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Speaker 1: This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports show, where we

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Speaker 1: explore the big money issues in the world of sports.

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Speaker 1: I'm Scarlet Foo. Michael barr Is off today, but joining

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Speaker 1: me in their place the great Damien sass Hour, as

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Speaker 1: well as one of our fantastic guest hosts, Dan Schwartzman

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Speaker 1: of Bloomberg. Welcome, Dan, Hey, thank you. It's great to

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Speaker 1: be in the hot seat with you guys. The MLS

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Speaker 1: season is officially underway and this year the league introduced

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Speaker 1: a new expansion team in Saint Louis. The expansion side

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Speaker 1: made history as the Saint Louis se rallied to beat

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Speaker 1: Austin FC three to two in the inaugural match. Flash inside,

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Speaker 1: I need punk. I'm Saint Louis City guarded the labor

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Speaker 1: in five minutes to play the Brisionian intent on setting

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Speaker 1: it history on the pretty night of the season for

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Speaker 1: the newest team. Fantastic summary. There. Joining us now to

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Speaker 1: speak about all this is Carolyn Kindall. She is president

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Speaker 1: and CEO of Saint Louis City SC, the newest club

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Speaker 1: in the MLS. Carolyn, thank you for joining us today.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for having me so. You are a newcomer

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Speaker 1: to soccer, but not Saint Louis because you've got deep,

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Speaker 1: deep roots in the city and I know that you've

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Speaker 1: been trying to bring a pro team to Saint Louis

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Speaker 1: for a while. Now, why soccer? Why MLS? Well, I

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Speaker 1: think he's sort of asked a great question to to

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Speaker 1: sort of introduce this whole concept. So, my grandfather, Jack Taylor,

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Speaker 1: founder of Enterprise Holding, really believed in giving back to

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Speaker 1: the city of Saint Louis. That supported us all these

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Speaker 1: years to make Enterprise as successful, and it's he had

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Speaker 1: passed us through the generation. So my mom and my uncle,

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Speaker 1: and my aunt, certainly myself and my cousins, and so

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Speaker 1: one of the things that the family and the entire

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Speaker 1: ownership group was very excited about was really what it

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Speaker 1: could do for the city of Saint Louis. And so

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Speaker 1: when we started thinking about, you know, as the Taylor family,

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Speaker 1: what was the next big project and what would be

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Speaker 1: a great way to elevate the city of Saint Louis

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Speaker 1: back to an international stage, everybody kept saying soccer. And

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Speaker 1: so it began in twenty eighteen summer of twenty eighteen

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Speaker 1: where we really started to kind of do our research

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Speaker 1: and we found out that, you know, obviously, soccer is

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Speaker 1: an international sport, has a great fan base. Demographics are

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Speaker 1: quite different from some of the other sports we have

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Speaker 1: here in St. Louis, But we thought it was a

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Speaker 1: great way to really bring all of the micro communities

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Speaker 1: in Saint Louis together to support their official soccer football team.

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Speaker 1: Carolyn is Dan Schwartzman. First off, congratulations on getting the

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Speaker 1: franchise up and running there. You know, you look at

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Speaker 1: that city and it's a great sports city. The Cardinals

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Speaker 1: have such a classic historic fan base. The Rams didn't

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Speaker 1: leave because they didn't have fans. There was a lot

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Speaker 1: more to it. The Blues obviously are also a team

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Speaker 1: with a deep fan base. When you project attendance figures

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Speaker 1: as the years go on, what are you looking at here?

