Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're making snow Angels in the confetti with the NWSL champion Orlando Pride. It's Monday, November twenty fifth, and on today's show you'll hear our interview with Kansas City current owner Chris Long, who joined us for a fun live show Saturday morning in Kansas City, plus producer Misha and I recap all the fun of NWSL Championship weekend, two giant upsets in the City of Angels and a dynasty unseated. It's all
coming up right after this. Welcome back Orange Slaic says, here's what you need to know today in NWSL news, It's all over. The Orlando Pride defeated the Washington Spirit one nil in Saturday's NWSL Championship game behind a goal from superstar striker Barbara Banda in the thirty seventh minute. With the win, the Pride became the first team since twenty nineteen and just the third all time to win both the NWSL Shield for the best regular season record
and the NWSL title as well. Band of the game's MVP had four playoff goals. That's a new single postseason NWSL record. It was also the first NWSL title win for six time World Player of the Year Marta, who's been with the Pride since twenty seventeen. Lots more on that game later in the show. In other soccer news, Indiana feverstar Caitlin Clark is part of the ownership group trying to bring an NWSL expansion team to Cincinnati. The ownership group of MLS team FC Cincinnati is leading the bid,
competing with groups from Cleveland, Denver, Nashville, and Philadelphia. The city chosen for the league's next expansion team is expected to be announced before the end of the year. The team would begin playing twenty twenty six, joining Boston to bring the league to sixteen teams. College hoops News All eyes were on Los Angeles this weekend, the site of two Marquee matchups that ended up being two big upsets.
On Saturday, Number six Notre Dame took out Number three USC seven sixty one, handing the Trojans their first loss of the season. Hanna Hidalgo and Olivia Miles combined to score or assist on sixty three of Notre Dame's points, becoming the second pair of teammates in the last twenty five years and the first since two thousand and seven to each have twenty points, five rebounds and five assists
against an AP Top ten opponent. Then, on Sunday, top rank South Carolina and Don Staley put their forty three game win streak on the line against number five UCLA at Pauley Pavilion, and the Game Cocks watched it fall. UCLA emerged victorious seventy seven sixty two, beating the defending champs and earning the team's first ever win over a
top ranked opponent. Balanced attack from the Bruins. Senator Lauren Betts had eleven points and fourteen rebounds, Guard London Jones had fifteen points on five three pointers, and guard Elina Arnossalo had thirteen points, four assists, and three rebounds. This game was completely UCLA's start to finish. They never trailed and enjoyed a twenty plus point lead in the fourth. In fact, the home crowd was channing overrated at the Game Cocks in the final minute. Looks like we'll be
getting a new number one in women's college basketball. Finally, college field hockey a massive upset in the national tournament as number four Saint Joseph's took down undefeated number one North Carolina and friend of the Show Aaron Mattson in the semi finals on Friday. Carolina's bid for a national title three peat ended, while the Hawks earned a spot
in the finals for the first time in program history. Meantime, Northwestern defeated Massachusetts in the other semi to make it to the title game, and it was the Northwestern Wildcats who defeated Saint Joseph's five nothing to win it all. It's the second title for Northwestern, who have played for the Field Hockey Championship in four straight seasons, last winning it in twenty twenty one. All right, slices, We're still recovering from an epic weekend in Kansas City for the
NWSL championship game. I left Spain, went straight to Kansas City and met up with Mesh where we hit the parties, hit the game, meche ate all the barbecue, and we really got a sense for how much the Kansas City current are ingrained in this city, how much they've been embraced. It would have been a real blast to see the current in this game, the way that those fans rally around that team, but ultimately watching mart to win her first title with the Pride and getting Meche even though
they lost. To watch their favorite team in the spirit was a pretty good time as well, so meiche Let's recap some of the best parts of the weekend. We'll get to the game at the end, but first a couple of things we got to experience before the game even happened that were pretty cool. One was the skills competition, which ended up airing on TV on a delay, so we got to see live what I can only describe as a chaotically enjoyable mess. Is that accurate to you?
I think that that's exactly what the script road use.
It was at the Kansas City Current Facility, their practice facility, which is a beautiful space. The sunset was gorgeous. It looked like they had paid for it to be that red color in the Kansas City Current logos and Sam Ewis was hosting Big Golden Retriever Energy hilariously unsure of what was going on almost the entire time because the scoreboard broke, so she's trying to keep track of the scores of the one v ones of the players versus the keepers. Then this insane game called the Gauntlet and
then you know, the attempts to hit the crossbar. It was a mess, but in the best possible way. And I have to admit we've been running around. I haven't gotten to watch the TV broadcast. I dvr'd it, but I'm curious how they pulled it all together. There were a lot of redos. There was a lot of like not knowing what was happening. There were calls for var during his skills competition because multiple times the Black team thought they won and Sam was like, not yet, I don't think you won yet.
