Ep. 16 - From Local Chambers to Soccer Fields Pioneering Progress in Northwest Arkansas

Uncover the transformative power of local chambers of commerce in this insightful discussion with JR Shaw and Steve Cox from the Rogers Lowell Chamber of Commerce. We're peeling back the layers of these pivotal institutions and their profound impact on fostering vibrant business environments and communities. Northwest Arkansas is on the cusp of a remarkable evolution, and through this conversation, you'll learn how the synergy between businesses and local entities catalyzes growth, nurtures innovation, and prepares a skilled workforce for a thriving future.

The narrative of Northwest Arkansas is a tapestry of progress and challenges, woven with the threads of community collaboration and economic development. Our guests and I explore the region's journey to becoming a professional soccer destination and an innovation hub, and how these milestones are shaping its path forward. We examine the integral role of public education and local initiatives in driving economic success, and how the introduction of USL Arkansas is set to rally the community and bolster tourism and commerce.

Join us as we discuss the anticipated economic ripple effects of a new sports facility in Rogers, and how it is expected to galvanize the community, foster diversity, and spur innovation. This episode showcases the intersection of sports, community, and economic growth, and the excitement surrounding the developments in this dynamic region. Dive into a conversation that not only highlights what's happening on the ground but also paints a picture of the broader impact and the ongoing partnerships that are essential for continued success.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Pitch to Pro is the official podcast of USL Arkansas. This will be our platform to tell our story about the club and the special place that we call home, northwest Arkansas. This is a journey we want to bring you along for the ride. We'll share what's going on behind the curtain, help educate the community at large about soccer, our league, and give updates on the progress of the club along the way. Together, we'll explore and unpack our journey to professional soccer, the magic that is NWA, our community, and talk all things soccer from on the pitch to behind the scenes, telling the story of our club.

Speaker 1: 0:41

Pitch to Pro Podcast is proudly sponsored by PodcastVideoscom. Podcastvideoscom is Northwest Arkansas' premier podcast recording studio, equipped with industry-leading equipment. The recording studio and services save you time, money and hassle. They are dedicated to helping you create, record and publish high-quality podcasts for your audience. Be sure to check them out today at podcastvideoscom. Hello everybody and welcome back to the Pitch to Pro podcast. I'm your host, wes Harris, managing Director for USL Arkansas, northwest Arkansas's professional soccer club playing in the United Soccer League. We've got a fantastic conversation on deck today for you all with my esteemed guest from the Rogers Lowell Chamber of Commerce. We have the executive director over here to my left, mr JR Shaw, and then right in front of me, we've got the senior vice president of economic development, mr Steve Cox. Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining me today. It's steamed.

Speaker 2: 1:38

I don't know how often we get called that.

Speaker 3: 1:39

You're esteemed and I'm fantastic there we go or later we can trade.

Speaker 2: 1:44

Yes, we are very excited to be here.

Speaker 3: 1:46

Thank you for the hyperbole Wes. We appreciate that.

Speaker 1: 1:48

No, no, you guys have been super great to partner with from the get-go, so appreciate you guys coming on today. Yeah, look, we can talk and go a hundred different ways with this episode, but first and foremost, I'd like to start by asking if you guys could help shed some light on what it is that a chamber of commerce is. What is the RLC? What is the Rogers Lowell Chamber of Commerce? What does it do? What do you both do in your different capacities? And let's start the conversation there, because I think, unless you're a small business owner or the head of a business or something like that in the area, I think a lot of people have this kind of mystique or or whatever, about what a chamber of commerce is Smoke filled rooms and, yeah, secret meetings and things.

Speaker 2: 2:35

Yeah, yeah, so please take it away. Well, yeah, I mean for the Rogers little chamber. I mean there's a thing within the chamber world where if you've seen one chamber, you've seen one chamber because each one is different. There's about 7000 chambers in the US. We are one of the about 200 that are five star accredited. We are considered the top 100 chamber in the US here at the Rogers Lowell Chamber.

Speaker 2: 2:56

But really our vision and we say this on our website, we talk about it all the time, but our vision statement is to be the center of world-class business, welcoming communities and opportunities for all.