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Speaker 1: Are you looking at kind of a Columbus model eighteen

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Speaker 1: twenty five thousand, or do you think you guys can

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Speaker 1: grow into more of a major market like the New

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Speaker 1: York teams or LA So our stadium holds twenty two

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Speaker 1: five hundred currently. I think our plan is to sort

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Speaker 1: of hold at that number, you know, at least for

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Speaker 1: five to six years, because what we really want to

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Speaker 1: do is make sure that we're filling our stadium for

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Speaker 1: every match. Obviously, you know your inaugural year, you don't

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Speaker 1: really about ticket sales or you know, filling that stadium,

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Speaker 1: But we want to make sure that between certainly the

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Speaker 1: product on the pitch, but it's also more than that,

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Speaker 1: you know, we want to offer an elevated food and

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Speaker 1: beverage service. We've partnered with twenty five local restaurants to

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Speaker 1: make it truly a unique experience and so you as

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Speaker 1: a person and individual, can find different ways to enjoy

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Speaker 1: match days. So whether it's through music, whether it's through

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Speaker 1: food and beverage, or whether it's through the sport, we

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Speaker 1: want to make sure that we're constantly refreshing the products

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Speaker 1: that we have to offer. So it is more than

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Speaker 1: just a match. So Carolyn, you know, I just I

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Speaker 1: want you to take me through that what it's like

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Speaker 1: to be one of the few majority owned female teams

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Speaker 1: in all of sports. And look, I understand Jack's your grandfather.

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Speaker 1: By the way, for all our listeners, enterprise holdings, if

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Speaker 1: Alamo rental Car, Enterprise rental Car, that's Caroline's family, just

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Speaker 1: to be clear, but you also bought the team alongside

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Speaker 1: the Kavanaugh family and Jim Kavanaugh, if I'm not mistaken,

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Speaker 1: once played soccer for the LA Lasers, a major endorsed

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Speaker 1: soccer team once upon a time, and I'm curious what's

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Speaker 1: their involvement here. What's it like to be one of

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Speaker 1: the few female majority owned teams in professional sports. Well,

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Speaker 1: I think it starts really with a great foundation of

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Speaker 1: two really strong businessmens. So, yes, Jim Kavanaugh was a

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Speaker 1: very successful soccer player, but he also co founded a

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Speaker 1: very successful business here in Saint Louis, And so when

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Speaker 1: you really look at the majority female ownership, I sort

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Speaker 1: of joke around a little bit because that really was

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Speaker 1: is how my family was constructed. My uncle Andy At,

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Speaker 1: you know, was the last male born into the family

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Speaker 1: and all the generations below him. But when you look

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Speaker 1: at it from a business perspective, what better than to

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Speaker 1: have two very strong, successful families come together. And so

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Speaker 1: it's certainly about sport, but it really is, the end

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Speaker 1: of the day, is about a business. And so one

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Speaker 1: of the things I think we're very happy about is

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Speaker 1: we've tried to be very thoughtful about hires diversity in

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Speaker 1: all sense of the word. However, you identify what community

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Speaker 1: you come from there's a role for you to play here,

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Speaker 1: but more importantly, if you are the best in that position,

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Speaker 1: we're so excited to have you be part of citysc

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Speaker 1: I'm curious also how that translates into the planning and

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Speaker 1: the execution on everything related to the club, including the infrastructure.

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Speaker 1: I'm thinking about. City Park is the first post pandemic

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Speaker 1: stadium built to avoid long lines and crowd surges. But

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Speaker 1: as a woman, I'm thinking it should have more female

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Speaker 1: bathroom stalls than most stadiums because women end up in

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Speaker 1: these long lines while men move through very quickly. So

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Speaker 1: I will I'm happy to confirm that we do have

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Speaker 1: more female bathroom Thank you. My friend jokes around that,

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Speaker 1: She's like, clearly you help design the stadium, because that

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Speaker 1: might be one of the most beautiful public restrooms I've

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Speaker 1: ever been in. But no, I mean and all honestly though,

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Speaker 1: I think having that female majority ownership there are certain

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Speaker 1: things that we think about. But I think it's also

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Speaker 1: important to point out that we've really tried to engage

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Speaker 1: people from the community and from all communities really because

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Speaker 1: we really want to understand how people are going to

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Speaker 1: feel safe and comfortable and really appreciate and look forward

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Speaker 1: to coming to City Park, whether it's matchday or non

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Speaker 1: match day, Carolyn, the league has grown exponentially obviously over

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Speaker 1: the years to where you have the first billion dollar

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Speaker 1: franchise now corn to Forbes, that is La, of course,

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Speaker 1: one of the two and the other ones nine twenty five.

