But what's even more impressive is the kind of leader and community builder he is behind the scenes. So we're gonna find out about that today.
You have 20 plus years in sports
And recreation in the service industries. You're a former coach with the New York Red Bulls, general manager of the Houston Sports Park
And just recently launched Football Club Naples, Collier County's first professional football team, soccer football.
You're passionate about youth sports, event development, and growing the local impact.
So tell us, without the job title, who is Adrian Moses?
Well, thank you for the introduction. That's very kind.
Who is Adrian Moses? I'm the son of Ann and Bill Moses from a grew up in a town called Rygate in England. It's just 25 miles south of London.
Sports mad as a kid.
And always wanted to have a dream of being involved in soccer some way, somehow. Obviously, every child wanted a dream of playing professionally.
My career was, playing career was good. I enjoyed playing. I had success at university and I played in the lower leagues in England.
Ultimately, I wanted an opportunity to try something new and share my enthusiasm and love for soccer somewhere. And the opportunity through the university I went to got me involved with an organization that ran camps and training programs for Major League Soccer. And I came to the States in 2001 for the first time to share my love for soccer in this country.
And where was that?
Originally, it was in Chicago. So I was working in the community with Chicago Fire.
A couple of my friends remained in the States a bit longer to take on seasonal training programs. I was fortunate enough at the time to be playing for a team in England, which I had to go back for to play in the season. It was a summer job originally. Ultimately, the draw and the ability to share what I had was something that was driving me. And that was my why at the time.
And I moved to New Jersey and worked with the Metro Stars as they were then. After meeting my boss, Dave Jervis, actually on a night out with friends. And he offered me a job to work in the community programs for the Metro Stars. Fast forward a few years of hard work and doing my business on the field was given a more management role of overseeing coaches.
And that transitioned incredibly positively when Red Bull came in and purchased the franchise for that team and the Metro Stars became the New York Red Bulls. At that point, I was able to get a job at that point, all of the expertise that my colleagues and I had built over the years. We had the support of the Red Bull organization, which allowed us to really develop an industry standard youth soccer training program, which is still as strong as it ever has been. And the guys there still do an incredible job.
What did you notice when you first came here from home
The difference between our relationship with football, soccer and what it was home for you?
I think the biggest thing that I noticed was the diversity of gender play here, like how popular the female game was in this country versus what in the UK at the time. Now, certainly the game in my home country for the female players has improved exponentially.
The girls game here has always been light years ahead at that time, pushed through by the generation
Through the 90s of Brandy Chastain and Mia Hamm really providing those role models for young girls to play. And that was the first thing that really struck me is that I coached just as many girls as I did boys at that time. And I don't think I'd ever coached a girls team in the UK before. So that was certainly the biggest thing that I noticed when I first came. How about the fan base or the loyalty to the sport? What did you see the differences? Yeah, the biggest difference in the professional game with the fan bases was the stadiums that the teams were playing in at the time.
Very much the fan bases originally, certainly in Chicago, was based upon communities of European descent.
And certainly as the game has progressed
There's been more and more first generation US fans that I've seen that have begun to pick up the game of soccer in the same way that other countries do that have a more
I'm going to say this respectfully, a more
Historic connection to the game leagues. People need to remember that there was the North American Soccer League that was very popular in the 70s and early 80s. But then there was a period of time where there was no pro soccer and just indoor soccer. And that league still exists. There's parts of that game that still provide people entertainment and people are still passionate about. But there's always been that level of support in the United States. But now you see when I was first in Major League Soccer
We were playing in giant NFL stadiums. And there was 12 to 20,000 in the stadium and it didn't look right. And then the first soccer specific stadium was in Columbus.
And then that came around. And now everywhere's got pretty much everywhere's got a soccer specific stadium downtown in cities.
And not only that, the females game is now getting their own soccer specific stadiums in downtown spaces. And the few teams that do play in the NFL side stadiums, the fan bases are so strong in those markets. They're filling that out. They're filling those stadiums. So the game is really meeting the demand of the appetite and the demand of the U.S. fan, in my opinion. And it just goes to show like having being able to bring Collier County's first ever soccer team here and how well the community has rallied around the team with the games being sold out so far with so many games.
It shows that there's an appetite for this, not just in Collier County, but across the country as well. Yeah, I just it's incredible that it's here. And you were a big part of making that happen here. This is the inaugural year. This is the first year. Yeah. And so how did you end up here and how did this evolve?
Well, the I'm naturally an ambitious person. And I often tell people that I don't need anyone to set a target for me because whether I'm going out on a run like all I need is a watch. And that's the competition I need.
And when I was at Red Bull, we were experiencing a lot of success. I wanted to see if I could influence more.
And an opportunity came. The success we were having was not going unnoticed elsewhere. And I was fortunate to be offered a position in Houston where the position was replicating what I was doing with Red Bull, but the opportunity to build it up from a smaller scale. That appealed to me. What appealed to me more was a brand new training complex that the team had built in conjunction with the city of Houston. And that was going to be the home training facility for the team. And I was given the opportunity to manage that facility. And that was my open door into facility management.
Six years of managing that facility, managing not just programming the facility with local programming play, but also managing it from a pro team standpoint, having a pro team there every day really gives a great experience level and allowed me to be comfortable knowing the facility that we had here that we could easily handle and easily
Support a pro team here in this facility.