Speaker 2: 3:05

That's our goal for Rogers, that's our goal for Northwest Arkansas and you know, I think when you're talking maybe more like a small business side, you know that's where we're there, kind of helping businesses grow, helping thrive, create environments where they can be pro-business legislation, things like that. On the community side, it's creating places we like to call it the third space where people hang out, where they want to live, where they want to work, and really that's why our tagline is serving business and community together, because we try to build bridge the gap between that community and that business side and just make it where it's a positive environment for anybody and everybody who wants to be in Rogers. And we take a very regional approach as well because we know that we're just a piece of the region and that's why we love Northwest Arkansas as well. I mean, that's that's kind of the basics, but we, I mean I can get into, you know, we got you know these programs and all that. That. That would take all day.

Speaker 1: 3:53

Yeah, no, I love it, but I mean, you hit on something that I was hoping you guys would, um, which is Right. Right, this is very much a and in almost equal part, community. Absolutely Right, yeah, and, as businesses are a part of the community, but it's also for folks that you know, may not own a business or you know, like I said, lead a business, that are actively involved, based on their position or role within the company, to be involved with the chamber. It's very much so, um, you know, putting on community events and inviting them to come and, like you said, create those third spaces, right?

Speaker 2: 4:30

Well, what is it? What does a business truly need to be able to go? I mean to to run, to be there? They need customers and they need workers, and so we want to create an environment where that workforce wants to be in Northwest Arkansas.

Speaker 2: 4:43

I mean, we've got some major employers in the area that are competing with world-class companies and obviously we have world-class companies as well but it's all about talent, and so, as there's a reason why you have the number one employer in the world, the largest company, building a $2 billion campus, it's to attract talent, and so, really, that's where that community piece comes in. It's making it a place where people want to visit, live, work, invest and play, and that's where we come in. And JR, with the Destination Rogers side, you know, is really on the tourism, hospitality side, to be able to bring people here showcase. Like you know, I don't want to steal your thunder by saying your favorite phrase it all starts with a visit, but it really does. We have so many businesses that have started or relocated here because somebody came for a visit and then said this is where I want to be. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 5:29

Our philosophy is, as the marketing arm of the chamber and of the city actually is, to promote the city to anyone that wants to visit. For, fill in the blank, whether you're visiting to come to a soccer game, whether you're visiting to come to a soccer game, whether you're visiting to go ride mountain bike trails and come to a festival, if you're coming to a concert at the AMP, if you're coming to Fish Beaver Lake for a tournament, if you're visiting family or friends, if you're coming for a meeting and convention at the largest hotel and convention center in Northwest Arkansas, that visit is the catalyst for return visits. It can be the catalyst for relocation. It can be the catalyst for investment in a business and relocation of a business, which we have seen happen time and time again. It can be the catalyst for lots of different things. So our job is to create enough demand for that visit for that to happen and get that cycle to come.

Speaker 3: 6:24

The other favorite phrase in our business is the destination cycle and when we come back to community, it's all about building places where people want to live. You know, what we're all striving for is to build increased quality of life and build communities where people want to live. And from our standpoint, if you build a place where people want to live, you build a place where people want to visit as well. So we build amenities like the AMP and bring in a soccer team and Topgolf and trails and all these great things, not for Joe Blow from Austin, texas, or Denver, colorado. It's for your neighbors, it's for our family neighbors and friends. But as we do that, we've created a community that's attractive to people to visit.

Speaker 3: 7:07

And if you build a place where people want to live, it's a place where people want to visit. And if people want to visit, that attracts business. Businesses need to invest there. And if it's a place for people to do business, then that's a place where people want to live because businesses are there and the cycle continues. Yep, and that's kind of the key from where we come from you used the word partner early on as well and in a big larger scheme, what a chamber does, what our chamber strives to do, is to get the right people at the right table at the right time to do business and grow community, plain and simple, and we've been doing it for over 100 years. We are accredited, we're esteemed. I mean, we are well-established in being able to do that and that's what really brings me joy coming to work is being able to be part of the growth and of the narrative that is Northwest Arkansas and Rogers yeah, that's well said and I think and thank you guys for and of the narrative that is.