Craziness, yeah, chaos, very much, chaos, very much cold. I was getting clown the entire time because Mary.
Candy was apparently, so I'll.
Take Candy as that's why you were getting clowned.
I thought I was gonna die.
I was wearing zero jacket, zero hat, zero gloves, totally fine, cold drink in my hand, and me, she's your Chicago down me she's huddling by a heater. But saw so many people there was really fun and just really fun. You'll hear in our interview later on this week that we sat down with Angels City Center back Sarah Gordon and we were trying to hype her up, Mesh and I to pull Rachel Kudnanji and stand on the ball in her one v one because she was bemoaning the idea of having to do a one v one as
a center back. She's like, what the hell am I supposed to be doing up there? And we're like, oh my god, pull a Kundananji stand on the ball, like pull the goalie towards you. And she's like, I'm totally doing I'm totally doing it. If I don't do it, it's because I chickened out. We're like, oh, well, no, well no, it's because you chickened out. And she did.
Yeah, that's fully what happened. Not even once it has seemed halfway like she did do it. But that's fine, that's okay. It's easy to say as a spectator you should do something, and harder to do.
It was a good time, though, and I loved it. When the winning team was getting their checks, I could hear Sam Muis yell off Mike barbecues on you, So hopefully Sam got that free free barbecue from the winners. Later on that night, we had a great dinner with some friends. Lots of laughs, too many laughs, and then ended up at the Just Women's Sports party, which went off.
Yeah.
Not only was there a slide in the party that Misha and I both took upon making our exit, but so many players, so many greats of old Melissa Ethernche. We got to meet Grant Hill, we got to meet Misha was much more excited to meet Grant Hill's wife, Tama.
Okay, first of all, let's set the record straight, because I don't want him to hear this.
And be like, uh oh, okay, I do want him to hear this.
It was about both of them.
I just to Mia has a dance right now to a song that I'm trying to learn, and I was gonna try to.
Coercior and to teach you how to do it.
But by the time the night was over we actually got to talk to her. I was in no place to be trying to learn how to do a dance.
I wish you told me that, because that's like, that's like the best possible TikTok would be to learn the dance from the person who has the dance. Like that would have been epic. Shit meishe Why didn't you tell me?
That?
Was the plan I was trying.
I tried to get you to listen to the song It's too loud, listen too loud.
It was just I told you my plan, which was take a photo with Grant Hill and try not to tell him I've had sexual thoughts about him for like multiple decades. And I accomplished my plan.
You just had to stay fifty feet away at all the time.
No. I took a photo and I touched him, but I managed not to tell him that he still got it and always will.
God is Brad listening?
Brad's always listening, Hi, Brad. Brad would admit Grant Hill still got it. So that was really fun. That was That was. It was a really fun party. It was a really cool vibe.
Oh and we have to mention all of the freaking US Women's National Team Team Canada NWUSL grades who just ended up on the dance floor absolutely sweating their butts off. I was so happy to see Desi Scott. Yeah, life of the party, Yeah.
Moves all of it. That.
There was folks over there, yeah, the destroyer. So many folks were over there having.
A great time.
Well, I mean, only because you bring that up, I have to mention that mische was in her introvert mode, being all like, oh, I'm just a little tired. I don't know, you know, if my wife was here, things might be different. But I'm tired. I don't know if I'm gonna stay. And I'm like, how do you know your wife's not here? Look around there's like eight thousand hot gay women here and they were like, oh, it's not my type. I'm like, what do you mean? There's
literally every type in here. And then I went away to talk to some people, came back like fifteen minutes later, and Misha's on the dance were like this, why isn't everyone dancing? Why is everyone being some lamp get out here? And I'm like, okay, we flipped the switch. Now Mish must have found some contenders for WiFi. And now we flipped the switch and Misha's in extrovert mode.
Don't do me.
What happened was when we first cross Paths, I was half a glass of red wine in by the time we crossed Paths.
The second time.
You need liquid courage, is what you're saying.
Yes, I was in the last throws of my second glass, which they were poured them heavy.
And you did tell me that you're a lightweight, so you only need I guess two.
Glasses exactly, exactly.