Did you come in knowing that's what was going to happen, that you were going to be getting a team here, that you wanted to bring a team here, or did you come here just with an open mind? I came here with an open mind.
The company that I work for, sports facilities companies, we manage venues across the country.
They had originally placed me in a facility on the east coast of Florida.
And I was fortunate to be offered this role on an interim basis. When this place opened in 2020, the facility wasn't meeting the expectations or not living up to its potential, I think is the best way to look at it. I recall the first time I walked the facility in early November 2021, it was a day not dissimilar to this beautiful day.
And I brought my wife to check out Naples and see what it had to offer for us and found this incredible facility and it blew me away and blew my wife away immediately in terms of the quality of the facility.
What surprised me the most, it was empty. It was a perfect weekend in November and it was empty and it struck me right there and then that this was going to be a difficult job because the reason why our organization was brought in was the reason because it was empty. We wandered around and talked to a few people who were working. They didn't know who we were at that point. We were being nosy.
Walking around the stadium, I mentioned to my wife that this stadium needs something. It needs an anchor tenant. It needs something.
So immediately that seed was planted that I thought I could help influence getting something of this magnitude into this facility. But there was hard work to do before then because at the time this facility was not performing, it wasn't living up to its potential. And I recognized that there was a level of equity that needed to be built before I could announce or suggest that we do something of this magnitude.
And turning that corner took a year. It was hard work in that first year.
There was a level of staff that remained and it was building a new culture. It was building a new approach to how we booked the facility and how the staff were, the expectations that were set by the staff. And the company that I worked for, I really found a place where the principles and the values of the facility really match up with my own personal principles as well, which makes it very easy. The other aspect that makes it incredibly easy is the mission statement of our company is to improve the health and economic vitality of the community that we're in.
And to me, that always makes my job quite easy and the decision-making quite binary. Does it improve the health? If a question is ever posed to me, does it improve the health?
Does it improve the economic vitality? If the answer is yes to both, then we're probably going to do it. And that makes the decision-making very easy.
So the soccer team is just one of the things that we've done in this facility to support the community.
It's taken a few years as well, but one of the things that I'm just as proud of in terms of living up to that mission is our factory gym that's managed by Asia. You should really go check it out. It's an incredible facility and equipment in there.
And we were able to connect with Lucas Seiler with MSM Performance, who invested into the facility as a sponsor. That facility is now available to Collier County residents free of charge. Really? Right here. Right here at this place. So it's in the afternoons. So the gym opens in the afternoons at 2 o'clock and at the weekends. It's completely free to Collier County residents to come and enjoy and live a healthier lifestyle. So living up to our mission, that is exactly what we're doing. And that was a goal of ours. And we went to a lot of organizations to help promote that.
We are able to offer free use of the fields during the day through sponsorship as well.
That's with NCH. So we appreciate their involvement in that.
There is something to be said about MSM. They're a local small company that saw the benefit of this and wants to
Invest in their local community as well, their friends and their neighbors.
Similarly, the way that the soccer team do. The soccer team always made it very clear that their involvement in this community was more than just coming in and being a soccer team. They wanted to become part of the fabric of the community. That's a great way to weave the fabric together through a facility like this. Going back to getting that team here or having that happen, there were a lot of people along the way you had to persuade to believe in this. This is naval. We've never had anything like this here. We have a minor league baseball team which is supported by spring training and major league.
But to have a professional team here, where did you start to get that rolling here? It was a long time. As soon as I mentioned earlier that we had to turn a corner.
As soon as we worked hard to book the facility and book it in a way which was respected, was respectful to the facility in terms of having contract compliance with event operators that are coming in and selecting operators that were going to bring in quality events that matched the facility.
We had existing, we were fortunate to retain and inherit the FBU organization with Steve Quinn, Eric Richards, run a quality event. We had two quality events of Top Gun here in the summer and their national championships in December.
Those kind of events are the kind of events that we want to host here.
We wanted to host events which are the biggest and the best.
But also ones that are prestigious as well. So ones, if you're going to come to Naples to play, then the event that you're going to play in is going to mean something. There's something to be said about youth sports. It really should be about the participation and the growth of the individuals.
But still, being able to walk away from somewhere like Naples saying that your national champions is a cool thing. The road to Naples is a hashtag that's often used. And it really has, there is a flag in the ground here about this is where you come to play for state, regional, national finals. So in terms of when we did get to the point where we felt, I felt comfortable that we had enough in the funnel in terms of our schedule, we booked our schedule out enough that we'd corrected the direction of the facility.
That's when I used the network that I have within Major League Soccer, having worked there for so long and in the United Soccer Leagues, to be able to identify whether there was an interest, even an interest in someone being here. It turns out there was a lot of interest in Naples and why not because it's such a wonderful place.
And the process was as simple as requesting an RFP, have an RFP. Like, what would you do if you were going to put a team here? And then, U.S.L. put together a very compelling proposal, which we buttoned up and presented to the commissioners. I think that was in probably November of 2022.
So towards the end of the first year of when we were here. So it was quite soon.
And then, I think, the board had to be a lot, go along with it. Yeah, it was a process that I didn't want to get down the line and there was a lot of money involved in this. I mentioned to you before we were talking about this, is that the investment levels that this ownership group has put into Collier County, it's a significant amount of business that's come into Collier County through the investment group for this team.
