#108: Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group)

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Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:00:00]:
If we do this right, like, Cleveland has the ability to be a pillar of US soccer. And when we look out 15, 20 years from now, we'd say, on the national team that that, you know, that woman, she came from Cleveland. That girl came from Cleveland. That kid came from Cleveland. We we produced that player. And but we need to have a seat at the table, I think, in order to understand how it all works.

Jeffrey Stern [00:00:20]:
Let's discover the Cleveland entrepreneurial ecosystem. We are telling the stories of its entrepreneurs and those supporting them. Welcome to the lay of the land podcast where we are exploring what people are building in Cleveland. I am your host, Jeffrey Stern. And today, I had the real pleasure of sitting down with Michael Murphy who is on a mission to bring professional soccer to Cleveland as the co founder and CEO of the Cleveland Soccer Group. Previously, Michael served as the president of Gravitas Ventures, whose story we actually featured back on Lay of the Land's 68th episode with Gravitas' CEO Nolan Gallagher, Michael's current co founder at the Cleveland Soccer Group. At Gravitas, Michael was instrumental in growing the company's distribution footprint, managing their library of more than 3,000 titles of movies and television to over 100 transactional subscription video on demand operators on a worldwide basis, ultimately affording Gravitas distribution into over 100,000,000 homes in North America and over 1,000,000,000 homes worldwide. Prior to joining Gravitas Ventures in 2007, Michael was captain in the US Army where he served on active duty as a judge advocate.

Jeffrey Stern [00:01:36]:
And in 2005, he deployed with the 3rd Infantry Division in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he was awarded the bronze star medal. Michael is a member of the Cleveland chapter of young presidents organization, a member of the US Soccer Development Council, on the board of Boys Hope, Girls Hope of Northeast Ohio, and on the advisory council for Northeast Ohio's Women's Sports Alliance. He also coaches track, basketball, and, of course, soccer at Saint Dominic School in Cleveland. This was a really fun conversation. We cover everything from the cultural importance of sports in American society, How Michael envisions Cleveland soccer as a community pillar going forward to the logistics of starting a professional soccer club from stadiums to financing to building a competitive and formidable team. I really enjoyed learning more of Michael's vision for the Cleveland soccer group, and I'm excited to follow along on this journey as it unfolds. Please enjoy my conversation with Michael Murphy. As I often do, I was thinking about where the best place to start our conversation would be.

Jeffrey Stern [00:02:48]:
And it it literally came to me It's about It's about Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhinney and having acquired this long suffering club team in Wales and their their journey working with the community through its history and honoring its heritage and, you know, in pursuit of, you know, real aspirational Premier League elevation. So we were talking about the role of of European football clubs as civic institutions with real implications for community, tradition, competitive, and the overall energy of a city. And obviously, we have our own culture here in America around sports. But I kinda wanted to start there because as I was reading about the the work that you're doing and planning today, it's quite apparent that those are all important tenants to the culture of the team you're trying to build here in Cleveland and that you'll you'll be intentional about it going forward. And so I the show just really kind of struck me as a as a fun parallel. But we'd love to start there and, you know, we'll we'll get into your professional history and and how you got into this, but, just as a as a softball opener.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:03:58]:
Sure. And and I chuckled as you were saying that because I have seen a number of those episodes. And I guess on the one hand, it's really cool because I want professional soccer in Cleveland to have the same impact in Cleveland that it has in Rex. I mean, that's or wherever it really has impact in cities. And that's really why we're getting into this. But I also chuckle because, they make it look so easy to start, you know, soccer clubs, and it's Ryan Reynolds, and and and, I can sit back and wax poetically about this and that, where the reality is it's it's a lot more heavy lifting and deep in spreadsheets and figuring it out and kind of searching. So that's the Hollywood version, but it's a fun version to see. And but you can see what what what's happened though with content.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:04:43]:
And it does make sense to tell the story along the way. People wanna see that. I haven't done that yet. People have said, you should be filming everything. Like, for example, they said, you should be filming this interview that you and I are doing right now, and there should be cameras. And I thought about this. It's, like, it's odd, though, to go take a meeting for breakfast. I'm like, do you mind if these cameras are here? You know, it's just but but I get it.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:05:03]:
And and I think Rex is actually playing in the US this this, this summer in a tournament. So, you know, and they're building a brand that they can now export globally, and that brand is is getting bigger because of this. So and and we wanna do the exact same thing with the the brand of Cleveland Stock that we have. We wanna export it globally and make it as big as possible. So

Jeffrey Stern [00:05:22]:
No. I I love that. And I'm I'm glad we'll be able to explore a little bit of the the depths of of what actually goes into to doing something like like what you're you're trying to do. But before before we get in, I think, you know, it would be helpful just to set some context, set the stage and, you know, ultimately the path to, to starting a football club. I I know, you kind of have an an eclectic professional history, but I'd love to hear how it how it kind of arrives at at what you're working on now.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:05:54]:
To be candid, soccer, football was not on my radar Yeah. 2 years ago. I was finishing up or at that point, I didn't know I was finishing up, you know, a a what was it? A 15 year career in in entertainment and specifically film and television distribution company that that was started by my my business partner, Nolan Gallagher, in in 2006. I joined him shortly thereafter in in Los Angeles in 2007. It was a great run. And I think when I look back at it, like that journey of entrepreneurship and where we went, through gravitas from totally bootstrap company to something that was getting bigger, to, you know, retaining investment banks, to go through processes, to, sell the company twice in the span of of 5 years. Lots of lessons learned there. And I guess that probably gave me some of the confidence to go for something like this, because I didn't know what I was doing when I joined Nolan in 2007.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:06:56]:
I never if you knew me growing up, you'd say, I would tell you I was never living in Los Angeles. I mean, I liked movies, but I liked movies like everyone else did. I didn't have a passion for Hollywood. I didn't have a passion for entertainment. But I did want to kinda make my own luck and and give it a shot at at building something. And that's what gravitas was. That's, I guess, where I would draw the similar parallel to what we're doing here now with with soccer.