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Speaker 1: I think, so it's made huge strides. That said, though

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Speaker 1: recently Christianna Ronaldo was a free agent and we know

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Speaker 1: Kansas City apparently made a big effort to get him.

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Speaker 1: Instead he goes to Saudi Arabia takes the money. Do

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Speaker 1: you think MLS as a league and all the owners

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Speaker 1: together should have probably done more because of what it

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Speaker 1: could have brought to the league in terms of notoriety

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Speaker 1: to bring in a guy of that stature. Good question.

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Speaker 1: You know, I can't really honestly speculate on what other

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Speaker 1: owners should do. I think one of the things, and

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Speaker 1: by the way, the MLS ownership has been absolutely amazing

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Speaker 1: to me and my family throughout this whole process, so

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Speaker 1: whether it was tours of their stadium, letting us talk

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Speaker 1: to their teams as well, So I think from that perspective,

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Speaker 1: this ownership group really does believe in supporting one another.

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Speaker 1: I think the other side to that is I think

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Speaker 1: there's so much amazing homegrown talent here in the United States,

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Speaker 1: and I think that you have clubs that are really

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Speaker 1: excited to start being able to use their academy system,

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Speaker 1: the development team and really just bring US soccer players

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Speaker 1: to an international level as well. You know, selfishly in

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Speaker 1: Saint Louis, we have some of the best academy kids,

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Speaker 1: hands down, and they continue to win tournaments and prove themselves.

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Speaker 1: And one thing I would like to do in a

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Speaker 1: couple of years is be watching a World Cup match

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Speaker 1: and say that was a kid that came from Saint Louis. Carolyn,

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Speaker 1: I agree with you on that the talent level here

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Speaker 1: in America has grown. But that said though a lot

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Speaker 1: of the top players like Weston McKenney, Christian Pulic, Surgeno Desk,

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Speaker 1: they all go to Europe to play. So even from

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Speaker 1: say FC Dallas is a add what can be done

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Speaker 1: over the next few years and you now, as one

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Speaker 1: of the owners here of course, in the league, to

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Speaker 1: try to keep that homegrown cream of the crop talent

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Speaker 1: from not going to Europe and staying here and kind

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Speaker 1: of showing us what they can do well. I think

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Speaker 1: you've got a couple of things that are really exciting.

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Speaker 1: So the MLS partnership with Apple, I mean that's the

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Speaker 1: first of its kind, and so I think that that's

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Speaker 1: really going to be able to draw a lot more

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Speaker 1: fans than linear TV. And what I mean by that

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Speaker 1: is we have a Bosnian player. Our hope is is

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Speaker 1: that people in Bosnia are signing into the City st

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Speaker 1: page because they want to watch one of their own

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Speaker 1: playing be successful. I think number two, I think better

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Speaker 1: understanding the demographics and how do you market them and

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Speaker 1: how do you make them very loyal fans as a

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Speaker 1: focus not only for MLS as a whole, but as

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Speaker 1: teams in general. And I think that there's just from

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Speaker 1: what I'm seeing that there's sort of a shift in

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Speaker 1: how the new, the younger generations how they consume sports,

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Speaker 1: and soccer really is a big, big part of how

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Speaker 1: big sports that they really want to watch. And so

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Speaker 1: I think truthfully what you're saying is keep homegrown talent.

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Speaker 1: Here can be done. I think it's just sort of

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Speaker 1: you have to be innovative outside the box. But I

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Speaker 1: think they get more of them. I think we definitely

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Speaker 1: will be able to keep that talent here in the US. So, Karen,

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Speaker 1: let's talk soccer here. I mean, I'm sorry, football, let's

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Speaker 1: talk about you know, you know, what's it like to

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Speaker 1: build out a team. You know, you brought in South

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Speaker 1: African former footballers, your coach Bradley Carnal. I mean, an

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Speaker 1: amazing job there. You know, you've got great talent. You know,

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Speaker 1: how do you build this out? You know what went

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Speaker 1: into that? You know what went into the decision making?