And we wanted to make sure that we weren't doing things in the shadows and we were being clear about what our objectives were. And our objectives were to put a pro soccer team in the stadium. We gave U.S.L. the opportunity a year to find us ownership groups that we could interview to see who would be the best fit for Collier County.
And we were connected with about four or five ownership groups.
Two, you would probably say, were tire kickers, just coming to look around. And then there was three that were significantly interested in the facility. And we did a deeper dive with those groups.
And ultimately, the group led by FC Naples, Bob Moreno, was the group that we had suggested and recommended to move forward with. We worked with the clerk, we worked with the county manager's office.
My boss, Jack Adams, was critical in helping getting over the line, as were the county staff.
Marissa Baker here at the facility who helped navigate the process of getting it in front of the commissioners to a vote. And we were fortunate by the time it came to the end of the negotiation period that when we finally put it in front of the commissioners, it sailed through 5-0 on the vote. So they've been incredibly supportive. And you'll often see the commissioners here wearing their jerseys, supporting the team for the home games that we have here. And it brings so much to the area. I was looking at the cars out there, and I imagine they're the players from all different states. The license plates were from everywhere around the country. But they live here.
They're a part of our community now. The players, the staff, the whole part of what it takes to run a club like that. So that's more economic development for the area, more-- Yeah, 100%. This facility really is recognized nationwide as an industry-leading facility. There are venues that try to replicate what we do here.
And certainly outside of Collier County, this is a well-sought-after facility. The benefit that it brings to the community is in so many ways, not just the economic impact that our events bring into the community with the different groups that come that people earn their money outside of Collier County and they come and spend their money inside Collier County through coming to this venue. We estimated that to be around $45 to $55 million in 2024.
And that's supporting our hospitality industry, our restaurants, our attractions.
And that has an impact because we're hiring a lot of people we're constantly hiring here.
And that means that the money that people are bringing in and supporting people locally, who then indirectly support the economic impact because now we've provided some vocational opportunities for people.
And when it comes to things like the soccer team here, the level they play at, this may be the first time that these players have had an opportunity to be a professional sports player. And that brings a lot of pride to the team here as well that we gave these young men the opportunity to live their dreams as well. And so far with an unbeaten team in league place, sitting top of the league in league one. Oh, is that right? Yeah, they're representing the community in such a way with the heart they play with when they're playing on the field.
It really is. They've taken on board the support they've got from the community and they really can't do much more on the field because they're unbeaten. So they're doing really well.
I'm still so in shock and blown away by this whole property and everything here. What do you think sets it apart from the facility you came from or from other facilities? Why is it different? What makes it different here?
The main thing that sets it apart is simply the first word of the name, Paradise.
That really sets the tone for this facility more than anything else. When you have Paradise in your name, the standard that you have to set is great. And that's something that the team here really rise to. And I appreciate the opportunity to essentially, when touring with people, try to explain that when you do a sports event in Paradise, you expect a level of service. And a lot of times people will bring their event here and they'll have a long list of things that they have to do at other venues. And my team will go through or we'll go through with the tour and say, "Yep, we take care of that. We take care of that. Oh, you need those. Don't worry.
We've got that covered for you." We have a full service catering department here, which means that we can support any kind of event at any time, whether it be a catering event, any kind of entertainment events.
We have the ability to service in any particular way. So that's really the main thing that sets us apart is the level of service that we strive to provide. And it all comes back to the fact that the standard that has been set for us is literally in our name. Well, you're going to go down in history as being instrumental and somebody really important to this in our area because it's a big deal for us. What was it that changed your trajectory in your career to get you here? Was there a pivotal point?
I think the leadership that I mentioned his name earlier, under Dave Jervis in New York, that's someone who was my friend, but also instilled a level of work ethic that really I understood what was required to be a part of that. To reach those standards. Also, the working underneath Dave and working with Red Bull was really important because it showed that you get rewarded for innovation and creativity. That's really where the value comes in any leadership position that you have.
Keeping the status quo is okay.
But ultimately, we look to try and push boundaries.
We look to try and new things all of the time.
It's a very difficult job to manage a venue this size outdoors. When you've got the challenges of hurricanes and all kinds of things going on, we have to be creative with the way that we support this facility financially. We try and do it in a way that is always at the best interests of Collier County first.
The decisions we make are always based upon does this work for the county. When you have that as your North Star, it really makes it hard work. It's incredibly hard work, but I would suggest being given a canvas like this. Having that experience in my career of working for organizations where you have to beg, borrow and steal to make things happen. There's a level of innovation and creativity that you learn from that. But also when you're supported and you have financial backup that you can dream and you can identify new things to do, then that really, if you combine those two aspects, that really was the turning point that set me up to manage a facility like this.
Because the canvas means that we can make our own scripts and start doing some cool stuff. But you had to ruffle some feathers a little bit when you came here. You had to kind of disrupt the way it was going. You had to make some changes.
Yeah, I mean, certainly the standards for a facility like this had to be high.
And the standards that I like to keep is really in the details. It was a difficult kind of first few months because inheriting a staff with a culture that was ingrained.
There was a lot of young employees here.
And one of the things that I wanted to do was remove the word kids from everyone's vocabulary, simply because if you call someone a kid, they're probably going to act like one.
So the high school age employees that we had here, I encouraged everyone who was a bit further in, along in their career, to remove the word kids from their vocabulary and treat them like they were an adult and treat them like they were someone with responsibility.