Speaker 1: 8:04

Northwest Arkansas and Rogers. Yeah, as well said, and I think and thank you guys for kind of going into that and helping to pull back the curtain a little bit in terms of you know.

Speaker 2: 8:14

We're very public facing, you know, but we also do a lot of where there's so much work behind the scenes. I mean, even for the announcement of USL coming here. That was in 2023. Those conversations started in 2019. It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort in order to make things like that happen, and I mean the AMP Topgolf. They take years. When I first started this job in my role of economic development, I got some great advice, and it was someone who had been doing this for a long time. He said economic development is a marathon, it's not a sprint. Like the seeds you're planting today might not grow the next 10-15 years, but they'll get there.

Speaker 3: 8:49

they'll get there well, this conversation started in 2015. Uh, at a sports trade show that we talked to matt rita about usl and I started saying you guys need to take a look at northwest arkansas. So it's it's either my credit or blame for no, but the being. It was a conversation that started a long time ago and had a long timeline to fruition, but here we are.

Speaker 1: 9:12

Here we are. Yeah, I mean, you guys talked about it. I mean we're obviously bringing professional soccer, both men's and women's to Northwest Arkansas Arkansas. But a lot of other businesses have either relocated, started invested here, made a new regional headquarters whatever the case may be, and for various different reasons, obviously, but no different than that cycle that you very eloquently explained, jr. It's almost as if you've done that once or twice.

Speaker 3: 9:42

I can't it for now. Look, I did not make that up. Somebody much, much smarter than I am and an industry veteran actually introduced that in I'm going to say it wrong. Probably 2009 or something of that sort. That destination cycle was introduced back. It's famous in our industry.

Speaker 1: 9:58

Yeah, that's great. I mean, it's simple and it gets the point and it's very easy to understand. And it's simple and it gets the point and it's very easy to understand, and it's very true. And they're all interwoven and that's where you can get from my old world consumer goods you would call it the flywheel.

Speaker 1: 10:15

Ah there you go and they all work together. But I just saw something the other day too yeah, we know this because we live here, with all the sprouting of innovation, of startups, of creating that environment, and the chambers, collectively, I'm sure, are very involved obviously, as you guys have said, of creating those, the fostering the environment for businesses and communities to flourish, I guess, and and grow, and so the boom that we've had, especially on the business side and entrepreneurial, especially in that sector, uh, hospitality has grown. Different destinational tourism has grown, um, but I saw something the other day on innovation from I think it was Axios, where it was just the the number of patents and on utility patents per 100,000 people were one of the top in the country as well as the world, in North America for sure, and it's a place that people wouldn't necessarily. I think it just follows into the mantra of kind of the hidden gem of NWA and what we have come to know and love. But it's just another thing right To add to that.

Speaker 1: 11:25

That is like you kind of turn your head a little bit like really An innovation hub Northwest Arkansas? Absolutely, and because we've been here and know it and live it, breathe it, see it absolutely. But I wanted to this has a point and I'll get there as a chamber. There as a chamber, have you guys felt the growth of Northwest Arkansas, just as its residents have, on kind of from your lenses in both you know business, community making, infrastructure needs and all of those things? Can you talk a little bit about that, about from your seats and lenses, how you guys have seen that? What are some of the challenges and what are some of the really exciting things that you guys see going forward for the growth of the area?

Speaker 2: 12:10

Well, I would say I've been doing this for 13 years and so I got to kind of, you know, get here. I've been in Northwest Arkansas since 2000. That's kind of when the boom really started to kick off there, and definitely just on the development side. I mean, and definitely just on the development side. I mean when I first moved to Rogers in 2004, the embassy was in Pinnacle Hills and that was it. So, getting to see the promenade come alive, getting to see Topgolf, the Hunt Tower, the AMP, getting to work on those projects, the one uptown building that we're in right now, just getting to see all of that growth and development. If you go back to the year when the embassy opened, in 2003, 2004, if you go back to that year and you go out one square mile from where the embassy is, that's the radius, there's $3 billion of private development just in that one square mile. And so getting to see all of that growth that's happened. I mean Northwest Arkansas is growing at 37 people a day.