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Speaker 1: How involved are you and all of that. Well, first

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Speaker 1: of all, I hired the best boarding director at luc

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Speaker 1: Span and Steel, who from day one I was very

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Speaker 1: clear about I don't know anything about them, So I

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Speaker 1: joke around. We've been together three years. He has probably

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Speaker 1: by far hands down one of the best scouters in

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Speaker 1: the entire sport. And so when he would come to

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Speaker 1: me with okay, we have to agree on our playing style.

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Speaker 1: Our playing style is aggressive, high and so once we

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Speaker 1: started having those conversations, then he started to show me

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Speaker 1: how you build a roster um and so it's you know,

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Speaker 1: I've spent I think twelve hours on the expansion drafts

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Speaker 1: with him. I spent another you know, ten hours on

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Speaker 1: the super drafts, and so really the truth of the

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Speaker 1: matter is is I trust Blots, and I trust Bradley

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Speaker 1: Carnell and all the coaches because they, at the end

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Speaker 1: of the day, are the experts. What's been really exciting, though,

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Speaker 1: is being able to see the other side of what

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Speaker 1: we're doing, and that is looking for those young kids

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Speaker 1: that grew up in a more high, high, you know,

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Speaker 1: high press, high aggressive academy system, and so I think

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Speaker 1: there have been some you know, who is that kind

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Speaker 1: of moment, But as you saw at our first match,

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Speaker 1: they came together very well. They're you know, they're they're

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Speaker 1: they're a good team both on and off the pitch.

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Speaker 1: But more importantly, they're having fun and they're working hard,

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Speaker 1: and that's all I came out for. You're listening to

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio Carol and kimdall

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Speaker 1: Is president and CEO of Saint Louis City SC and

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Speaker 1: of course, this is the first majority female owned club

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Speaker 1: in MLS history and one of the few in professional

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Speaker 1: sports globally. You talk about this pipeline of young talent,

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Speaker 1: these academy kids, can you give us a sense of

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Speaker 1: what kind of community engagement you'll be doing to further

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Speaker 1: solidify that relationship with the club. So absolutely so. We

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Speaker 1: created our own academy systems that's free because we wanted

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Speaker 1: to sure that soccer was accessible to everybody in the region.

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Speaker 1: Along with that, we have way to play, so we're

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Speaker 1: hosting clinics throughout the city of Saint Louis. Really it's

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Speaker 1: sort of as an intro to soccer. We also want

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Speaker 1: to make sure that we're you know, interweaving other skill

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Speaker 1: life skills as well, so it's not just about the sport,

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Speaker 1: but it could be about problem solving, really putting an

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Speaker 1: emphasis on teamwork and so we've had great partners with

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Speaker 1: the y MCA as one of them in particular, where

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Speaker 1: we just go to one of their locations, send our

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Speaker 1: any coaches out and really try to make it a

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Speaker 1: fun experience. We also host Soccer one oh one, so

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Speaker 1: we do have events it parks around town that it's

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Speaker 1: just like, hey, come out and see what this is

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Speaker 1: all about, and so we've had a lot of success there.

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Speaker 1: We also have an amazing director of Community Relations who's

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Speaker 1: working on how we can integrate the players more into

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Speaker 1: the community. So whether it's food banks, meals on Wheels

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Speaker 1: certainly passed there a big deal. We just want to

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Speaker 1: make sure that our players are accessible to everybody in

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Speaker 1: the region. Carol, and I think you saw yourself a

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Speaker 1: little short in terms of soccer knowledge. You've used the

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Speaker 1: word pitch and mash already, so you are ahead of

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Speaker 1: the American population. So patch yourself on the back for that.