Jeffrey Stern [00:07:20]:
Yeah. And I mean, in the gravitas story with with Nolan is is really one of my favorites, I think so far. It it really, to me, captures like the best of what people are doing here in Cleveland because it's it's quite a successful story that I don't think that many people were aware of. And so it's very cool to see, I think, the implications of what comes after something like that. And it was it's also one of the reasons I've been excited to to have you on because I think the success begetting success, you know, is kind of what we need here.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:07:53]:
Absolutely. You know, we we were thrilled to, you know, move the company to Cleveland. I came back before the whole company moved back. I I moved back after we had our first child and joined Nolan's brother, Brendan, who thankfully I convinced to leave his partner track at a at a local law firm here in Cleveland and come join us because I was running business affairs and sales, and it was one of those days. I remember distinctly, you know, you get into these startups and you and you're wearing a lot of hats. We are at Indians game and we were at a rooftop bar. I can't remember which one it was, but it was, like, on West 6th. And and it was like a beautiful day.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:08:30]:
It was gonna be like a day game for for the then Cleveland Indians. And I'm getting the email on some legal issue that's blowing up, and I looked across the way and I was like, hey, Nolan, can I just go ask your brother if he'll join us? Because I trust him and we need another lawyer because I think this let's go for it. And it was like one of those, you know, signature moments. But then, you know, Bren didn't never moved out to LA, and he and I were figuring out now international global distribution. And there was no roadmap for that, no playbook for that. And that was another reason I moved back was just be closer to him because we were figuring it out on the fly. And we started to grow, you know, 2 operations because in Cleveland and in LA. And we started hiring some some great students from Cleveland State Film School, that were very entrepreneurial and and we're thrilled that that they could pursue this in Cleveland.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:09:20]:
But then ultimately, yeah, moved the whole company back to Cleveland in 2019 and and bought the, you know, 2nd floor of this building here in Ohio City because we really wanna be part of the Cleveland business community. We wanted it to be part of economic development in Cleveland. We're homers. Right. Right. We're Cleveland in a in a major way. And, you know, you don't think about film distribution in Cleveland, but we knew we could do it. We built the relationships out there and and, you know, Nolan kind of acquired the films.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:09:45]:
If you if you break it down, he he bought them. I sold them. And, you know, I had big customers in Netflix and Amazon and Apple and Comcast, but the reality is they didn't wanna see you every day. And you built these relationships over time and I could definitely, you go back and forth. It was a lot easier when we had Continental Airlines with 3 flights a day to LA, but it's still very doable.

Jeffrey Stern [00:10:05]:
So post, you know, gravitas, you mentioned soccer, football, I guess we'll we'll call it soccer here, was was not was not on your radar. So if you could share a little bit about, you know, how how this ultimately all comes to be and really like what are your core motivations? What was inspiring to you about this idea? What what is some of the vision that you have for for, this whole endeavor that you've begun to undertake?

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:10:33]:
It wasn't on my my radar, but what was on my radar was doing something, you know, meaningful in the Q3 of my life, so to speak. I I'm with a I'm in YPO, and I have a forum. And and and I'm, like, one of the younger guys in my forum, these guys are talking about what are we doing in our Q3 of our life, and they've had some success. And I started to think about that as well. And I know I didn't wanna do something transformative or big for Cleveland. And and growing up, I I thought that that might mean I'd get involved in public policy or maybe even run for office. And this kind of soccer thing popped up late in in in 2021. And the idea was, hey, let's let's bring a professional soccer team to to Cleveland, and let's build a stadium.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:11:17]:
And let's build a stadium where the Wolfson Center is right now at Cleveland State University. And hey, Murphy, go figure it out because you've got a good relationship with Cleveland State. And I do, you know, to a certain extent, but only because I'm really a booster of men's and women's basketball. And I'm a booster of men's and women's basketball there because I believe that, Cleveland needs a strong Cleveland State University and one of the fastest paths to raising the profile of that institution is through athletics. And I had the the the head this vision and still do that men's and women's program could do something like Butler did, for example, which used to be in the Horizon League or Gonzaga or Creighton. But it's a long vision. It's 10, 15 years. It's built around a coach.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:11:53]:
It's built around a a board that wants to to go down that path. And I'm still hopeful that that we can we can do that. And they're and got a great new coach in there on the men's side. The women's team's kicking butt this year. And I hope to see them go really far. So, you know, I pitched this kind of to Cleveland State, and they said, well, you know, we've heard soccer before and but your timing could be right because, you know, there's a master plan. And it's something that we would consider as part of a much larger master plan, which was recently revealed kind of the first stages of it. And so I kind of took that back.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:12:25]:
I was like, alright. So there's a there there, maybe. And then I was like, soccer. It's like, what do I know about soccer? Do I do I care about soccer? You know, I played as a kid, like a lot of, you know, young kids did. I probably ended my career in 4th grade or 3rd grade or something like that. But I liked soccer in the sense that, like, I would watch the World Cup every 4 years, men's and women's. But I was not getting up on Saturday mornings watching English Premier League or or new players throughout the league. I was not conversant in the language of soccer and the the various leagues.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:12:58]:
But I started to look at this, and I said, this is fascinating that Cleveland, a top 20 DMA, is the only, top 20 market without big time soccer in Cleveland. And why is this? And I started to talk to people that knew a lot more about the game than I did. What I learned is that we have a very deep history of soccer. And I knew part of this from indoor soccer. I mean, I grew up going out to Richfield Coliseum, watching the force, watching Darth Vader come out probably until, Lucas told him to stop infringing on my my trademark. And I remember the the crunch at the Wolstein Center and actually in our, you know, in our hype video when we when we launched in November and announced, the MLS next protein had some great clips in there. And it's really exciting. And there's an announcer saying there's 21,000 strong here at Richfield Coliseum.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:13:49]:
And, you know, those days can come back. And, you know, you look at the game, it's growing, by leaps and bounds in this country, growing everywhere. I mean, 8,000,000,000 people now in the world, according to the United Nations as of last year. And and FIFA says that 5,000,000,000 people just watched the World Cup. So 62 and a half percent of the world watch this game and Cleveland for better or worse, you know, for worse in my opinion, doesn't have a seat at the table right now. And we wanna change that because we think it's really critical. And we think it's critical to do it now, to ride this this tide and this wave that is gonna really, get a lot bigger as we get closer to 2026, where North America is gonna host the World Cup. And, you know, you look at historically last time we hosted the World Cup in 1994.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:14:34]:
And, if you you kinda extrapolate that growth and and and say we're gonna have the same type of growth over the next 4 years, we're talking about a net gain of about 35,000,000 soccer fans in this country. It's gonna be really exciting to be part of that.