Speaker 2: 13:00

Um, you know, obviously there's some, some challenges that come along with that, housing being one of the biggest ones affordable housing, workforce housing. We love partnering with the council and groundwork, um to try to get more, more below market rate housing just to help our workers and subsidies or not subsidies. But our our teachers, our educators, our firefighters, police officers, public servants are getting priced out because of the rapid growth, and so that's a big thing that we have. Another big thing, that a challenge that came with this rapid growth was workforce, because we do have a looming retirement cliff. We're still a relatively young community average age is about 33. But we still have challenges in terms of being able to create talent pipelines to fill in demand careers. You know I mentioned the. You know the new campus that's coming up that required more concrete and more contractors and construction workers for that one project than were actively working in Northwest Arkansas when it started. Like that's why it's insane how much work that's taking.

Speaker 2: 13:56

So what are we doing to get these kids into these trades? What are we doing? You know, obviously college is a pathway to success, but what's not the only pathway to success? And so we do a lot of work with the public school system getting them connected to industries. We just did draft day this week where we had 50 plus employers, close to a thousand kids, come through, get to see these career pathways that are available to them in demand careers, the good paying careers, and we had about 600 seniors do active interviews with hiring employers and when we did it last year, two thirdsthirds of those seniors moved forward in the hiring process. So it's work like that and that's what gets me juiced and going. I mean, I love being able to do that because we see that it's not a five-year solution, it's a 10-year solution, it's a 20-year solution, it's an investment to get those kids into these career fields.

Speaker 1: 14:43

Yeah, and that's I mean. Is that similar kind of to what we participated in and help with the K to J? Is that similar or a different program?

Speaker 3: 14:56

Very much so. It's a part of the whole, and I guess that's a message as well is that all of this is a part of the whole. The Destination Marketing Organization that I work with, destination Rogers, is a division of the Rogers Little Chamber, which is not a structure that you see everywhere else. Most other places, whoever does destination marketing for the city or for the county or whatever it is, is an independent organization. When this happened in Rogers, it was part of the chamber, and what's interesting, the advantages of that where we are now, is that we're at the table with economic development and community development, yale leadership pardon me, several other organizations that make us a seamless proposition, value proposition in many different ways and allow us to represent the larger whole, which includes workforce as well.

Speaker 3: 15:43

Obviously, through the pandemic hospitality, workforce was decimated, brought to its knees, really just shattered everybody there, but came back really really quickly, which was great. But it also showed that our pipeline had been shattered Right, and so not only did we need to get workers in there, but we also need to look to the future to reposition the industry as a desirable career path for kids from junior high all the way through high school. So that's what our commitment is in our partnership with the chamber and that K-J program is to get with the school system and Rogers Public Schools has been great to talk about the industry, to talk about the advantages of working in the business and how that's a desirable career path for anybody coming out of school, moving forward. That doesn't require a college degree necessarily. That has a lot more opportunities than you think it has. That you can work all around the country, all around the world if you're with the right company and upward mobility and all kinds of different advantages like that.

Speaker 3: 16:42

And that's a space that organizations like mine hadn't been in probably 10 years ago, but was a necessity and was an area where it made sense for us to move into and to be there. So back to your original statement about this conversation innovation has absolutely happened in organizations like the Chamber and in destination marketing organizations, from workforce and advocacy and inclusion issues and different things of that sort. All of that's part of our world now as well. That has become and is important to our corporate partners and to our communities here too. So we innovate absolutely Maybe not at the speed that business innovates. We're absolutely innovating the same way.

Speaker 1: 17:27

That's wonderful. Yeah, I mean, we joke, I think driving around and well, there's another circle going in. What's that? 20 in a mile or whatever it is.

Speaker 2: 17:39

It's hyperbolizing a little bit, not when 112 gets done. There's supposed to be 57 roundabouts on Highway 112.

Speaker 1: 17:45

There you go. There's a good stat, guys, something else to look forward to over there. Uh, that's, I hit on shoot.