All right, Well, I'm not gonna say anything except she got a number. I'm gonna leave it at that. Oh, I'm gonna leave it some digits, Okay. So the next morning we get up and we've got our live show at Westport Cafe, which was the blast. Lots of sponsors and brands there and uh some great interviews and just some some you know, great time to hang out with. iHeart folks and I heart women's sports folks and really
get the show in fun of some people. We went from there to an Auto Straddle party and now let them not super familiar with, but a bunch of my friends are fans of their content, a lot of queer based content. So the party was for queers and allies,
so I was. I managed to slide in there, and man if there wasn't a beer pong game going on that Mesh and I instantly inserted ourselves into mishad first DIBs and if you want to see someone who used to be a college hooper, start out slow, then get into her flow and then start screaming after hitting the winning shot like it was the national damn championship.
Because you know why I was screamy because who was.
In the room, Sue and Pino.
I had to lock in my partner, Aaron shout out to Erin, if you're listening to this, thank you for being so clutch.
Aaron and I had to lock in a second.
I was like, I'm never gonna get another opportunity to do this very specific thing.
I gotta show out in front of the legends. I mean, at one point things got real slow as soon as they came in, and I'm like, everyone got real tight. Everyone was like we're in front of the Hall of Famers and couldn't hit a damn cup and then.
Mesh for the win.
And then hilariously, this very high profile financial investor Capital Group head comes in adorably and it's like, oh my god, I've always wanted to play this. It's just like the movies. And we're like, what, you've never played beer pong? Oh I've only seen it on television. And I'm like, all right, I'm gonna be your first. So she and I were teammates. We did our best. Meche did beat us, but the rules were unclear and tamates in her virgin efforts. So
I don't consider it an actual loss. It was more like a preseason game. And Misha and I will meet again. It is what loser's says. It is what loser's saying, we'll meet again on more even ground. But the auto Straddle party was a blast, just a really cool scene. And what was great about it too, was like Sue Bird on command walks in the room and immediately finds her remote and puts on the USC basketball game versus
Notre Dame. And I was like, this is the kind of party we're at and this is how it should be. And I love also that she didn't waste a second, hadn't even gotten a drink it and she was like, hold up, let me make sure this party's got things right. And when we were in can France over the summer, same exact thing we had after ours at our house and she immediately used like a full on hookup in another country to try to set up so that we
could watch some soccer women's soccer games. So shout out to sup Virtues always.
When I met you at that hotel before we went up to the party, I'm watching the game on my phone. You have to be locked in for a game like that.
You gotta be, you gotta.
So that was a good time. We went straight from that to the game. And first of all, we had not been to the Casey Current Stadium. Obviously we have heard so much about it. But what a scene right on the river, some really cool details. I hadn't been
there to see that. They dedicated the press room to Grant Wall, who, of course such a voice, such a presence for women's soccer for such a long time, and his really untimely and tragic death sat with all of us so much, and to be reminded of his presence and to be somewhere that was dedicated to women's soccer and a place there has been so much investment and care to presenting the sport and respecting the sport, it
just made sense to name that after Grant. Also some clever, clever moments from the was in charge of the press there. Jenna Toanelly, who is a friend of the show, has oft requested iced coffee on her social media handles. Oh, there should always be coffee at every game, and I would prefer it to be iced. So they had a dedicated Jenna Toanelly iced coffee station for that game. We love to see We love to see some pr teams with a little bit of a wink and you know,
having a little fun with the media. The game itself mesh not that great.
Yeah, I wanted Sarah thinks I'm insane for this, but I didn't think it was too crazy. I wanted at least five goals between the two teams. I wanted a three two score, give me four to give me something. And what we got it was cute, but I just needed more chaos.
And Lindsay Gives made a good point.
She was sitting with us high Lindsey, if you're listening to this, she made a good point that that's what makes certain championships so special because you don't always get that. Sometimes they're just boring and that's just what it is, and more often that's the case.
So I didn't say. I didn't say you were crazy for wanting that. I said you were crazy for thinking that's what was going to happen, especially against an Orlando Pride team with the defense that they had, and especially in a title game where it is most often going to be a little bit more of a tight game where you're trying not to make the mistake that sets up the other team, particularly when you've got a Barbara
Banda out there that is such a tremendous playmaker. It would be the same in reverse if Trinity Rodman was at one hundred percent. But when you know you have someone that can break a game on a single mistake with the speed of Barbara Banda, you're going to try to keep it pretty cagy and that's what they did. And it was a physical game, a lot of yellow cards.
It just it never got into a flow, i think, and the defensive style to avoid getting burned really just made it so it wasn't as exciting as, for instance, the semis. Those were great semi final games, and so the championship isn't always going to live up to that. But you know, the Spirit had more chances in the
first a better first half. But then all it takes is that one play over the top to Banda where she has to beat her defender, give a little deep and then to be fair, you know, afterwards there was a lot of people trying to take credit slash blame for what happened on that goal because she beat multiple defenders once she beat her original mark and then Aubrey Kingsbury,
fantastic keeper. The angle she beat her on probably shouldn't have probably shouldn't have gone in, And afterward Kingsbury did say she just felt bad that they had twenty five I think shots and couldn't put one in and on one of the few opportunities that the Pride had they did manage to score, but it was a great angle from Banda. And you know, the thing with the Spirit Meshe is that those twenty five chances, very few of them were on target exactly. They got looks, but they weren't good looks.