Jeffrey Stern [00:14:48]:
I have so many questions about this, but I think it's an amazing kind of vision. To be candid, I don't love starting from a pessimistic place, but I'll throw this your way and we can we can build from it. But I think and I'm sure you've heard a lot of, you know, feedback from from folks as as you've announced the initiative. But we could start from a place where I believe Cleveland is already the the smallest market to have 3 major sports teams. So, like, is there is there a room for for more in your opinion?

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:15:17]:
I think absolutely. But, you know, we made it the smallest, but there's something you're also not saying is that we punch way above our weight. You know, our TV ratings are much higher than than a lot of other larger cities, in terms of who tunes in for sports. I remember seeing a, like, a first take with Stephen a Smith and and and, Chris Russo, Mad Dog. And he he, you know, declared that that Cleveland, it was ahead of Detroit and New York and Chicago, is the best, place for for sports fan bases. And Smith was like shocked by this. He said, no, Cleveland is the place to be. So we know people like sports in Cleveland.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:15:54]:
And I think maybe more so than some of those other sports soccer can even be more transformative. I mean, I love the Cavs. I love the Guardians. I love the Browns. Season ticket holder with the Browns for many years. I love going to all these games. And because they're so big and so major league, sometimes it's like you go watch the game or you watch the game on TV and you you read on cleveland.com or you read Pluto article, but that's kind of where your relationship with the team ends, for for lack of a better term. I mean, you but I think soccer is very different in that a lot of the supporter groups that can pop up feel like they they're part of the team and ownership groups that do it right, encourage that, because it's part of the support.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:16:37]:
And and, you know, you saw it in Rexam and you see it all throughout Europe. And so we want to, you know, replicate that in in terms of what Cleveland's brand will be here. And, I also think that, you know, it's just so diverse and and so inclusive. I mean, the other things that got me excited about it were, you know, I I went about this time last year, I was on a family trip to Mexico and through some some introductions, I was able to get a really great tour of of Liga MX and some some games there. And a young Mexican national who came to the US, he's actually on my board of advisors, you know, toured me around for a couple of days to different matches. And I had a captive audience and I asked him a lot of questions. Well, how what does it look like to set up an academy here? How do we bring Mexican players How do we bring, Hispanic players to Cleveland? Is it possible? What does it look like? What's the pro player pathway? And I kinda got back and I and I talked to, Mike McLaughlin, who is, you know, 30 years ago was my theology teacher at St. Ignatius High School, but he's also his allocation, if you will, as soccer coach.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:17:44]:
And he's forgotten more about soccer today than I will ever know. But I said, is it crazy to think that we could be intentional about bringing professional players here from, you know, foreign countries where we already have big immigrant communities or ethnic communities. And I'm talking about old school Croatians or Slovenes or Hungarians or the newer Salvadorians, Guatemalans, Africans, Syrians, because the global language of soccer, you know, you have a fan base. And so that's part of our vision is to identify that the matriarch and patriarch of of Croatian soccer or just in that community and say, look, we're gonna be very intentional about starting to bring some young talent here. And when they come, I really need you to open your arms wide because you're as much part of the success as we are. And when they come here, we wanna create a a pipeline to do this right. You know, again, I talked about the kind of Q3. I've got a long vision on this.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:18:39]:
I'm 45. I wanna be doing this when I'm 60 years old because I think that's kind of the timeline that you need to invest to really make this successful.

Jeffrey Stern [00:18:48]:
I I imagine it's it's it's quite a ambitious undertaking. I want to kind of just cover from, you know, soup to nuts how this all works from, you know, what is MLS Next Pro? How will logistics as simple as naming a team, building a stadium, you know, the strategy for fan base and attendance, community involvement. There's, like, a 1000000 things we can talk about. But, you know, kind of from the in the founding story, if you will, you know, how does this how does this actually work?