And access around the facility was limited to the adults. The younger employees didn't have access badges to get into rooms. And that was one thing that I really recognized early on was we need to give people responsibility to do their jobs other than, "Hey, Tristan, can you go get me a table because we need to set this up for an event?" And then Tristan was like, "Well, I need someone to let me in the door." That was an immediate thing that I realized that we needed to empower people to do their jobs to be able to do that. Another thing that stood out was my insistence on straight lines when it comes to painting fields. It comes back to the fact that we were in paradise.
I may have upset a couple of employees when I made them scrub up some lines and repaint them until they were straight.
But that's the standard that we have to keep. And it's those things that really make an impact within a culture of an organization that we're not going to let that happen when the standards here are so high.
How would your team describe you as a leader? To my face or...
The way I'd hope they'd describe me as a leader, I've had a big break in my career. In the middle of my career, it's not something that I've made public very often.
I got sick and was away from the workforce for a year or two because I had to work on my own recovery with the support of my wife and my family and was able to come back stronger from that.
So I'd like to think that my staff would recognize that I see them as individuals and humans first rather than employees.
And that I will support them with their goals as well to each individual. When I bring on an employee, I ask them what they want to do and where they want to be and what kind of money they want to earn. And it's my role as a leader to try and create or guide them on a path to be able to do that. I recognize that not everyone is going to stay here for the rest of their life, but you can get experience in any single industry at this complex.
There's experience that you get in any industry that you can think of. You can get it right here in Paradise Coast in any kind of role.
And good turnover and bad turnover is something that I've talked about for a long time in my career, even though I still think I'm quite early on in my career. But then I look back and it's like, it's been 20 years. But good turnover and bad turnover. Good turnover, to me, is when somebody moves on and they're going to take a job as they're calling. And a job in the meantime is an opportunity for them to get experience or it's a stepping stone for them to be able to do what they want to do.
Good turnover is also when somebody moves on and they take a similar role, but it's a promotion that we can't offer them at this time. That always makes me very proud when someone moves on and I see colleagues of mine.
It's a small world, just simply on Wednesday night. Unfortunately, the team lost to Tampa Bay Rowdies, the team that play in the league above us in the U.S. As the team was celebrating, an individual approached me on the field and it was a former employee of mine in Houston, who is now one of the coaches at the Tampa Bay Rowdies. So that was such a cool thing about how this network and this industry can connect you to people.
I want to avoid bad turnover as much as possible. Bad turnover I see as when somebody's potential hasn't been met or they work in sports. And one of the things I say all the time is this should be fun. It should be fun. It's hard work, but it should be fun.
But if someone is going to leave and they're going to work another job, which isn't associated, and we've had the discussion about what their goals are and they deviate that from that. And that's always very disappointing for me as a leader when we do have what I consider bad turnover.
And that's those things that I wear that on my sleeve.
But I hope my employees see me as someone that they can get behind. I lead them down paths sometimes, which they don't necessarily want to go, but they always respond.
We just returned back a record quarter this year, January to March. My finance manager provided the financial return for this quarter. And it's significantly more of what we've done an entire year in previous years before in a single quarter.
And I look back at how busy we were when we were then to how we are now. And we're always considering to I'm always looking to find pockets that we can utilize this facility, offer it to the local residents more or support the local community by bringing in economic impact events, which are going to fill hotel rooms and have people sit at restaurant tables. And go on our attractions, our shit shelling tours and things like that.
And I found that they're reacting because now they're saying, okay, we've got the world's largest youth football tournament. And this happened last week. We've got the world's largest youth football tournament followed by the FBU event, national championships, two massive events.
And my events director was like, should we put a can we put a soccer camp in between them? And I'm like, well, that's normally me. That's normally me. So who's suggesting that we try and squeeze things in into places and stretch the team in that way.
But that, to me, is a good indicator that the culture that we've created here is one that is competitive, which I want it to be.
And we don't we don't get satisfied with where we're at right now. We're always looking to improve that competitive spirit always in you always. I think that comes from being the youngest of four with two older brothers.
I was consistently I.
I consistently competing with them. The younger side to be the fighter. Yeah. And now I the level that I did play at soccer, I was fortunate because I'd go and play play with my brother and his friends who are four years older than me. So by the time I got to senior football in the UK when I was 16, I was playing against adults when I was 16. But it was it wasn't it wasn't news to me because I always enjoyed competing against people older, more experienced and bigger than I am. So your family's your parents, your mom and dad back in the UK still now. How would mom describe you?
Oh, she I don't know, a pest probably.
She's come with that. But that's a good question. It's it's been the most difficult thing about moving across that. My whole family is here. I literally came to the United States with a bag of clothes, perisoccolates and two hundred bucks.
And.
It's with a level of melancholy that I speak about it because there is that sacrifice that I've made of missing time with with my parents and my family.
And I do get homesick for them and I do get homesick as well.
I think.
My mom would describe me as an incredibly inquisitive child. I was always very independent. And I think that show was what I've been doing.
I'm also she would probably describe me as being fiercely loyal, which is something that I'm very that is a is a personality trait that I'm very proud of.
And.
And that's replicated to my staff. I'm loyal to my staff. I'm loyal to the facility and I'm loyal to the people that support me. So and your wife's name, Jennifer, how would she describe you? Oh, noisy, noisy.