We felt like none of their attacks stream anything together, the passes, the runs. It just didn't feel like I think I told you and lindsay, everything feels a step out of sing.
I thought the first chunk of the first half.
They did a great job possessing the ball, but again weren't advancing up the field at all, and just there was no one.
You mentioned Trinity Rodman.
She had little bursts here and there, but you could tell it took a lot out of her when she did, and then you know, it just kind of fell apart at the end. Ran out of time, didn't have the energy left. So unfortunate, but I got actip my hat to the spirit because the pride, it was written in the stars, right, it was written in the stars all.
Season for them. And I'm just so happy for Marts.
I'm happy for Barbara Benda, I'm happy for Emily and Kylie who he had on the show, all those folks.
Yeah, Trinity Rodman was clearly not herself. Clutching her back was almost potentially like a decoy. I thought out there. She wasn't pushing forward, she wasn't leading chargers, but she would wait for moments to try to pursue and go hard and set things up. And she was the focal point of a lot of the moments where they did have a chance, whether she was sending it in or
making a move. But you have to wonder if it would have been better to have someone else, especially late in the game, that was one hundred percent, someone that could go hard on every single ball. And you just feel for Trinity in that moment, and you wonder how much what you said about they're not just being the click the chemistry there might have to do with her
not being top speed. How does that affect how the rest of the players are used to sending in balls, hitting the attack, Like Casey Kruger had two chances that felt super rushed, and you wonder whether they just never felt like they had a chance to set up, so when they did have any opening, they were forcing and they weren't using their timing. You know, that's a team that didn't have Kreybathoun, didn't have Andy Sullivan. You just don't know what that would have looked like if the
Spirit had had their best players out there. But at the same point, who knows if they would have won anyway, because that Orlando team, to your point, felt almost inevitable all season long, almost went without a loss, took too late in the season when they'd already secured the shield. You've got Barbara Banda doing Barbara Banded things. You've got
the team really trying to rally around Marta. And it was really cool to watch, and you know, MARTA's mother being there in person in the States for the first time watching her in America, gets to see her win. And after the game, Marta said specifically that she's had a lot of questions with her time in Orlando. She's seen players come and go. She's seen the team get better, but not good enough, and she often wondered to herself, why am I staying in Orlando? What am I looking for?
I didn't want to leave this place without doing something big. And she said, tonight she got the answers to all those questions, which is really cool. She also said, I had to wait eight years for this. Just the F bomb dropped almost instantly on national live television. Love it perfect. Chef's guess, Marta, that's how you get it done?
No believe in that?
Nope, nope yeah. And then you and I wandered around on the field afterwards and saw the players making confetti angels. There was a corner of the stadium where all the Pride fans gathered, and Marta ran over to them, and Grant Hill, who's the co owner, ran over and they were chanting his name, and they were chanting seb Hines, their coach of the year, first black coach to win
a title in the NWSL. Just good vibes. This game, I think, because of MARTA's win, is sort of an instant good game Hall of Fame inductee for lore mm hmm yeah.
Just strictly on the legacy that you know, the addition to her legacy and the Pride season. Yeah, I mean to be fair, this is a season that we'll get talked about until another team manages to win the shield, go almost undefeated, win.
It all and mart at the cherry on the top. Any other thoughts about our epic weekend meech other than you know, I'm such a great hang.
You are so.
Security and I'm glad that I actually had the energy to hang this time because last time I definitely was like I'm gonna go to sleep.
Yeah, all Star weekend we were on different schedules. You were like, let me take a disco nap and head back out at eleven pm, and I was like, I'm gonna go to bed now.
But I just want to say shout out to all the folks we saw. I got to meet for the first time in person, the folks from Shaye Butter FC. Yes, so that was wonderful. Shout out to the folks at Galpal Sports. We also met all the players, all the people. And then my last note about the final itself. I was walking off the field as I was going around trying to catch social and things, and Kroy Bethune is
sitting on the sideline. It's mostly empty save the rest of the media folks, and she's sitting on a cooler on the sideline. Her knee is bouncing and she's got this super intense look on her face, and I'm like, am I gonna poke the bear a little bit and see what's going on? I'm gonna poke the bear. So I walk over there and I'm like, you know, what's
the thoughts, what's the feelings? Didn't get it recorded because I just genuinely wanted to know, and she's like, I need to soak this in because I'm using this next year. I was like, cool, y'all gonna be careful. So that's all I'm gonna say.