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:19:21]:
I guess on a timeline, it was said late 21, and there began kind of in early 22, what I'll consider like a 9 month diligence period on professional leagues. Because you have to understand this, the soccer period, but there's lots of different leagues out there on the men's side and the women's side. And I spent a lot of time talking to owners in various leagues. Spent a lot of time talking to the leagues themselves. Hired a soccer specific consultant who has brought professional soccer to cities before and built stadiums before, to kinda fill in those those blind spots, if you will, and had a lot of fun doing it. So the first thing, you know, we we kind of did and and, you know, I don't think there's a right answer. It would be great if you had a poof. You talked about simple logistics.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:20:08]:
It'd be you know, if there's a poof, there's a stadium all of a sudden. It's it doesn't work that way, but you kinda have to push on these things on on parallel paths because, you don't know what the timeline is, you know, and and I can get into it a little bit. But when I think about what we ultimately wanna do is is be the North Star of of soccer in Northeast Ohio. And to me, that means men's and women's professional soccer clubs, a soccer specific stadium, you know, professional training facilities for those men's and women's clubs, including the pitches that would be associated with that in the locker room and the film room and the by the front office. And then a 5th piece would be what I consider kind of like a soccer complex. So as I've learned, soccer is huge in Northeast Ohio. And and know, I coach, but my my little girls are not at the level now of club or or travel teams. But if you wanna play big time kind of travel club soccer in Cleveland, you're traveling.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:21:04]:
You have to leave and and a lot of it's played at, you know, West in Sandusky at their facility out there or East in Geneva at Spire or families are traveling south to Lodi, Ohio, like every weekend. And so I see this as a as an opportunity in business and an opportunity to grow it here in Cleveland or Cuyahoga County, if you will. There's a diaspora every weekend, and we're leaving the county. So there's an opportunity to build something here as well. And then the last piece kind of to the North Star, if you will, the 6th pillar is is accessibility. And this is bringing the game to all where it may not have been. And I'm gonna paint, you know, in in broad brushes, but historically, not so much anymore, but, you know, soccer was a a suburban white sport in this country for a while. And again, broad brushes.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:21:51]:
And it it's very different now. I mean, you look at look at the makeup of our national team, it doesn't look like that necessarily. But one way to do this is is through, mini pitches, which we want to establish. And the US Soccer Foundation has a goal of putting a 1,000 mini pitches in this country before the World Cup comes in 26, and Cleveland has 0. And we wanna fix that and and put 10 or a dozen in, you know, because we think it's really important so long as you have the right programming accompanying those. So and and usually it's in it's in urban areas or or underserved areas. So that that's the the the big vision. But you go back to the leagues, you know, MLS next pro specifically was I didn't know existed when I started my diligence.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:22:33]:
And and many didn't know it existed because people know MLS, it's the top soccer brand in this country, right? MLS is division 1 men's soccer down the road, we have the Columbus Crew and we have Cincinnati. In Ohio, They're in the MLS and LAFC just won the championship and recently came out. Kind of fascinating to talk about the dollars and cents of this sport was, you know, by Forbes value of the 1st $1,000,000,000, soccer club in this country, which is huge increase over when they last valued these, I think, at 3 years ago. But ultimately, on the men's side chose MLS DEX PRO for for a number of reasons. I thought the governance was extraordinarily strong. I thought the leadership was very strong at the at the top. Again, our vision is a long term one. I'm I'm very comfortable and confident that that league will be here for the long haul.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:23:23]:
And what really got me excited though was that we were gonna be able to be part of their their media deal. And coming from gravitas and and distribution, I knew that you could have the best film or the best product in the world, but if you don't have a platform to distribute it on, you know, it's like if a tree falls in the in the woods. And their media deal was announced this past summer with Apple TV and starting here, you know, in a few weeks where every you know, all the games are being broadcast globally now on Apple TV. And so the brand of soccer that we create on the men's professional side will be able to be broadcast, you know, around the world through Apple TV. What I'm about to say is it's a larger vision, but this is also what gets me excited. And this is maybe the entrepreneurial part of me. When I when I look at Cleveland and I look at, you know, we have 23 sister cities that they're around the world. People kinda look at me like, what sister cities? What are we doing? Well, we we do, and and they're significant.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:24:16]:
We don't do a lot with them. It's been kind of ceremonial only or in name only. But we're talking about Lima, Peru, Taipei, Taiwan, Bangalore, India, and 20 more cities around the world. And if you look a little bit deeper, those 23 sister cities boast 96 professional soccer clubs, 8 of which are women. And so I start thinking, if we can launch our our professional soccer clubs, now we have some chip at the table or we can play in this, you know, that's our global currency. And now instead of reaching out for just an exchange or a friendly how you do in Bangalore, India, I can reach out to those owners and say, would you like to come to Cleveland? We'd like to host you, and we'd like to do a home and away. And I think that soccer is very accessible. I think that it's very tangible, and it's it's obviously, a global game that's known.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:25:05]:
So through that, I hope to create much larger relationships that can really benefit Cleveland for for the long haul. I mean, Bangalore I use because it's the Silicon Valley of India. And wouldn't it be great to have a relationship, a deeper relationship that can start with something like soccer and and and go deeper because of that? So the Apple TV deal will allow us to broadcast around the world to our to our fans around the world. That will be our fans around the world and to our sister cities. And, Sid, you can see this, and if you that's on the export side. I talked about the import side. You know, if if we're recruiting from a particular city in in in Peru, if we're if we have a pipeline to leave Peru or or immigrant community here in the Salvadorians, well, they can see their their their players play. On the women's side, you know, Cleveland is big enough, though, really, for a big time professional soccer league.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:25:55]:
And so the MLS is not on the radar anytime soon with that, but we're thrilled to be in that league. And and the other piece too is that, you know, we're an independent club in in that league. And there's 3 independent clubs announced right now. And basically, what that means is we don't have a parent. So I don't have the Columbus crew on top. I'm not the crew 2. We'll play the crew 2, but we're gonna operate as the biggest, baddest club in town and and and try to put butts in seats and win championships. And that's our that's our vision for that club.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:26:22]:
You will soon start to hear other cities and markets announce as independent clubs in MLS next pro, or you will see what's happening, for example, with Nashville SC. They've moved their, MLS next pro club to Huntsville, Alabama, which is a very fast growing city where they're building them a stadium specifically. So it had its own culture, you know, in Huntsville. And, you know, the league hopes to expand to probably 10 to 20 of these independent clubs. And, we're really excited about the prospect for the league. On the women's side, the NWSL, the National Women's Soccer League is is the the at the top of the pyramid, and they very publicly ran a process last year to expand their their league. You asked, like, what comes first? Well, I I had to kind of jump at that because the deadline was due on November 4th. I finished gravitas on October 31st.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:27:12]:
We had been working on it a little bit on, you know, the nights and weekends as you do, outside of your day job. But out of 82 groups that put, you know, initial interest into that league, 30 made a cut. I think after letters of intent, we made that cut. And they say about 10 actually went through the application process because it's a very heavy lift to apply. There's financials, there's diligence, there's a material fee to apply. And I'm happy to say we made it to the final 4, which is pretty cool. We knew it was a long shot because they were looking for expansion in 2024. And one of the requisites really was a stadium or a firm stadium plan, which we just hadn't had a chance to to really firm up at that point.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:27:52]:
But, you know, in no uncertain terms, they told us hang around the hoop to use a sports analogy. There's more expansion coming soon, and we hope to be there. We think we will be there. And and we know that they're excited about Cleveland. They were very excited about the support that I was able to bring with our application and our bid. And it's really exciting to think that, you know, they would be the top soccer brand in town. So you have the Guardians, the Cavs, the Browns, and the NWSL women's club. And that as we build a stadium, we are building a stadium for women's professional sports.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:28:26]:
And, you know, to the extent of the public private partnership, it is, as far as I know, the very first, it would be the very first public private partnership for women's professional sports in the country. That's great. We should do that in Cleveland. The opportunity is right in front of us. Let's go grab it.