Speaker 3: 17:51

It hits me on both sides. I'm right there in case.

Speaker 1: 17:55

Don't shoot the messenger yeah, I'm right in the corridor there. That's too funny but it needs to be done. Yeah, it's got to get in there. And something that you know you get invited to some of these planning meetings with doing what we're doing and just listening to some of the you know people ask why are so many roundabouts going in? There's a lot of different reasons differences of a traffic light versus a roundabout and the permissions that you need for a traffic light versus a roundabout on a whole different stage, not even to mention the safety advantage.

Speaker 2: 18:32

Yeah, the traffic flow, just all of that. And they're doing it this way because, like you were saying, we've had so much growth, but it's also planning for the future Infrastructure, road congestion. Northwest Arkansas has an advantage, I feel, because right now our population is the population of Austin, texas, in 1990. We saw what went wrong in Austin, so we have an opportunity to plan as we continue to grow. We're on track to be a million people by 2045, 2050, somewhere in that range, and so what are we doing now to start planning for that? And that's why you're seeing these new overpasses come in, that's why you're seeing all these roundabouts. You're seeing conversations about landfills and you know the dirty, nasty stuff that people don't want to talk about. They're getting buried in the weeds of the details, but that's what's going to keep a community growing.

Speaker 1: 19:19

But they notice and to have. I mean just the other day we had a water main.

Speaker 2: 19:25

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 19:25

Hit yeah, but the impact of that was less than a couple hours Right, it was less than 12 hours and everyone had water again and it was that quick and it was actually really impressive. I was thinking about that, about how bad that could have been.

Speaker 2: 19:40

Well, it's the spirit of regionalism, I feel, because the Bentonville water main, their 48-inch main collapsed and so the city of Bentonville didn't have water. So what did Springdale and Rogers do? They stepped up and said hook into our emergency contacts. There wasn't even a question, it happened within a matter of hours to get that done. And that's kind of what you see in northwest Arkansas. You don't have mayors griping at each other in the papers. You don't have mayors griping at each other in the papers. You don't have communities fighting or trying to steal businesses from each other. We understand the power of working together, and that was a great example from Sam Don and JB when they formed the Northwest Council. They're why we have the interstate, they're why we have the airport. I mean, they show the spirit of working together and that has just continued to happen in Northwest Arkansas.

Speaker 1: 20:22

Can you expound a little bit about that a little more, because I think we are we're. I would venture to say that there are other markets in the United States where smaller communities that are close together come together and work together to build towards a common goal, but I feel like I've not experienced it in a way that has come together in the way that Northwest Arkansas has in such force. Can you talk a little bit just about you guys' experience, about how you've seen that in NWA and in your positions you guys get front row seats to how the municipalities work together? Talk a little bit more about that aspect and how you guys have seen that, because I know that at the end of the day, everybody is still kind of, hey, we're Rogers and we want Rogers to succeed, but if Northwest Arkansas succeeds, rogers succeeds. That's absolutely our mentality, and so I think it'd be great, I think, if you guys could talk about some different ways that you guys have seen that come to life.

Speaker 3: 21:28

I moved here in 2015 and immediately saw the spirit of cooperation, collaboration, innovation, the progressive spirit, and I mean that in a good way, of fixing things ourselves, looking forward ourselves to make this happen. And then, as I learned more and more about organizations like the Northwest Arkansas Council and the idea of bringing together large industry, civic leaders, civic organizations, municipalities to talk about those 50,000 foot issues. You know you talk about 10,000 feet up, 20,000 feet up, what you can affect there. But to go bigger and say we need to work on a highway, we need to work on an airport, we need to work on infrastructure all the above if we're ever going to have a chance of making this happen. And I've heard people say that the biggest impact innovation for Northwest Arkansas was Beaver Lake and it's like, well, what's fishing got to do with it? It's got nothing to do with it. It's got water supply that provides sustainable drinking water for this entire population here. We never would have had the growth without Beaver Lake 50 years ago. And it's like, oh, okay, now I understand that spirit of collaboration. So all of that coming together, whether it's for industry, whether it's for tourism, whether it's for whatever other sector it is, and helping ourselves.