She wanted to be out there, yes, and it would have been a different game if she was. That is a Rookie of the Year Midfielder of the Year with only seventeen games played. She is going to be a problem for the rest of the league and we're excited
to see it. I talked to Morgan Gatro formally mo'brian, who played with the Chicago Red Stars when I was there, and she was really pumped and said, you know, fourth time's the charm, and you think about some of these players that have been on teams, gotten to championships, not got it done, And so as much focus on Martin and Barbara winning her first, but like some of the players deeper in the roster that also got that, which
is pretty cool. And then last thing, I was talking to the commissioner, Jessica Berman, and I said, oh, congrats on everything, what a successful weekend. Do you get to take a break and she said, oh, absolutely not. I have to finalize an expansion team. And I said, oh yeah, they're trying to pick a bid and get that done by end of year. So no rest, no rest for anyone. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back.
We talk stadiums, Sabering, Champagne, and Taylor Swift with Casey current co owner Chris Long, who joined us at our live show in Kansas City. Stick her out right now. We're going to welcome co founder and owner of the Kansas City Current Chris Long to the Penalty Box. Thank you for being here.
It's a pleasure. Hi everyone.
Before the show, we joked about how your wife was supposed to join me on a panel at the espnW summit and then couldn't make it, so they said, but don't worry, Chris is coming. And then you couldn't make it. So third time's the charm? Were you dodging my tough questions?
Oh it's too intimidating up here in the penalty box.
So Chris founded Palmer Square Capital Management in June of two thousand and nine, currently serves as chairman, CEO, and portfolio manager. In December of twenty twenty, he and his wife Angie co founded The KC Current alongside co owner Brittany Mahomes. He was the twenty twenty two Kansas City Sports Commissioned Sports Executive the Year named SBJ twenty twenty two power Players in Women's Sports. And I looked this up.
He was a hooper at Princeton where I was hoping to talk some shit, but his squad beat Cornell in every matchup while he was on the team. So the joke's on me. Yeah, I won't hold it against you. It's Chris Long. So I think a lot of folks were excited to see the Current in the title game here.
Well we were too.
Yeah, came up just short. But I'm curious sports culture, So prizes the end result and winning it all. Are you able to hold your disappointment at the same time as enthusiasm for the progress of this season and how close you came one hundred percent?
I mean, I'm so proud of the Orlando Pride, Washington Spirit what they've done this season. I'm so proud of the league. And if you look at just continually upping its game, I mean, what a glorious event we've had so far, right, I mean, this is what it is all about. So yeah, I certainly would of loved to be in the championship game. I mean, who wouldn't, But this is pretty cool.
We've talked a lot about your facilities, so the point where purpose built stadium for women just rolls right off the tongue because I've said it so many times. How meaningful was it to see that your work, your investment, your time, your planning resulted in the league awarding you this championship.
It's a little bit of an out of body experience. I mean walking around and seeing just the media and the use of the facility and the branding and you know,
we just open this thing March sixteenth. I mean, this isn't even a year old, and I really believe that we're at a point in time where this is going to be an inflection point in infrastructure, and you're going to see a lot more coming as far as what looks like CPK Stadium that's going to be in a lot of spots here in the next three to five years.
What a legacy to know that you've made. Me. There is so much pressure on other teams now to do just what you did, and it didn't exist before you. That's first of all, wild that it would be twenty twenty four, but I mean the incredible amount of pressure you put on other places to have to meet your standard. Are there any owners reaching out saying, excuse me, we don't have the funds, or we're a little bit overwhelmed, or I can't believe you set this up for us, so now we have to meet it.
Well, I don't know anyone's reaching out with that sort of commentary, but I will say, as you mentioned expansion in the open, I mean, just everyone should should know this, and I'm sure Commissioner Berman talked about it. But if you look at the top three things as we look at cities for expansion, it's facilities, facilities, facilities, that is the focus. And I think that we're getting calls just how did you do it? How did you finance it? Who did you go to? Had you know you didn't
use public money. If you were going to use public money, how would you have done it? And I mean we were trying to be a positive change agent and almost be like a consultant in a lot of ways. So hopefully, hopefully again it translates. I think it will. I think these next three to five years we're going to see some really great investments in facilities.