She's she's incredibly successful in her own right. We met in Houston.
We have a meet aversary rather than an anniversary because that's M E 80 because we met at the World Championship barbecue cookoff in Houston.
It's in an era of people meeting through social media. It was I'm quite proud of the fact that we met and we created a connection together completely organically.
We were literally coming back from the barbecue cookoff, which if anyone has had the opportunity to go to the barbecue cookoff in Houston, it's a bucket list thing to do. It's incredible. And hundreds of thousands of people go and everyone's trying to get back to wherever they're going after the event and you get crammed onto you get crammed onto buses or you drive and sit in traffic. But I was getting on the light rail with my friends back up to downtown Houston where I lived. And just so happens I was crammed in the same carriage of Jen and we struck up a conversation while we were on the train and we both got off at the same stop. And that's how we met.
It was it was it was it's been it's been great. We've been married eight, eight years now. And her job allows me to do all of the silly stuff that I do. She works for a company or she has worked for companies that is completely remote working. So she she puts up with me and I think we've we've supported each other in a number of different ways. But yeah, she adjusted well the move from Houston to here. Yeah. Yeah. She's the kind of person that gets who says it's cold when it gets below 80 degrees.
She's quite comfortable. She's she's from Houston. So she loved the summers there. Moving here. The warm weather year round is nice. Houston it can get quite chilly in the winter. But the heat here hasn't really impacted either of us because Houston is just incredibly hot. So living 10 years there will set you up for any kind of heat anywhere. There like it does here. Yeah. Same. What do you love the most about your role here? And the ability to come to work every day and write write a script that we get to write ourselves.
I think that's the best thing about this role. And the best thing about my role is not one day is not one day in three and a half years have I had the same day. This is the first day that I've come in and done a podcast. So that's something different. But, later on today I'm gonna be talking with Yale University about bringing a division one lacrosse game here. So it's just exciting to be involved with with a dynamic facility like this and being able to continually offer things to the community.
Many people would have been here for Collie County's first ever drone show. That was last year.
A drone drone show. Yeah. So there was there was over eight thousand people here for that. And if you look over onto that field, the drones lifted from the grass field over there and the stadium was covered in was there was so many people here.
And that was the first ever one of its kind in Collier County. And some of the things that we have planned for the facility still all are the first.
I didn't know there's something like that existed. And we had it right here in Naples on top of that. Yeah. Yeah. It's there's there's been less and less through the storms that we've been having and the redevelopment and the repair of what's been going on at the beach a lot of the time. The traditional times that there's been fireworks that hasn't been possible.
The call has been asked of us to support it. And the county has supported the community by providing an option for people to celebrate July 4th and here at Paradise Coast. And we did it with fireworks one year. And then we to the complete support of the great great Naples fire department, we moved away from fireworks and the drones. And I remember that meeting was we were going around the room about how we're organizing traffic and what EMT are going to do and all those kind of things. And we said to great Naples fire. You guys good. And they're like, yeah, this is great. Yeah, no fireworks drones. They were they were good. That's been fun. But that diversity in the role.
Really fortunate to have this role and be able to support the community in so many ways that we do.
The things that probably won't get as much media coverage or will be recognized as much as those are sometimes the things that we can be most proud of our connection with the College County Public Schools providing facilities for the College County Public Schools to play sand volleyball to place to play their soccer tournaments here give people the opportunity to do that. But also our partnership with the greater achievement through empowerment program, which is graduate age students with learning this or physical disabilities. There's a number of businesses in the local area that provide vocational opportunities for those students.
We're incredibly proud to be part of that program. And those individuals come to Paradise Coast and we give them the opportunity to empower themselves and give them responsibility to help us with the with the work that happens here.
That has come full circle by providing jobs for those individuals who provide value to the complex. But also we can provide value to them by bringing them part as a member of the actual team here where they then they're no longer part of that program or they remain part of that program. But they also become part of a part of the team here as well. And we've had two individuals that have come through that program to make that full circle. And those are the things that really, really, really shows that we're really proud of that.
And the ability to serve our community in those kind of ways. It's it's not just a facility where we are having people come and play sport and people have the opportunity to keep fit. It's supporting the community in the 360 degree kind of way.
You've got to be kind of a diplomat in some forms, because you got to deal with government agencies, outsiders, you've got to be able to balance what it is to lead a team and facility that is world class and also please the constituents and the community that way. So you've got a you've got a role that is pretty unique. I would think you got to have a diverse background for that. Yeah, it is. And not everyone is not everyone's happy. You can't please everyone all the time.
The important thing for us is to ensure that successful events here and the ones that return on a regular basis are ones where we've provided a platform where the complex is winning, the county is winning and the event operator is winning as well. When we have those three things, we have the consistent return on those on those events. Do we miss sometimes? Sometimes we do. And one of our principles is better every time. It certainly isn't through a lack of effort that when that happens and ultimately the responsibility when that happens falls with me. I'm happy to say that responsibility.
And it's important that every time that as a leader, I do my best to take responsibility for shortcomings. When there is credit, I always I always share the credit around the team and make sure that people recognize that how important the team is rather than any individual. So it's been something that I've had to develop over the years a skill to be able to be able to work within this kind of format of government and private. There's always the inclination when you work for a private agency that you want to go through, you want to push things on and you find that sometimes government processes will not prevent you doing it.