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Speaker 1: But World Cup as good a sporting event as there

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Speaker 1: ever is. You don't have to be a soccer slash

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Speaker 1: football fan to enjoy it. Everybody loves it. Four years

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Speaker 1: from now, it's going to be here in this state.

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Speaker 1: What does it mean for the sport and what does

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Speaker 1: it mean for the MLS. Well, I think that it's

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Speaker 1: going to be huge, honestly, and even more exciting is

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Speaker 1: we actually have a professional soccer team now. I think

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Speaker 1: you saw it. I mean, what was the the World

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Speaker 1: Cup final match? I mean had some of the highest

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Speaker 1: viewership in the entire world of any other quessional sport.

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Speaker 1: And I think that that right there sets the tone

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Speaker 1: that people really do enjoy soccer and I myself have

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Speaker 1: gotten into it for many many reasons, but the passion

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Speaker 1: and the beauty. I understand why it's called the beautiful game. Now.

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Speaker 1: But I think to be able to host such an

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Speaker 1: incredible world event here in the US and be able

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Speaker 1: to showcase, you know, all the cities and all the

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Speaker 1: great you know places that North America can offer is huge.

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Speaker 1: And we're lucky because Kansas City, I believe, was selected

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Speaker 1: to host one of the matches. So you know, to

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Speaker 1: be able to send people down there and have it

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Speaker 1: in our backyard is just a great feeling. But I

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Speaker 1: think it's really just going to continue to elevate professional

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Speaker 1: soccer here in the United States. Carolyn, question for you.

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Speaker 1: You know, sports gambling obviously has taken the country by storm,

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Speaker 1: you know, and obviously in you know, places like Europe.

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Speaker 1: I mean it's been there since forever, gambling on football.

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Speaker 1: And I'm just curious what your thoughts are on sports

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Speaker 1: gambling in the US. Do you think it's a good

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Speaker 1: thing a bad thing? Does it create any concerns for

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Speaker 1: you amongst you know, the people who are employed by St.

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Speaker 1: Louis FC. Is it is it something that potentially could

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Speaker 1: be good for the st sport in terms of you know,

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Speaker 1: creating awareness. I'm just curious to your thoughts on all that.

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Speaker 1: You know, I think it's too early to tell if

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Speaker 1: it's going to be good or bad. I think what

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Speaker 1: is exciting Noah does drive engagement with fans, and just

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Speaker 1: looking at some of the statistics I've seen because sports

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Speaker 1: gambling isn't currently legal in Missouri, but what some of

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Speaker 1: the partners we've talked to, I mean, it really does

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Speaker 1: bring people to the sport. And so I think that,

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Speaker 1: you know, just like with anything right now, it's it's

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Speaker 1: too soon to say if it's a good thing or

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Speaker 1: a bad thing. I think it does have to be

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Speaker 1: very carefully monitored. Um and I think, you know, you

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Speaker 1: just have to be aware of, you know, how you

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Speaker 1: structure your partnerships. But I think more importantly, anything that

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Speaker 1: brings engagement and drives that interaction is a good thing.

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Speaker 1: You mentioned people to the sport. I want to ask

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Speaker 1: you about MLS and it's partnership with Apple TV and

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Speaker 1: how Apple TV will be airing the games. And it's

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Speaker 1: interesting because obviously you need to be a subscriber to

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Speaker 1: Apple Plus, and the numbers there are not as broad

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Speaker 1: as say Netflix or even Amazon Prime. Is this a

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Speaker 1: good thing for MLS? For MLS to be aired on Apple?

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Speaker 1: One hundred percent think it is, and one of I'll

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Speaker 1: use a perfect example. A good friend of mine lives

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Speaker 1: in London and he loves the fact that he can

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Speaker 1: go watch the match in the morning because it's the

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Speaker 1: same time every week. And one of the things that

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Speaker 1: I think MLS always struggled with was, you know, there

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Speaker 1: wasn't a consistent day where matches were played, it wasn't

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Speaker 1: a consistent time. It was hard to find the matches.

