Build It

Listen in as John and Nik talk with Ivaldo Basso of @SteelCityFC1 Ivaldo is a straight talker who pulls no punches about what growth the club looks like for his club.

Our guest this week is Jesse Cole, founder of Fans First Entertainment and owner of the Savannah Bananas, an independent baseball team playing in the Coastal Plain League.

The Bananas have been awarded Organization of the Year, Business of the Year and won the CPL Championship in their first year.  Fans First Entertainment has been featured on the INC 5000 lists as one of the fastest growing companies in America. His teams have welcomed more than one million fans to their ballparks and have been featured on MSNBC, CNN, ESPN and in Entrepreneur Magazine. 

The Savannah Bananas currently have sold out every game since their first season and have a waiting list in the thousands for tickets.

Our guest this week is Arik Housley of Napa Valley 1839. Having robbed DKCU of a place in the next round of the Copa Insignia, we connected to discuss the club, the community, and how to grow a club in the current environment.

Full disclaimer here, technical issues which may or may not be related to my idiocy, meant that we are missing the first couple of minutes of the conversation. Apologies for that. All you need to know is that Arik and his colleagues elected to join the NPSL from the origin of their club in 2017.

Sorry!

Our guest today is Dorian Lair, General Manager of Snohomish County Football Club, situated to the North West of Seattle, Washington. Fun fact, the movie War Games, which listeners of a certain age will be very familiar with, was filmed in art in Snohomish High School.

For nearly 20 years, Kevin Rye has been at the center of a unique network of fans, clubs and decision makers in soccer and other sports. He is the owner of Think Fan Engagement, publisher of the Fan Engagement Index and the Fan Engagement Pod. He's former Head of Policy & PR at Supporters Direct/SD Europe. He also teaches on the Football Business and Media undergraduate program at UCFB, Wembley.

Listen in as he, John and Nik talk about what fan engagement really is, how clubs do it right, and, crucially, how wrong they get it too.

We spend a lot of time in US non-league soccer thinking about the playing side. If you club is going to be sustainable long term, and if it is going to be something your community gets behind, then you need an army of volunteers. There is only so much you and your founder group can do. If you have fans, you have volunteers. And if you have volunteers, you have fans.

But where do you find them, how do you create buy-in to the club ethos, and how do you ensure they stay around and help you grow the club?

Tobi Johnson is an internationally sought after expert and master trainer in volunteer engagement. She is known for her modern thought leadership, highly practical evidence-based strategies, and innovative, “big hat” thinking around engaging, supporting, and acknowledging the work of volunteers. Her website volpro.net offers free resources to help nonprofit organizations improve performance and increase impact through the power of people.

This may not be the episode you were expecting from a non-league soccer podcast. But it is perhaps the one it is most important that you will listen to today.

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After untold technological issues, we're back. For how long, lord knows. So get us while we're good*

The OVPL is the premier Adult Amateur soccer league in the IN, KY, OH, PA, WV region. Player development is a central focus of the League, as the league strives to promote the region at a national level. Along the way, we learn about what it takes to actually run a league, what clubs are looking for from leagues, and the remarkable lack of historied clubs in the Cincinnati area.

*bang average at best.

Minneapolis have become the poster child for a lot of non league clubs in the US. From starting out as a tribute to an old high school teacher, to their recent announcement of fielding a team in USL2, they have worked hard to engage their local community and to give players a year-round program. Jon Bisswurm has been there since Day One, and we are grateful to him for taking time to chat about all of it with us.

How do we ingrain amateur soccer into the community as it is in the  other established soccer nations? Bill Marth has literally written the book.

We talk the evolution of amateur soccer, and how the way amateur soccer can be reformed to grow the game, and foster sustainability and merit-based league play.

Buy the book here

The Online Rule covers the best practices in digital marketing in sport.