It will maybe not as quickly as you might be able to do in the private sector. I first learned that when I was given a role in Houston. That was similar to this. That the facility was a city, a Houston facility that was built by Parks and Recreation and managed by the Houston Dynamo. So it was a similar kind of private private government partnership to operate that facility. So, yeah, it's it's part of the role is being able to be confident speaking at board meetings, making those presentations.
And it's always good when you've got the backup of good news and 99 times out of 100 when we are presenting, we are presenting, we are presenting incredibly good news and some of the remarkable stuff that the team has been able to return at this facility. And we look forward to what we can do in the future with potential future growth of the facility. Yeah. What do you see over the next five years? What's your vision? Over the next five years for this facility and this complex. Right now, there is a feasibility study going on to complete the Paradise Co-sports complex in the way that it was designed.
And that's to add an additional 11 fields, which would be diamond fields. As we look at how this our calendar runs, we're very, very popular with soccer. We're very, very popular with lacrosse and we have very, very large football events. They all occur Labor Day to Memorial Day. Pretty much. We've football is an American football. I have to clarify that because anybody with an English accent always football seems to. Probably it's cool. I'm bilingual over these years. I've been able to been able to bring on you might know, it's the idea I said soccer cleats, which I know of anyone back home hears me saying that I'm going to I'm in trouble for that.
But yeah, I think the future development of this place with the ability for us to book baseball and softball, which the season is traditionally from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
That would provide us the dive, the true diversity of activity and the consistency over the year that we would be able to support the local community with economic impact year round.
And I know that there is a lot of support for that in the hospitality community. Since I've been here, I see my role as as more than just running a sports complex. There is a lot of people that rely on this facility. And through that, I was brought on to the board of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association. So I sit with that board and listen to firsthand to general managers of restaurants and hotels about how important this is to the community. And the benefit of sports tourism is it's a very hardy.
I'm not going to say recession proof industry, but it's very hardy industry. It was the first to return during the covid year years.
And we see that when parents are making a decision of what to do with their time, sports for their kids is always a priority. So that's an important aspect that this is a beautiful area. Sometimes the weather can work in work against the hospitality industry. Things like Red Tide can work against the hospitality industry, regardless of whether that's happening. This complex is open and driving people to the local area. The fact that we also have those things to offer is an extra benefit to the people that are coming. Those who are coming here for sports tourism are coming here for that purpose initially.
And that makes it an incredibly important aspect to the to the to the local economy. Well, which is why I would think the baseball fields, especially because during the summer months are when we need people here the most. I mean, that really to bring those people here would be such a. Yeah. And the benefit that we have of working in such a broad network across the country.
Sports facilities companies we now managing in excess of 70 facilities around the country. So when it comes to selecting operators and selecting events, I'm only a phone call away from other venues that we manage to say which ones work and which ones don't. And we've also got data that are venues in Florida that have baseball facilities over 60 percent of their annual visitation happens in the summer months. And that's flip flop with this this place. Right. And if we can take that trajectory and that level of visitation that we get in the in the in the winter months and we can continue that through the summer.
That's really when this facility. Really, really does become the one of the best, if not the best facility in the country.
And I'd like to make sure that as part of that discussion that's going on right now with the feasibility study is behind us here in the stadium would be the developer development of a field house as well.
And from our perspective, that would be an incredible addition to the facility as well to have an indoor space that we could we could program.
Ultimately, we believe that this place needs both.
And the ability for us to manage it, we could program it.
And the reasons why I said before about why baseball would be important is that's going to provide the levers that we can pull as a management company to be able to bring in the people that would be supporting the local economy in the most effective way.
So for you personally, what do you do when when life gets you when there's a breakdown when things aren't going the way you want them to when it just what do you turn to? Who do you turn to?
How do you get yourself through tough times?
Well, I've had I mentioned earlier, I know I've had.
Everyone has their own trauma and has their own struggles.
And I think it's always been
Reverting back to keeping myself fit and keeping myself active.
If I'm moving, then then I feel like it's almost like there's a level of bulletproof cloak that I can put around myself. I was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2016 and went through surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy. And I found that my best way to tackle that was to exercise.
And I found that when I felt my worst, I put my running shoes on and I'd see if I could run to the end of the block. And when I got to the end of the block, I realized that was easy. So I'd run around the block and then I found myself during the toughest times.
During that period that I was out every day. And that's what gave me a lot of confidence that I could come through it and with support, Jen, who's critical to that.
That was how I've done that. And certainly from managing a place like this where the hours are long. We open at six o'clock in the morning and we don't close till ten o'clock at night, sometimes later at the weekend. So finding time to be able to get away from a screen and find the solace of just being out and exercising, that's the cathartic release that I have.
Wow, I didn't realize that was part of your journey. That's one big mountain. Yeah, it was certainly something that I haven't made a big deal of.
And I've questioned about whether it's something that I should share.
And ultimately, it has changed my outlook.
The way I approach things, the competitive nature that I have, hasn't changed one bit.
One thing that it has allowed me to do is take a step back and breathe a little bit and recognize that we can do things to the best of our abilities. And if people don't see that, then that's fine. That's fine. If I'm confident that I've given my very best, then the people who are around me and the people that I've supported, who have supported me, if they see that, that's enough. I don't need to take into account other people's opinions who don't know the full story.