Yeah, it's interesting in women's sports, particularly more nascent leagues, it does become a sort of rising tide lifts all boats. You're in competition, but you also understand that the league's stability, the league's future success relies on every team being able to step up. And I remember when angel City launched and had a number of really impressive and new practices
in place. They would sit when I was in ownership with the Red Stars, they would have a zoom call with our Red Stars leadership and tell us this is how we did this, this is how we figured this out. And that is not normal in professional sports, but it has to be when you're trying to create a league that's just you know, a decade or so old. Did you have to pay extra for the sky behind your practice facility to be Kansas City current red.
Or is that just part of the deal, just part of the deal.
It's nice. It was nice last night. I like that every game of sellout this season. It's yeah, that's a pretty nice way to be validated in your investment. Is did you hope and assume that? Or was that a little surprised that it was every single game?
Quite honestly, Kansas City is such a sports town. We assumed it. It was not a surprise, or you know, wow, are we lucky? I mean, hopefully you're having the best time. This community just absolutely eats sports. They love it.
I've been told that I'm from Chicago and everyone here is like, well, so you don't understand Kansas City and sports, And I'm like, oh, okay, excuse me. There was so much focus one hundred and twenty four days. I believe it was one hundred and twenty four days from you saying year one, So there was so much focus the first year. We have one hundred and twenty four days to start an entire franchise and then so much focus on the facilities and getting the stadium ready for this season.
Where does your focus go now?
Oh, I mean the mandate we've had is to be the best women's football club in the world, and we're we're not there yet. I mean, we have so many things to do, so that's making the brand more global, that's expanded beyond just the Kansas City Current, you know, obviously buying other soccer clubs. It's we haven't won a championship. I mean, we're focused on winning a championship. We came up short in twenty twenty two. Obviously the Portland Thorns, you know, beat us that year in DC, and obviously
we came up again short this year. So that's a big focus. Is this kind of reinforcing that culture of winning and getting yourself to be a perennial contender. So there's lots to do, lots to do yet, but it feels good for where we are. I mean, you know, you rewind the clock back to we bought the club December sixth of twenty twenty in the heart of the pandemic, and we didn't have a brand, a website, no employees, and it was like, okay, you have to be on
the field in one hundred and twenty four days. I mean it was absolutely insane, uncomfortable, uneasy. I mean it was really difficult. But here and it's it's you know, and we'll watch this glorious epic match tonight in a stadium that I think is one of the best in.
The world, beautiful setting for tonight. Who gets the credit You talked about going global, you talked about getting that first title, getting better as a team. Tim Wuchewinga helps with that just a little bit. And who gets the credit for that move to go out and get Tim Wah Golden Boot winner, record breaker in her first.
Season, Vladco and Anofski. I mean, he's world class at spotting talent. And not only did he go out and get tem Law, who is as amazing off the pitch, by the way as she is on the pitch, but also got Bia. The two I don't know if you knew this, but Bea and Temaw were playing together in China and sort of got both at once. So all the credit goes to him on that, on that accomplishment.
Who else is taking credit for that?
Well, I don't know, probably everybody at this point. So, but I would say just to take a step further and not to gush too much about our technical staff, but I really do do admire them. If you watch timwaw from game one to now, her development is actually staggering. And she was good at game one, I mean really good. But I mean what she has accomplished as a player from all sorts of angles, I don't know that anyone's grown that quickly or developed that quickly as Tim Watchawinga.
And honestly, if you look across the league, Rachel Kundananji, Barbara Banda, Tim Wachaweinga, if you look at the African players that have come over, when they have the resources, the investment, the coaching, the care, the sky's the limit. And I think there's probably a trend coming when it comes to that, because there is so much untapped talent in places that haven't invested in women's sports the way the US has. Yeah, I mean just incredible to watch
the development there. And we had tem Wah on our show and Jericho from the team and we asked him, what did you have any big goals before the season started. She said, yeah, I wanted to have, like, I don't know, twenty three or twenty four goals, and I'm like, did you know that would be the record all time? And she's like, no, just seemed like I could do it. Well, call your shot, I guess is what happened.
Well, I just just rewind. I didn't know very much about about Tim Law at all, and I went down to spring training. We were at IMG and we had our first scrimmage, and you know, I was looking at the players and just trying to make sure and get the names right, and you just to understand who's out there, and ball, you know, is serviced over the top and just outran everybody to that ball, and I thought, whoa,
this is going to be interesting. I didn't know it would be twenty goals interesting, but sort of felt felt pretty good.
Yeah, Kansas City is such a great soccer town. It's a great sports soun in general. But I've been hearing all season long that you walk around and there is current stuff everywhere, merch colors, ads. Can you tell us some of the best ways you've seen the city rally around this team.