Speaker 3: 23:03

I think the biggest thing that impacts me is that we don't sit around and wait or point fingers or and I don't want to say that in a negative way this area invests in itself. Rogers and Springdale and Fayetteville have passed bond issues numerous over years and years and years that invest in our own communities and build streets and parks and police departments and fire departments and fire stations and all of the above that get you where you need to be today and then in the future, as well as amenities that we have now that have become world class for everyone that's out there. I mean in Rogers, just the Lake Atalanta project, yeah, the downtown rail yard park and then the rail yard bike park, mount Hebron, all of those. The aquatic center, the aquatic center that were paid by taxpayers here that said, yes, I will invest in our community to get these amenities that we need to have. I haven't seen that in a lot of communities and that spirit is extremely attractive and explains to me, explains a lot about how we've gotten where we are.

Speaker 2: 24:09

Yeah, and it's contagious. Absolutely well, you mentioned that the bond issues. The first one that I was involved in was uh 2011 and I mean that's height of the tea party, the very anti-tax you know, anti-tax environment all of. We had five different bond initiatives which paid for the aquatic center, roads, mount hebron park lake, atlanta um, it passed.

Speaker 2: 24:29

The lowest one that passed was like 78 percent I mean because it the city has a historical record of and cities across northwest arkansas, not just rogers um, of saying this is what we're going to do with your money, and then they do it. You could like we're going to build a road right here. Two years later there's a road like oh, that's where my money went, right there. So you know that there's a spirit of trust that's there. And you know, jr mentioned investing in ourselves. We pride ourselves in Rogers that we have never failed to pass a millage increase for public schools. We understand the importance of public education and so we definitely support that that we work so closely with them. We know that they're the future community and business leaders for our community, so we want to make sure that we're giving them the best possible uh options. And you see that in other communities too, I mean we have. I think six of the top 10 high schools in the state are in northwest arkansas, so if not seven, so um, three of which are in rogers.

Speaker 1: 25:22

So we'll take that yeah, yeah, there you go, Nice, Um, so talk let's. We've talked about the growth. We've talked about how we work together as a community. We've talked about how you know we come together. This project that we're, that we're. We're going to flip the switch a little bit towards, towards USL Arkansas. Can you guys talk a little bit from your seats on why this is exciting, for from your lens, what you guys have seen, you know yourselves outside of our conversations, and just talk a little bit about why, why you're supportive, why it excites you, and talk about what you want to look forward to. If you have questions for me, that'd be great. Yeah, whatever, Don't just let me ask questions.

Speaker 2: 26:10

What's the team name going to be? No, I'm not doing that. Soon.

Speaker 1: 26:14

Soon, soon.

Speaker 3: 26:15

Going to flip the mics back around.

Speaker 1: 26:17

This year, I promise.

Speaker 3: 26:18

From a nuts and bolts tourism standpoint, you're an attraction. Yeah, it immediately becomes a professional sports team. That is an attraction that's going to draw people in from the four-state area around here to come in for games, to see stars, to spend their money while they're here and go home afterwards. So it's new dollars that come into the destination and all of that. So from a nuts and bolts standpoint, you're a great amenity and a great attraction that's added here and it's something that we can go out and promote that not everybody has. You're a unique attraction as well.

Speaker 3: 26:52

But then from the community standpoint and knowing the impact and the appeal of soccer in Rogers and Northwest Arkansas, knowing the investment of our schools and our families and our kids in the largest game on the planet and the impact that can have to get ingrained in the community, it's a double play, it's a twofer that gets you excited about having that. And then the way you've gone about doing business, quite frankly, and coming out and engaging with organizations like the Chamber and Destination Rogers about how do we partner, how do we collaborate. Can you help us get in front of the right people? We want to be a big community partner that speaks to the way business should be done, and that excites me about what the future holds for the club and for the community as we all grow together. Well, thank you.