Jeffrey Stern [00:28:42]:
So following the the stadium line of thinking, what goes into to that whole endeavor? That seems like an entire undertaking in and of itself. How do you think about, you know, the the funding and economics of that? The the the location, the the community considerations, really really all the the the pieces that go into that puzzle.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:29:06]:
I mean, I talked about kind of 3 sites or facilities as as kind of being part of those pillars. Stadium is 1, the practice facility is another, and then like the soccer complex. It's important to me right now as I sit here to say that the stadium will be somewhere downtown. I just feel like that's what we have to do. We wanna bring people downtown. I I don't want it too far east. I don't want it too far west. I don't wanna give anyone a reason to be like, that's not for me.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:29:29]:
No, it is for you. And there's spots downtown that can work. And we're doing our due diligence on those now. It's not a light undertaking. But you've got to secure a site and then you've got to, you know, come up with a plan and figure out how big you're gonna go. And, you know, we'd love to target something like, Kansas City is doing right now with their new women's stadium. And then they're building it there, but that's being totally privately funded by you know, we did well at Gravity Falls, but I can't stroke a check for a $120,000,000 and just say, here's our stadium. And their target is about 115 that's expandable, probably to 15 or or 18, and and you can do these things.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:30:04]:
You can do them on a modular stadium too. But you have to see, you know, how it all comes together. So you find the site, and and then you you go from there is is really the process.

Jeffrey Stern [00:30:15]:
Just to to circle back to the sports broadcasting piece of this and and some of the economics there, kinda global distribution, all that kinda leveraging your your background as well. How has and does the the future of regional sports networks and cable impact sports, you know, affect teams and and and the economics at play here? And you mentioned the the, you know, the team in LA and kind of the recent valuations and how it's changing. What what more at like a high level is is happening in that world?

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:30:48]:
When media rights have always been super important to professional sports. And, you know, yes, the MLS did a $2,500,000,000 deal, which was significantly higher than the last deal, which was mostly with ESPN. But it's it's still, like, very small compared and that's a minimum guarantee, so it can go higher. It's gonna be based on subscriptions. But that's very small compared to still NFL or or, you know, NBA or Major League Baseball or even hockey. And so there's still a lot of growth there. In terms of but, like, they took a chance. Right? But they partnered with a brand like Apple that is getting into this.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:31:26]:
And when Apple gets into things, they usually do it pretty well. And so it's a bet. Right? You're betting on on that. And Apple thinks that they've got a good demo for for soccer fans and, you know, can probably grow the MLS brand, you know, as a league around the world. There's not a lot of leagues where where the US isn't, you know, dominant in. So this is this is one that they think they can grow. You know, there's there's gonna be it's nuanced. Right? So we'll be able to do pre and post game shows, locally.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:31:59]:
But, you know, the, the, the games will be broadcast on Apple and, and, and you'll, you'll need that. So that's how it's gonna work at least on that side. On on the women's side, when we get the MWS Hall Club and I say when, I'm confident we're gonna we're gonna do this, they they will I think they're up for forbid now. They had a it was kind of, like, Paramount Plus this this last year, which is, you know, there's a lot of and these services I'm I'm comfortable with because we would sell to them. I would sell our even documentaries to them. But you need to make it easy for for the customer to find it. And they've had incredible growth. Now granted, these are soccer sit cities in Seattle.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:32:34]:
I mean, come with a lot of soccer passion, Seattle, Portland, San Diego, but they're drawing 20,000 fans for their NWSL matches. And the championship was held at a neutral site last year, I think in late October, at Audi Field in Washington DC between the Kansas City Current and the Portland Thorns, it was sold out, 21,000 people. And, you know, they hit almost a1000000, I think in viewership, which was, you know, 70% increase over the previous year. So and and women's soccer in this country is is is always been strong. I mean, our US Women's National team who's starting to embark on on their journey towards the the World Cup this year in Australia and New Zealand is is definitely a favorite to win. And so we know that people like that that sport, and we hope to bring it to Cleveland. So you

Jeffrey Stern [00:33:22]:
you had mentioned butts in seats and championships. And I like that that framing of kind of what success looks like. But I I kinda wanna unpack that a little bit and talk about success both on and off the field. You know, we can kind of pursue these, you know, one after the other, but how do we become a formidable team? And, you know, how do you ultimately win champions? And, you know, you mentioned some of the player acquisition. You know, how does the money ball and sports analytics come into this? How are you thinking about building a really, you know, formidable team? And then, what I'd also love to hear about is is off the field, you know, how do you view a sports team's responsibility to the the community? What involvement will be there from those who who live here and and how you're thinking about, you know, success in kind of both of those capacities.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:34:19]:
Sure. So we'll talk about the on the field side first, and and it's to oversimplify it, there's 2 components. Right? You have the the business side or the front office side, and then you have the sporting side with the the players and the coaches and and the pipeline. On the business side, we wanna be higher, savvy executives that know how to value sponsorship, know how to value the brand, know how to who's watching soccer so that we can go out to corporations in Cleveland and global corporations and say, you wanna be part of this because we're gonna deliver to your to your customer. So you can you can do that yourself. You can partner with with other firms to do that. We'll we'll examine both of those to make sure we're doing it the right way. You wanna be very intentional about, you you know, taking ticket deposits and and creating a, a listserv.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:35:12]:
And and when we launched, you know, we launched with a a nice website, but we're capturing, People click there and there's different ways they click, how do you wanna be involved? And we're reaching out to them saying, there's gonna be some town halls soon, there'll be some listening tour soon I have to let them know. And and then ultimately, you know, you wanna deliver a product that is, you know, fun to go to, family friendly, affordable. One cool thing about soccer is that it's relatively quick, right? You're in and out in 2 hours as opposed to some other sports, which we think will serve us well, something different in this in this community. And then on the sporting side, again, I I'm not a soccer savant, but a lot of people have have given me a lot of what What I understand is you have to cope with your your methodology, how you're gonna play, whether you're gonna be a I mean, because it's simple as an attacking club or a defending club. And what what are gonna be your strengths? And then stick to it. Don't don't give up after the, you know, the 1st year. If that's what you wanna play, you play that way. Or those are the players you wanna recruit.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:36:15]:
That's what you do. But you wanna have coaches that that are aligned with with the front office, line with the general manager, and and then you go recruit players. And the nice thing about Nexpro is that we can recruit players from anywhere. And so, Jeffrey, if if you're if you wanna try out, and I it's so funny. You know, we're getting people sending unsolicited tapes of them and say, we wanna try out, we wanna try out. They're a little early right now, but but at the right time, we'll hold hold open tryouts for Cleveland. Part of it is also, you know, bringing your own players to bear. And so with the soccer complex and with potentially an academy, we wanna be able to grow our own players right here and say there is a path for you.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:36:56]:
You're 13 years old. You're showing a real lot of promise in the field. You're 14, you're 15, maybe you're you're gonna be an academy because you're gonna be a pro soccer player, and that's how it's done throughout the rest of the world. It's not done that way uniformly here in the US, and and and that's a great way to go so that, you know, you can, someone who's a a teenager, whether a young man or woman, can can see that pathway in front of them and say, and there's a club that I can actually play for right here. You know, Justin Morrow, who's on our advisory boards, probably one of the best professional players come out of Cleveland the last 15, 20 years. He said he had to leave. There he couldn't stay here. He would have loved to stay in Cleveland.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:37:33]:
And he's so thrilled to be kind of involved with this, this project because it is Cleveland, it's home to him. And and so he'd he loves that. So we'll we'll grow the players, and then you gotta set big goals. We ran gravitas on on this thing called EOS, the Entrepreneur's Operating System. It's it's based on a book called Traction. And one of the things you do as you it's kind of strategic plan, they have different terminology for, you know, but we we call it a, 10 year vision. And it's a it's a b heck. It's a big, hairy, audacious goal.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:38:08]:
And and let's put it out there. We wanna win the US Open Cup, for example. And the US Open Cup is open to all independent teams. And you can play MLS teams, you play USL teams, they can all enter, but that's a a way that, you know, in similar to golf, like, anyone can get into it. And and let's go be a real competitor there. And and that will do very well for the brand if you're competitive at that level. And that's that's how we want it to be.