Oh, there's a myriad of ways. But I love whenever we do something celebratory all of downtown lights teal. And not only is it light teal, and this is from the Union Station to the Kaufman Center. All of our Crown Jewel institutions have basically gotten teal lights. The Marriott puts on the entire front facade are crest. I mean it's special if you look. Actually, and I don't know if we'll see it tonight because obviously it'll be very
a very bright light night. But the bridge behind the stadium, guess what color the lights are?
Teal?
Teal Missouri Department of Transportation teal lights on the bridge. That's pretty sick.
Can we get a round of applause for that? That should be normal. We're so used to that being the norm for our men's teams, and so for a city to get behind a women's team. Also, kudos to you and the Liberty and the Valkyries and all the teams that are expanding the color palettes because it's smart. It becomes associated with you in a way that the traditional
colors are not. And it's really cool. You and your wife, Angie run Palmer Square Capital Management and co own the current My parents have been married for fifty years, for like thirty of that they've had a law firm together. Yeah, I do not know how they do it. I love my husband and also I do not want to work with him every second of the day and be married to him. So how do you do it? How do you how do you balance when is it work time? When is it marriage time? When is it parent time?
You know?
We uh, First off, I mean, Angie's brilliant. One of the hardest workers I've ever seen, is true, you know, authentic leader type personality. So she inspires me NonStop. So it starts there. But I'd say we have different skill sets and they're very complimentary. So whether that's if you think about Palmer Square, what does Palmer Square do? We
manage money for investors globally. She looks at the risk and the investment sort of process, and I do all of the client and product development and all of this stuff sort of out front. We get so much more done because you check your ego at the door, right, it's not only your partner, it's your wife, it's your best friend, it's you know, it's your confidant. So the fact that we can use our talents at the same time on the same with the same philosophy and with
the same mission, you get things done pretty quickly. I mean case in point, Look, the stadium went up in eighteen months, right, we worked NonStop. I took one thing, she took another. We just we knew by the time we would meet back up to do a check that we would be on the same page.
A lot about accountability there. If you didn't get your checklist done. It's a whole different kind of honeydo list when it's a stadium being built, not like the dishes. Yeah, yeah, you know when it comes to that partnership, you co founded the team and you were the main owners, but pretty soon after Brittany Mahomes comes in and then Patrick Mahomes. What did that mean for the team? That addition of not just obviously capital, but the name, the recognition, social media presence.
It's immeasurable. I mean, Patrick and Brittany are incredible people. Obviously, their brands go everywhere they want to go. And you know the best part about them is we don't even really ask of you know, where this on Monday night football or you know, talk about this in your press conference or you know, obviously Brittany did so much for our brand and what we do on social they just do it. So I would say that we really got people that are obviously in the public eye all the time,
but they're just normal like you and me. I mean, they are really really down to earth people. So Angie and I not lucky that it worked out the way it did.
Is Jason Sadakas on the payroll or do you just get lucky that he likes to rock Kansas City gear and likes women's sports.
Well, talk about another authentic down to earth He just did that. I'm uh.
Monday night football Sadekas was wearing the Kansas City Current sweatshirt on with the Manning brothers. You didn't even have to ask.
Not that I'm aware of. I mean that's the thing is, like people I think care about where things are going with women's sports, and the people that really get it, you don't have to ask.
Yeah, they know the value of that and that you know, if he's wearing a Chief sweatshirt, Okay, if you're wearing a Current sweatshirt, everyone's paying attention and everyone wants to know. You know your wife, Angie, as far as I heard, she had a ritual before every game involving some fancy champagne at the stadium. Is that still going on?
Well, that's funny. The ritual is actually if we win, we will go into the pitch Club, which is our premium offering. Hopefully people get to see that this evening.
Well, thanks for the invite.
Let's go, and she sabers a bottle of champagne and half. You've ever seen a sabering, but it's a very sharp, think long sushi knife kind of deal where you find the stem of the bottle and you actually cut it, but cut it so cleanly that you can actually then drink it. And we when we win, we probably go through forty to fifty bottles of both clcos champagne, and it's become so fun. It's obviously not cheap, but we
we love it, like everyone really enjoys that. So hopefully we get to do it a lot in twenty twenty five because that means we're winning.
I'm a master saberer. I've done it multiple times, so if you ever need a you know, pinch hitter. Also be careful when they start expanding the season, you have to up the budget on that. More games, more wins, more bottles. You know. An important aspect of leadership is learning. And I'm always fascinated when I talk to successful leaders
to ask what they have changed their minds about. Is there something over the course of your time, whether you know, in your investment work or as an owner, in the last couple of years, that you've really thought, oh yeah, not even that I had it wrong, but things have changed and now I feel differently.