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Speaker 1: But in this case, now you know that there is

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Speaker 1: a match that will be available. You know, obviously during

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Speaker 1: the during the match itself, but you can go back

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Speaker 1: to the next thing and watch it, which is where

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Speaker 1: I think that they're going to draw an interesting crowd hopefully. Selfishly,

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Speaker 1: I was like, highly international because you now have that

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Speaker 1: accessibility to watch that match whenever it's convenient for you.

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Speaker 1: I do think the consistency about when they're going to

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Speaker 1: start and what days they're on is a big deal,

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Speaker 1: because I myself would struggle finding matches because you just

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Speaker 1: never knew what day, what time, what channel, and I

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Speaker 1: think it created a lot of confusion. Carolyn, last question

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Speaker 1: from me with the Apple deal, obviously you know the

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Speaker 1: eyes in your local market will be the biggest. Are

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Speaker 1: you allowed to have a local TV sponsor. What's the

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Speaker 1: deal with Apple in terms of availability in the local community.

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Speaker 1: You know, I think this because this is the first year.

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Speaker 1: Everybody's sort of, you know, trying to figure everything out.

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Speaker 1: As of right now, we do not have a local

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Speaker 1: TV sponsor, but we do have radio. Are you allowed

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Speaker 1: to have TV? We are not allowed to have TV? Okay,

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Speaker 1: but we have radio, which is exciting. Soccer on any

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Speaker 1: platform is exciting. Oh, I agree, Carol. One last question

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Speaker 1: for you from my side, you know, seeing as you

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Speaker 1: don't have any problems with sports gampling, I'm actually looking

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Speaker 1: at the lines for whose favorite to win the MLS

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Speaker 1: Cup in twenty twenty three. Austin FC plus eight hundred

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Speaker 1: you knocked them out this last week and well done,

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Speaker 1: but all the way at the bottom Saint Louis City

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Speaker 1: plus eight thousand, Carolyn. I mean, what is going on there?

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Speaker 1: We're gonna have to do something about that now. I

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Speaker 1: secretly like being the underdogs. Well done, We're going to

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Speaker 1: knock off LA this year. Let's do it. I have

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Speaker 1: my biggest hope if I were to define success on

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Speaker 1: this team this year, is that we certainly bring the

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Speaker 1: drama and the energy which we did. But I think

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Speaker 1: really more importantly, I want this entire community to be

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Speaker 1: wearing jerseys and kids at the end of the year

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Speaker 1: with their favorite player because they feel that attachment to

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Speaker 1: them and they want to support them. And I think

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Speaker 1: that if that happens, then we had a very successful team.

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Speaker 1: I have no doubt that these are an incredibly talented

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Speaker 1: group of i'd say young and young men, because we

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Speaker 1: have some seventeen year olds are going to be up

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Speaker 1: and cupping rock stars. However, I would be publically happy

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Speaker 1: if we finish, not in where we're predicted to finish. Carolin,

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Speaker 1: really appreciate your joining us and making time for us.

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Speaker 1: Carol and Kendall is president and CEO of Saint Louis

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Speaker 1: City SC and of course, this is the first majority

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Speaker 1: female owned club in MLS history and one of the

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Speaker 1: few in professional sports globally. Really appreciate your joining us.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much. This is the Bloomberg Business of

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Speaker 1: Sports podcast. I'm Scarlet Foo and find me on Twitter

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Speaker 1: at Scarlet Foo and you can find me on Twitter

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Speaker 1: at d sass Hour and I'm Dan Schwartzman Dan Underscore Shorts.

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Speaker 1: Oh you have to change it up there, all right,

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Speaker 1: thank you for listening, and be sure to catch us

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Speaker 1: here each and every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, of course,

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Speaker 1: as we continue to explore the world of money and sports.

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Speaker 1: This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports. I'm Bloomberg Radio

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Speaker 1: around the world.