Jeffrey Stern [00:38:31]:
And to, you know, to round out success on the the other side of the coin, you know, how how are you thinking about community involvement and what what that actually looks like, right, and and having us be here in Cleveland?

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:38:44]:
I mentioned, you know, accessibility. Many pitches are it's it's pretty straightforward. You can do it, but to do it right is, it's always in the execution where we want to be involved there. But we want this game to connect Cleveland. I want this game to connect all these disparate immigrant communities that we have, or these different populations that we have around a common, language they understand. And, you know, the vision is when we have our stadium that we're flying the flags of, yes, stars and stripes will be first and foremost, but then I wanna fly the other flags of the players that are on our team, whether it's from Croatia or Guatemala, and and let folks know that you have a home here. These are your players, but this is, you know, our team. And we we've brought this community together around something.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:39:30]:
We've established also the Cleveland Soccer Group Foundation, which is a 501c3 3 that will look to make an impact right here in Cleveland. We already are doing it to a certain extent. You know, we we've contributed to America SCORES, which is a fantastic nonprofit that services about 15 schools in CMSD. And they do poetry and soccer together. And it's fascinating why those 2 That

Jeffrey Stern [00:39:54]:
is fascinating.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:39:55]:
Years ago in in Washington DC, someone doing teach for America, I think, who was a soccer player and also creative writer. And they're like, I need to do something after school with these kids and that the program's grown. So, we wanna be involved there. We're gonna have a team. We'll field a team for their upcoming tournament in April. And then also helping us out is is a young man, who's big into soccer, but his day job is he works for refugee response. But he started the refugee soccer league, and he's also started the city of Ohio soccer clubs, and we're gonna sponsor those, which are predominantly made up of of refugees. So, you know, right now, when we don't have a name, we don't have a brand, we don't have a color, we don't have a crest, we can we can put it out there that our brand is really through philanthropy a little bit.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:40:40]:
I mean, in a small level right now, let's see that grow and let's bring in other dollars that are gonna support us on the commercial side. A lot of these companies have foundations and let them know why there's an avenue for them to put their dollars to work through soccer, through a global game, get Cleveland to see at the table for for for 26 and beyond. And so, you know, if I if I really extrapolate this out, you know, I think that we need immigration. We need very thoughtful immigration in Cleveland. We are we are a city that can boast a 1000000 people, and we're under 400,000 now, I think, in the city proper. I know that Greater Cleveland's still strong, but we have to be, I think, creative about other ways to bring immigration here. Joe Zimmerman is doing a fantastic job with his team at Global Cleveland being very welcoming, and there's others, including refugee response and others. But how can we think about soccer if we're up and running as a way to bring immigration here, maybe from our sister cities? You know, when people come to Cleveland, they usually like it.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:41:36]:
They just have to get on this road. That's true. But once they get here, it said, there's a huge opportunity here. I mean, I I can go on and on about why it's such a great place. But as we look out in the future, we know that being on the Great Lakes, the largest body of fresh water in the world is meaningful. And that's meaningful not just to to this country, but meaningful to the rest of the world. And when you bring someone here and take them down to East 9th and say, they say that's an ocean. No.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:42:00]:
That's that's Lake Erie. You know? It it boggles people's mind. Even we used to bring people in from LA, and they said that's that's a lake. And, you know, they've never been here before. Yeah. It's a lake.

Jeffrey Stern [00:42:10]:
Maybe it is a little cart before the horse. But how do you think about brand and a name and the crests and, right, things that that maybe seem aesthetic, but I think I think matter quite quite a lot?

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:42:23]:
Totally. And and it's been so cool, like, unsolicited. I take a lot of breakfast at at Shay's at at East 40 at Saint Clair. And I've had some breakfast recently with marketers or branders who just wanna be involved. They love soccer. This is what they do in their day job. And they've given great ideas. And they said, and and I mean, some of them are very sophisticated decks and it's like, that's a great idea.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:42:45]:
And I think ultimately, we wanna, you know, involve the community and and involve, you know, you know, what names resonate. We also ultimately have to find something, you know, that that we also like, but it's gonna be a process, an iterative process that that we wanna go wide with and and and bring that involvement. But we we at the end of the day, you want it to be something Cleveland, and it's gotta resonate with with Cleveland. You know, that's really important. On the color side, I mean, we'll figure it out. I'm I'm color blind, so I'll let others know.

Jeffrey Stern [00:43:16]:
I am as well. Well, just to, you know, paint the the rest of the the picture here, you know, in a in a future looking perspective, what what what is the timeline look like as as you envision it? What what has you most excited, you know, over the next 6 months, year? How are you thinking about the the kind of progress that you'll be able to make and, you know, in kind of retrospect, the impact along the way that that you hope to have?