You know, one thing I think that's very valuable is, especially it's sitting in our seat, you know, running different businesses, is you know, someone will tell you someone said something or someone did something, and they're very adamant that they're
one hundred percent right. You always need to go check the other side of the story, or you know, someone assumes someone did this or that, And when you think about managing people and being a good leader, it's not always just black or white, right, There's always some gray in there. So I feel like I've gotten a lot better at that. You know, you know the old saying if you assume, you may know, I won't finish it, but.
We swear here, yeah, you make an ass out of you and me.
Exactly, and we're really good at not making an ass out of me.
And yeah, that's a great lesson, I think, not just for leadership but in life. And I think as I'm getting older, I still have snap judgments about people and things that are in conflict with my belief systems or the way I do things. But now as I get older, I give myself a brief pause and think, what are the questions I can ask to make sure that the impression I'm getting is the right one, and then if it is, and I can decide how to move forward.
But I've got these two producers, Misha and Alex twenty seven thirty two, so we're representing Yes, clap it out for them, let's go. And it is interesting to have these two young women in their twenties and thirties and I'm very early forties, barely some would say late thirties if we were using a different calendar, and to talk to them about things, and I always say, I don't want to be condescending. But the older I get, the more I have just a little bit of grace for
people and things. Instead of getting more stubborn about my beliefs, instead of getting more judgmental, I'm getting more open minded, which I think is how we should go. And when it comes to a league like this, I imagine there are other owners who have different ideas about how to move forward. I imagine the commissioner has different ideas about how to
move forward. How do you come together? Because it is a team at this point of all of all the teams in the league that has to kind of start to make decisions in cohesion, whether that's I was talking to your staff member over there about Danny, Yeah, about about spring training and can we get all the players in the same place for that, and then can we exchange business practices while they're also training and prepping for
the season? Can we And it's different budgets, and it's different goals, and it's different locations, so things like that, how do you come together? And is there a hierarchy of who has the loudest, most important voice in the room?
Oh, I would say that's a first of all fantastic backdrop you just laid out there. I would say that the one key characteristic of the end of his cell is most, if not all, of the ownership has actually changed in the last little bit when it was yeah, with expansion or and so as there isn't this this person's over here in right field, and this one's in left field, and how do you how do you get to the center? It's on the margins. And that is not how it was when we first joined the league.
Board meetings were unorganized and you felt like it was going to be like a fight. It's it's just not like that now, where it's everybody knows what's most important and it's the league first. And I really believe that that's why you've seen so much growth in everything end of it, so including this event. Right, there's such a large d step up than even last year, and that's due to the fact that we're more on the same page than we've been.
All Right, last things, most important things. Number one, how many conversations are happening behind the scenes to get Taylor and Travis to a game?
Oh god, I mean lots. I mean and being open and honest. I mean. I wrote Travis a handwritten note and said, you know, he wore our so he can read.
Kidding, we love we love our himbo Travis, No, but.
Back to like people that get it. He wore on his new you know, his podcast, he wore Casey current gear and we didn't even again, didn't even ask and so wrote him in a thank you note and said, hey, we'd love to have you at a game, and well, by the way, if you know Jason Er or you know your significant other would like to come to that would be okay. We would find room in one of the you know, one of the sweets. But I think that I think he's been to some games this year
and he's been a massive supporter. He came to a ton of games last year, almost most of the home games that he could do. I think I think she'll get to so.
At the Red Stars Stadium, JJ Watt would sometimes come support his wife, and there were enough suites and they are high enough up that it would be JJ and their two dogs in the suite watching the game. I heard. One of the conflicts is that the way the suites are set up, it'd just be hard to get security in place for Taylor.
Is that the problem here?
Do we need doing? Do we need to find some solution around that?
Nope, we have Actually we have looked at the security for that and it is not a problem.
Okay, Okay, this sounds positive to assure you on that. I feel I feel like we're on the right track here for this this is gonna happen. Okay, good will you let me know when it's happening and get me in that suite you mentioned text? Great, thank you, thank you.
Okay.
Last question, most important, how do we organize a river goal skills competition for fans and say podcast hosts.
Oh, we just do it.
Let's go.
I mean, Tamwlaw's got to be the star of that then, obviously, But I don't know, Alana, what do you think? How do we do river goals competition?
Just set it up and let it fly?
Yeah? Yeah, Why don't we once everything's done here today and everything up, why don't we just go over.
The stadium and everyone's invited. Let's go drink your mimosas for courage, it's a party. Thank you so much for being here, Chris. I really appreciate it, and congrats on all the success. Thank you, Chris Long. Everybody, welcome back, slices. You know, we love that you're listening, but we want you to get in the game every day too. So here's our good game play of the day. Follow the new iHeart Women's Sports social account catch up with the
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