3: dozen more that we could, but we just we only
Speaker 3: have one match. We can't have more on a roster
Speaker 3: than twenty three. We're already overloaded on a roster. So
Speaker 3: I think we've done pretty well. Shannon.
Speaker 1: When you're in and around town and you've been everybody
Speaker 1: knows the date and everybody knows when things are going
Speaker 1: to happen. Are you getting stopped in the stores? Are
Speaker 1: people like you know, stopping you when you're when you're
Speaker 1: feeling up your car, or you're at the restaurant and
Speaker 1: asking for progress reports? What's the what is the interaction
Speaker 1: there inside the town when it comes to getting ready
Speaker 1: for this.
Speaker 4: Well, the people that know me as a soccer fan
Speaker 4: and a soccer player, they're asking me about it, for sure.
Speaker 4: I have a group of old boys that I play
Speaker 4: soccer with. We call ourselves them old Boys, and it's
Speaker 4: a forty and over pickup game. Our oldest player is
Speaker 4: seventy four years old this year actually, and they're all
Speaker 4: very interested.
Speaker 2: In what's going on.
Speaker 4: So we have plenty of conversations about it, and I
Speaker 4: expect that we're going to have some support from them
Speaker 4: showing up watching the game. It's an interesting thing in Missoula.
Speaker 4: People that live here and in Western Montana have their
Speaker 4: eyes on the outdoors all the time.
Speaker 2: So there are so many things that you.
Speaker 4: Can do here in Missoula, but I expect that a
Speaker 4: lot of those guys will forfeit one weekend to come
Speaker 4: and watch a pre professional soccer game.
Speaker 2: In terms of walking around downtown.
Speaker 4: You know, there are a couple of places that we
Speaker 4: go that are haunts of hours, and the Thomas Marbar
Speaker 4: is one of them, and we get all kinds of questions.
Speaker 2: There actually, And that's kind of a soccer.
Speaker 4: Haunt in Missoula, decorated a little bit like your office,
Speaker 4: but spread out over a much longer and wider backbar,
Speaker 4: for example.
Speaker 2: So there is a buzz developing.
Speaker 4: We had a radio show locally here that we participated
Speaker 4: in a couple of days ago, and I think that
Speaker 4: people are starting to get pretty excited, pretty fired.
Speaker 1: Up about it, as they should. Shannon flannagain, Charlie vandam
Speaker 1: getting ready for the Big Sky Challenge coming up this
Speaker 1: week with the beginnings of wildfire there in Missoula. I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to seeing what the feedback is so and
Speaker 1: I know that Charlie. At the same time, when you're
Speaker 1: trying to assemble an organization, you have the folks there
Speaker 1: at the front of the line where the four of
Speaker 1: you are trying to orchestrate something to get it ready
Speaker 1: for next season and try to figure out what to do.
Speaker 1: But I know that you want to have folks associated
Speaker 1: with the brand and with the product and with the
Speaker 1: board where you want the messaging to be the right
Speaker 1: way and you want the club to be represented the
Speaker 1: right way. When it comes to representing the club itself,
Speaker 1: how do you go about doing that? And how have
Speaker 1: you gone about doing that? As you get ready for
Speaker 1: this big blast off here this weekend, what's the how
Speaker 1: do you how would you personify I guess what Wildfire
Speaker 1: would like to be there in miser.
Speaker 3: Well, that is just hitting at the heart of why
Speaker 3: I'm involved in this, because we really believe that we
Speaker 3: can create this this environment in the stadium that's similar
Speaker 3: to you know MLS teams where you have supporters groups
Speaker 3: that are cheering, chanting, singing, drumming. And that is really
Speaker 3: why I'm involved in this, is to create that kind
Speaker 3: of vibe of energy that people come to a match. Sure,
Speaker 3: they want to watch the match, they want their team
Speaker 3: to win, they want them to be successful, but they
Speaker 3: also want to be a part of the experience and
Speaker 3: and that is what I am most excited about, and
Speaker 3: in just having that same level of experience that you
Speaker 3: could have in a small town in England or you know,
Speaker 3: or in Brazil or you know. That's I think we
Speaker 3: have the community that we'll want to do that, and
Speaker 3: and that's what we're working towards. I'm super excited. This
Speaker 3: will just be a small test run. We're hoping to
Speaker 3: play in a two thousand and six stadium next year,
Speaker 3: and our goal is to get a thousand. But I'm
Speaker 3: I'm I'm wanting to fill that our stadium in every
Speaker 3: home game that we have and have the sound reverberating
Speaker 3: from that big sky you know stadium, high school stadium
Speaker 3: and just you know be heard, you know, blocks away.
Speaker 3: Hopefully the police will get complaints about how loud it is. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but that's what we want to create. We want that energy.
Speaker 3: We want people community members to experience and love and
Speaker 3: want to go back just for that experience and then
Speaker 3: root for their team. Just the balance of that, that's
Speaker 3: what we're looking forward to making here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, in terms of just adding to that a little bit,
Speaker 4: you know, what I would like to see is sport
Speaker 4: is going to give us something in common. So the
Speaker 4: fan is going to be a fan of Wildfire FC,
Speaker 4: but their background can be a variety of different things.
Speaker 4: And as I've traveled around the world, and I've traveled
Speaker 4: somewhat Charlie around the world, to watch soccer. One of
Speaker 4: the things that is most impressive to me is you
Speaker 4: take a group of people that can be scattered across
Speaker 4: the continent. We went to the twenty fourteen World Cup
Speaker 4: in Brazil and you don't really have a whole lot
Speaker 4: in common, you know, but you show up, you're there
Speaker 4: to support your team, and before you know it, by
Speaker 4: the end of the day, you have a new friend
Speaker 4: when you leave the stadium, and that person is somebody
Speaker 4: you can tell stories about for the rest of your life.
Speaker 4: It's a life enriching experience and that's why I'm invested
Speaker 4: in this as well.
Speaker 2: And it's the same thing for Charlie, you know.
Speaker 4: So we're looking at soccer as the modality to bring
Speaker 4: people together into kind of knock walls down, and we.
Speaker 1: Are looking forward to that first step. June seven, Bellavista
Speaker 1: Field in Missoula, Spokane, Shadow sc taking on Wildfire FC
Speaker 1: Wildfire FC of Missoula, Montana and catch up with Charlie
Speaker 1: Vandam and Shannon Flannagan about everything WILDFIREFC dot com and
Speaker 1: we're also looking to find out how things are locally
Speaker 1: there at Missoula. It's soccer dot Com where you can
Speaker 1: find out more about Soccer Alliance Missoula and mission there
Speaker 1: with everything going on with Sam and with wildfire. Gentlemen,
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see all the pictures and see
Speaker 1: what's going on and all the coverage that's going on
Speaker 1: up there with how things are with this launch, with
Speaker 1: the Big Sky Challenge. Can't thank you enough for the
Speaker 1: odd man rush. Knock it in the back of the net,
Speaker 1: and I hope that that place is sold out for
Speaker 1: you this weekend.
Speaker 3: Thanks for dropping by, Thanks much, John, Appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Appreciate it.