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