Speaker 2: 27:40

And I look at it from an economic standpoint as well, not just as a great quality of life amenity and something you know, a feather in the cap, but it's also that secondary impact of people are coming to the game. Well, okay, what are they going to do before the game? They get? You know they're going to go to rendezvous junction and have a beer. They're going to. You know they're going to eat at the restaurants. They're going to, you know, spend their money here and that just benefits the residents, cause that's just that sales tax collections for the city. So that's investment in public safety, that's investment in, you know, road construction, amenities, you know all of that stuff that benefits the residents as well. And so just looking at that, I mean I consider it on the same level as the AMP in terms of the economic impact that it's going to bring.

Speaker 1: 28:18

Yeah, no, that's that's great to hear you guys's perspectives. Thank you, and I think that's what a lot of people you know some of the feedback that we've gotten from from just residents in in a lot of the listing sessions and and online surveys and all the the listing that we've done thousands of hours, um, collectively across all platforms, is because this is the world's game, like you said, jr, and the broadest appeal in terms of you know, over 60% of our population is now from here. They're from the rest of the world, yes, and we love our Razorbacks so much.

Speaker 2: 28:53

We love the Naturals as a Kentucky fan, I'm not a big fan of the Razorbacks right now he's my next guest, there we go.

Speaker 1: 29:04

Yeah, exactly, I wish maybe we'll get him. Welcome, coach Calipari, for those that weren't wearing the reference. But because of that, this is potentially going to potentially and what we hope, what we aspire to, is that this is going to be something that unlocks a new avenue of growth in interconnectivity between our different communities. A $5 word Not just Rogers, fayetteville, but also. We have an incredibly diverse community, absolutely, and I think that's wonderful and how it's growing and bringing not just different backgrounds but diversity of thought, which always drives innovation and all these other different things. I mean there's a whole lot of other studies out there that show that that's great for a community, and I think we're still figuring it out on how do we, how do we work together? We do it very well. I mean, how do we get all of us involved in in a lot of different ways and different vehicles to use to do that, and I think that this could be one of those sports is a universal language and it brings people together.

Speaker 2: 30:19

I mean it always does common fan bases.

Speaker 1: 30:21

I mean yeah, yeah it's not going to solve it, but like can it be another lever that we can all pull together and unify in a way that maybe some other things can't? And that's been just feedback, but also what we know from doing it. Mr Warren Smith has done it multiple times. I can speak to that more than I can, but that's what gets us so excited.

Speaker 3: 30:45

I think too, there's a term that we talk about in advocacy, with destination advocacy, and it's about becoming a community shared value. And I can see that as the club gets ingrained in the community and it's not just something where other people go to and then leave, but it becomes part of the community from local clubs, local teams, talent, education, all the above using the facility. That's what we hope is going to happen in the future and I think that's the goal is, if you become that shared value, then people care about you as much as you care about them and everybody grows.

Speaker 1: 31:23

I love that. Well, thank you guys so much for joining me today. I think this has been just an awesome discussion and I look forward to our continued partnership.

Speaker 2: 31:32

You guys have been fantastic, so thank you. We appreciate you guys and everything you're bringing to the table. I mean we cannot express how excited we are Once we see that construction start happening. We want to be right there on opening day in 26, and just yeah, it's just going to spur so much more for Rogers and Northwest Arkansas. So we truly appreciate you guys selecting us to be here.

Speaker 1: 31:53

Yeah, thank you. It's going to be here before you know it, guys, I promise it seems like a ways away, but I guarantee you Again it's a marathon, not a sprint. You blink and it's going to be here.

Speaker 3: 32:01

We'll have to do this again sometime in a couple of times in the future and just talk about some of the other developments that are going on through the area that are going to complement Absolutely and help your organization and your organization can help some of these other developments down the line too, absolutely. I just invited myself back.

Speaker 2: 32:20

Consummate salesman.

Speaker 1: 32:21

Gladly have you guys back for sure. Well, thank you guys again. Gladly have you guys back for sure. Well, thank you guys again. For all those listening, remember, find us at Pitch to Pro on all platforms, wherever you get your podcasts, check out the website at USLArkansascom, at USL Arkansas, for all the latest updates on all the major social media platforms on the club. Until next time, northwest Arkansas cheers.