And I think I might upset a few people that while I was in Houston, I became quite an avid Houston Astros fan, and I still am. And I heard a quote from Jose Altuve, which he's an incredible player, quite a diminutive figure who was always kind of pushed down and not given the opportunity to do that. And I think there's that competitive nature that I like to connect with. There's a quote that he had of he doesn't want to prove people wrong. He wants to prove people right, the people that support him. And certainly that's the way that I approach things is that I like to prove people right rather than prove people wrong.
And that's a direction that's that provides me the get up and go every morning. So that's an inspiration. You are an inspiration. That's pretty cool. I appreciate you saying that.
Yeah, something that my wife has had brain surgery for a pineal cyst in Houston, as a matter of fact, two of them and anything dealing with the brain is just it's a big deal. It's a really big deal. It is. I mean, there's two things about that. I'd like to add, I mean, one, if you're going to get sick anywhere in the world, Houston is a good place to do it.
Because of the medical center. But one of the most.
Incredible things about how soccer and how my role had connected everything around was we were running programs in soccer programs in Houston. And the standards that we tried to keep, I tried to replicate from the standards that we kept at Red Bull. So it was really important to me that the curriculum was right, that the coaches were prepared. They looked the part and we kept a really high standard with what we were doing.
There was a there was a girl that would come to our camps with her dad and we were running camps all over Houston. And the competitive nature that had it was like, OK, we can push further out. So we started doing some in Louisiana as well. And I was at a camp program for a start of a camp program on a Monday morning and I saw this this door and had that there.
And I looked up on the online registration. I'm like, you're from Houston and you'll come into this. And the dad said to me.
We recently lost my wife and it's really hit my daughter hard. The only place that she finds. She had the only place that she finds that she can relax and start to socialize and get on with life is when she's on the soccer field with you guys. And that was enough for me. I was like, I was gone at that point.
Fast forward to when I was brought into Methodist Hospital.
And I'm in the hospital room.
Doctor walks in, takes one look at me and walks out. He walks back in and he's like, I saw the name on the chart and I wished it wasn't you.
It was the dad. It was my oncologist. So my doctor was the was the dad of the door. So that's how close. And that's how this this in sports and in community. That's how that's how we can use sports to bring it full circle.
He's still my oncologist. I still check in with him every year and still talk about his daughter and I don't think she plays soccer anymore. But that's a shame. But I mean, certainly that's that's something that was really important to me that we I was able to use sport and soccer to support that family at that time. I didn't know about it. But what we were doing was having that impact in that on that family. And it makes you think about all of the different things that we do. How does that impact the memories that are being made, the lives that are being changed, the life lessons that are being learned through sports. That's so important.
And it was just incredibly important and nice for that to come back and in turn for Dr. Tremont to be able to support me and help me through my through my darkest hour. Yeah, wow. Wow. That's pretty my gosh. Yeah, I think sports, youth sports. Having been involved with my children, my son, and having been involved in Little League. I was president of Little League and God bless you. Yeah. That was that was an interesting role. But the greatest gift, the greatest part about it was seeing the kids on the joy of the kids on the field like I said before before the parents were at the stage where they thought their child was going to be there for one K.
They just they were literally just, they were just in love with their kid being on the field and just playing and not he didn't need to be Derek Jeter or Al Tuva. He was just raw and having a great time and seeing the joy of a five or six year old with their dad on a Saturday morning., just the purity of that was the most beautiful thing. Now, once they got older than that and they were fighting to be shortstop and the parents were more involved in the kids were. That was the challenging part.
But sports for me, youth sports., a lot of my greatest memories with my son are being on the road going to travel baseball and staying in a hotel with a bunch of ten year olds running around tearing up the hotel and having a great time on a baseball. Just some good times together and to see that what this is here. And I don't know what the average age of the players are on the team here. What would you say that of the pro team? I was asked this yesterday, the younger than me. I would say the average age is probably 24. Yeah, probably 24. Like I said, it's a maybe younger.
This is a level of professional sports that allows people to get on the stepping stone to major leagues. Yeah. And the way that soccer is structured in this country is that the league that you play in matches the market that you're in. So this team are playing against similar sized market teams. Madison, Wisconsin, Spokane, Washington. The next level up is I mentioned we played Tampa Bay. That's a larger market than Naples. And then if you look at tier one major league soccer, that's your giant cities. That's Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, New York, LA. Not to say that there aren't smaller teams in those markets as well. But traditionally this league supports that size market.
But it's interesting that you say about the impact of youth sports.
But also we have adults that play here as well for recreational purposes. And I can't remember who the sports psychologist who is. It's going back to my days at St. Mary's University in London.
But understanding that play is a child's work. So they're learning how to be an adult when they're playing. Recreation for adults is you're recreating your youth. You're remembering what it's like to be a child. So it's important that the life lessons that kids are learning, adults try to unlearn them when they're learning. When they're out playing here. And we have a number of different groups that come out and enjoy the facility in the evenings. And it's good to see that we're providing that opportunity for a multitude of different demographics and age groups from this facility.
I'm amazed to see how many adults there are that play football, soccer, guys that I know close to my age that are still playing and loving it. And it's a big part of their life every Wednesday or every day a week. Yeah, there's a substantial league here that plays on Wednesday nights typically up in North Collier. And the guys are very dedicated to it. And I think it's Guy Harris that runs it. So it's important to recognize all of those people like the little league presidents that make it all possible.