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:43:44]:
Sure. I I think the 25 meter target, to go back to my my army days, is, like, it's facilities and securing the site and and building the you know, getting that stadium underway. We need to do that if we're gonna bring an NWSL club to Cleveland, and so that's really critical. We don't know when the next round of expansion is gonna be with NWSL, but there are 15 teams now, and they it's going to be a national league. So we know they're going to do more, and then we want to be absolutely ready because they love the market. They love the the passion in Cleveland. They love they could be a top soccer brand in town. We just need to make sure that we've got, some of our our loose ends tied up and and and working daily on those.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:44:20]:
So that's that's very much the near future. I think, though, at some point this year, we will absolutely undertake a branding session for for the next pro team. You know, we we are gonna kick off in in in 25 there. It'd be amazing. And I think it's still possible to kick off in a new facility, a new stadium by March of 25, but things have to happen in short order. But the good news is that we have a lot of support and a lot of people understand that like, we should be doing this. It should be done now so Cleveland can have a seat at the table when the World Cup comes to United States and and North America in 26. And, you know, to that end, you know, we're not gonna host any World Cup matches.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:44:55]:
Those that ship has sailed in 2018 or whenever FIFA said that North America was gonna get the World Cup. It's gonna be at major cities and, you know, in the US and and Mexico and Canada. But we are putting an application in. You know, I've joined the US Soccer Development Council, Really just to kinda understand what that bureaucracy is because we're all in on this and and that's the top, you know, that the federation is is is where it all happens at the the highest level. And I see, again, going forward, if we do this right, like Cleveland has the ability to be a pillar of US soccer. And when we look out 15, 20 years from now, we'd say, on the national team, that that, you know, that woman, she came from Cleveland. That girl came from Cleveland. That kid came from Cleveland.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:45:37]:
We we produced that player. And but we need to have a seat at the table, I think, in order to understand how it all works. So we're gonna put an application in to be a training base camp for 26. So for example, there's gonna be and this is happening right now. The the 26 world cup will expand from 32 to 48 teams. And FIFA will offer 72 TBCs, training base camps, to these nations. We're not gonna host a match, but Cleveland's you know, centrally located. We're a great place to be in the summer.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:46:05]:
We have some of the practice facilities they would be looking for. It's not perfect yet. We have to you know, but we're gonna throw our hat in the ring and see wouldn't it be amazing if we're hosting Cameroon or Australia or France leading up to that for the 40 5, 60 days? And, you know, obviously cheering on the stars and stripes, but you can have a second team that that trained here in Cleveland. So we're trying to put our hat in the ring. So the branding I I mentioned would kick off later this year. Obviously, we wanna be ready when when an expansion happens again with NWSL. That that timing is TBD. But I think that, you know, with the Women's World Cup happening this year, these investment bankers are on the process, and and I would use something exciting like that to kick off some, process to try to to to get large license fees, which is what their job is.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:46:53]:
And then they just got them. I mean, these last two teams went for $50,000,000 each, which was substantial increase over, you know, 3 years ago where those teams were going for $3,000,000 But you're starting to see, I mentioned the the the fans in in in those West Coast cities. You're seeing Angel City with large valuations. You're seeing real sponsorship dollars coming into clubs. And so, you know, the future, I think, is very bright for for soccer in this country.

Jeffrey Stern [00:47:19]:
What what has been the the biggest surprises, lessons along the way? I, you know, I imagine there there was some transferable, you know, experience from from gravitas, but it feels like such a an alien world from from the outside. What are you taking with you in terms of just, you know, more like the entrepreneurial experience of it?

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:47:40]:
I guess the one is, like, don't get dismayed or disturbed that there's a lot of gray out there right now because it's it's throwing a lot of darts up there, especially with where are you gonna put things? Where are you gonna go? We don't have one thing I've learned, my background is not in real estate development, but there is no central repository of sites that are available. Team Neo is fantastic. They have some ideas. The county land bank has some ideas. The city land bank has some ideas. And so you've got to talk to all of them because they don't necessarily I mean, they talk to each other, but, you know, I wake up every morning thinking about this. And they like it, but, you know, I've gotta keep keep driving it forward with with our team that we have. So there's no central repository, which makes it a little bit, you know, harder to quickly navigate this.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:48:28]:
You've gotta, you know, go down a lot of of paths. That that's a lesson learned. I think the other piece is that just like the positive response I've gotten when I when I talk to people about this. Everyone's kind of nodding their head, yes, I see this. You talk to parents, they're like, yes. I'm tired of driving to Lodi for taking up my whole Saturday. It's an hour there, 40 minutes on the field, and an hour and a half back and and, you know, as opposed to somewhere much closer. I'd love to solve that problem.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:48:57]:
I think it goes a long way to to fulfilling a lot of the long term goals that we have. That that's been reassuring. And then I think also it's just like the amount of people that actually like soccer. It's fascinating. You know, there's just and I think the World Cup does a lot for that. And and we're we know it'll happen when it comes in 26. So, you you talk to people, they're like, yeah. I really was enjoying watching all those matches.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:49:21]:
It's it's fun to watch and it's fun to think about, you know, the the songs that our our clubs and our supporters will sing and and the chance that they'll they'll have.

Jeffrey Stern [00:49:30]:
Yeah. I I imagine those will be a lot of fun. It has been very cool as also someone who has not really played competitively in a long time. But to see how soccer has grown and knowing internationally how important it is to people, how much more important it seems to become for people here. Really, it brings an energy to the sports. I think that that is different than the the the energies of of other sports that that we participate in and watch in in America.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:50:02]:
I totally agree. I mean, and go down to, you know, encourage anyone to go to to a Columbus crew match right down the road. It's an unbelievable stadium that they built there. Great products on the field. Great fan base. They've got a supporters group, Nordeka, related to a German club. And then they've branded the different areas of the stadium for different parts of the city. It just feels very community friendly, and and then you have this march to the match where you see the fans and their scarves and their their their pyro and their smoke and their whistles and their air horns, and and it's going.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:50:36]:
And let's go. We're all going together. Doesn't matter what you look like, how old you are, where you came from. We're all, you know, gonna gonna cheer on this this this team to victory today.

Jeffrey Stern [00:50:46]:
So I wanna leave a a greenfield question here for you because I I can't imagine we've covered all the important topics, and and and covered the full breadth of it. But is there is there anything important about this journey so far, about the vision you have, about the the process about football and Cleveland soccer rather that, that you think is important that that that we haven't touched on yet?

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:51:10]:
We've covered a lot. I think it's important to just kinda stay with it because there's gonna be ups and downs. And there's not it's not a it's not a straight path. It's not a 4 sided Rubik's cube. It's a 5 or 6 sided Rubik's cube. So it's me and then everybody else that wants this tomorrow. When does it happen? When can I try out? Well, it's coming. But we wanna do it right.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:51:30]:
We also don't wanna rush into it. And I think that that's also been, you know, when I talk about being the North Star, it means doing things right. Being capitalized enough to actually take on what we're about to take on. It's not an inexpensive project just to to do all those things. And making sure that we have the right buy in and that people are are getting involved for for the the right reasons. If they're on the the investor side, they have to have the same kind of long term vision that I do. Otherwise, I don't think it's gonna it's gonna work. This is not a, you know, it's a business.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:52:04]:
We we hope to make money. We hope, like, other professional, sports assets that that the asset appreciates over time. And historically, professional sports assets do. A lot of people don't understand this can be transformative for Cleveland as as we try to, I don't wanna say rejoin the global community, but but, you know, make a mark in the global community. And and they're just whether it's a sister cities or or working with the the matriarch and patriarch again here, there's some low hanging fruit out there. Let's go grab that because low hanging fruit tastes just as good as the hard fruit. Right? Yeah.

Jeffrey Stern [00:52:37]:
Yeah. It's really an exciting, you know, whole whole endeavor that you're undertaking. I think it really could be transformative for the city. And I feel inspired enough to like, after this go, you know, re up my my old referee certification and get involved voluntarily.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:52:54]:
You know,

Jeffrey Stern [00:52:54]:
I think it, it really is a very cool project.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:52:58]:
I forget. There's, like, class a, class b licenses, and we need you to do it.

Jeffrey Stern [00:53:03]:
Yeah. I it was for high school. It was never, you know, that competitive of a level, but

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:53:07]:
Well, no. I know. Well, I mean, like, I was just sitting with America's scores this morning. Like, they need coaches both on the writing side and on the soccer side, just to put it out there. And we want to be, you know, I want to echo whatever messages they're putting out because I think that what they're doing is is really important and it'll be this kind of rising tide that that it could all grow together. And, and you look where it's it's worked. I mean, you it really worked in LA, in LAFC. It's really worked in Columbus.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:53:32]:
It's really worked in Charlotte. Austin, unbelievable. Now you again, you got Matthew McConaughey down there, but like, Austin has taken this in and it's it's it's it's a big deal. It works in Seattle. Drew Carey is is, you know, our our own clevener leads the charge out in Seattle out there. And and if you're in Seattle on a match day, you know the Sounders are playing. You absolutely know because it's just like, you know, the Browns are playing if you're in downtown on Sunday.

Jeffrey Stern [00:54:01]:
Well, if if if people have, you know, an interest in in participating, volunteering, you know, offering their their opinions, being involved in in any capacity. What is the the best way for them to follow along on on this this journey?

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:54:17]:
Sure. So we've got a number of, you know, the social media properties are out there, but also I think just go to our website, which is clevelandprosoccer.com right now and and indicate your interest. There's a couple different ways you can indicate interest. And then and then but there's fill in it. Tell us tell us who you are and why you're interested. Because we're reading those, teams reading those, and we're trying to get back to folks in a in a orderly, you know, fashion. But we know, you know, people say, hey, I used to be a coach or, hey, I really wanna be on the branding side or, hey, I've got some good ideas for names. And we've and then we communicate with them know, via email and and and social media.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:54:52]:
And soon we hope to have, you know, some more content up there, whether it's it's it's, sponsoring City of Ohio Soccer Club or or otherwise, just so they can see what's going on.

Jeffrey Stern [00:55:03]:
Well, I'll ask you then, our traditional closing question. May maybe is is soccer unrelated, but but could involve soccer. I don't think anyone's proud of soccer yet, but it is for your favorite hidden gem in Cleveland. So for something that that other folks may not know about, but perhaps should.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:55:21]:
I'm a runner, and I like running the bridges downtown. I'm I'm over in Ohio City and there's nothing like running those bridges and seeing the skyline. It's free, obviously. You can run down to the flats and up and around. That's fantastic. And it runs sometimes so that I can eat. And I like I like pizza. I like Chiraci's Pizza in University Heights.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:55:43]:
They've got a couple restaurants, but it's my favorite pizza. Those are those are couple of gems.

Jeffrey Stern [00:55:47]:
Yeah. Those are those are great. I I run for the same reasons. Yeah. Awesome. Well, Michael, I I really appreciate you coming on today and and sharing, sharing more about, you know, the Cleveland soccer group and and the vision you have for for this. It's

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:56:02]:
it's

Jeffrey Stern [00:56:02]:
it really is very exciting. So thank you very much.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:56:05]:
Well, great. Thanks for having me on, and and I look forward to, look, we'll share this. This is I think it's an important, it's another great piece of content that we can add and and let people know what we're up to, you know. And, you know, you know, thanks for giving me the opportunity. It's a long form interview essentially that we're gonna lose details in some place. Yeah.

Jeffrey Stern [00:56:23]:
No, I think we got pretty pretty into it. So this was amazing. But again, appreciate it.

Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group) [00:56:29]:
Great. Thanks.

Jeffrey Stern [00:56:31]:
That's all for this week. Thank you for listening. We'd love to hear your thoughts on today's show, so if you have any feedback, please send over an email to jeffrey@layoftheland.fm, or find us on Twitter at podlayoftheland or at @sternjefe, j e f e. If you or someone you know would make a good guest for our show, please reach out as well and let us know. And if you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe and leave a review on iTunes or on your preferred podcast player. Your support goes a long way to help us spread the word and continue to bring the Cleveland founders and builders we love having on the show. We'll be back here next week at the same time to map more of the land