These things don't just happen because there's a sports facility, there's volunteers in the community that make it all possible for people, whether it be recreation for adults or play for kids. Those people are integral to the community and their roles within their organizations make it all possible. Some questions for fun. Okay. It's been fun already. Yeah, well, but the fun side of life anyway, that's the other side. Your coffee you brought in this morning. What's your typical coffee order? Well, it's not coffee, it's tea. I should have known that. Yeah. Tell me about your tea. Oh, it's a bit of a problem., on a good day, I don't know if it's good or bad day.
I'm probably four, five cups of tea a day. And how do you have your tea? The only way. And what's that? Tea with milk. Okay. Tea with milk. Okay. So we don't put the milk in first either.
Milk. Okay. Our good friend Amanda, who's from the UK, whenever we go to her house, we always have a tea that way. Yes. Okay. So I should have known that.
What music's playing in your car or on your earbuds when you're running? Oh, I don't. I use running to completely disconnect. So I don't have a phone and I have earbuds.
And it's time for me just to be with myself. But I listened to BBC Radio 6. My favourite DJ on that is Craig Charles. For those who may or may not know, Craig Charles was an actor, stand up comedian, poet. And now he's a DJ as well. And he has a Funk and Soul shot. And that's certainly the kind of music that I really enjoy. And I was jamming out on the way here of a track that I heard on his show. And it's a remix of a Steely Dan song that's been remixed by a DJ. And it was fun to listen to. So that's what I listened to. Outside of sports, I've been into my music and a lot of it came through my interest in motorcycles.
So I have Italian motorcycles. The first ones I had were and I still have are vintage Vespers. So people might see me knocking around on my Vespa around town. I have a 1965 Vespa. Right around that long. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's still going strong. But now the scene that is around that, particularly in the UK, there's a lot of there's different kind of parts, verticals to that scene. There's the scene that's certainly around northern soul music and northern soul music. I've got one of my prized possessions on my wall in my living room is a signed picture from Edwin Starr when I saw Edwin Starr play at a scooter rally in the UK. Scooter rally? Yeah. Yeah.
Everyone kind of meets up and there's it's good fun. And I like working on them. They break down as much as they as they run. But that's certainly the other other than sports and my favorite soccer team, West Ham United.
That's certainly my music and in that part of that culture is certainly where I like to spend my time.
What do you miss about home? Family, family and the ability to travel by public transport. So living just outside of London, I could jump on a train from outside, literally a few hundred yards away from my house. I grew up in and be in London in half an hour. And then once you're in London, you can jump on the underground and get around and you don't have to rely on having to get in a car. And I think that's one of the things where I've enjoyed living in cities has always been I've always looked to live in walkable neighborhoods.
And the biggest culture shock to me living in Southwest Florida is, it's not I don't think anyone could say that there's many neighborhoods that are walkable to be able to kind of bounce between restaurants and bars and things like that. Is there food you miss from back home? Pie mash, traditional London meal. I enjoy that. What is that? It's a meat pie served with mashed potato. And it doesn't sound like much, but it's it's traditionally served with a parsley sauce called liquor. And I always make sure that I make time to get to one of the places in London that serves it. It's it's very traditional, sometimes served with jellied eels as well. With what? Jellied eels?
Yeah. Jellied eels. Like eel, like the... Yeah. Yeah. I don't know either. Yeah, it's I will always try every food once. And that's something I tried once and I don't need to try it again. But yeah, that's that's whenever I go home, I make I make sure that's that we get up to London and find one of the I recommend anyone to do it as well. Find one of the older places that still serves traditional pie mash in around London and try it. Have you ever found anywhere here that serves? Nothing. Houston either? No. Really? No. No. No, no. Houston's got a great food scene. They do. But no one that can effectively replicate the what is a pretty simple dish by all accounts.
But yeah.
About fish and chips. Yeah. Yeah. Anywhere here that is close. A I guess a shameless plug for the pub in Macario. They do a very good fish and chips. They do. They also serve a beer called London Pride. We're from a brewery called Fuller's. And I was born in I was born in Hammersmith in London and just a few hundred yards away from that brewery. So I'm not sure how early I was put on to London Pride, but I certainly enjoyed point out there when I go to that when I go to that pub. So what's the name of the what's the name of the beer or what's it's called London pride. It's not gonna put on my list. It's it's traditionally served in the UK as a car scale.
So it's pumped out here. It's in a it's in a keg. So it's still good, though. And reminds me. reminds me of times similar to what you get at home. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's close. But yeah, the
There's always a list of things that my wife has when we go back to the UK about where we need to go. And the common myth that the food in England isn't good is we can we can show people that it really isn't. Okay, good. You head up to any one of the markets in London, and you'll find some of the best food ever. It's
We always go to Borough Market in London at London Bridge Borough Market. Okay. And can walk around there and it's it's a great place to visit. And the food there is incredibly good. So it's on my list to be to go to the UK at some point. So all the music I grew up with and love the UK invasion that was here. Yeah, all the bands that were from
Made what new wave and alternative music was from from the UK. Yeah, many songs that were about grow up for me growing up, there were many songs that I listened to that were about the UK and areas in the UK. And so I've always had a
Been on my list to go see these places where all these great bands from the early 80s were from, and so I'll have to get a list from you of restaurants to go to and when we're going to go there music venues as well to go and see. Yeah, there's
I've really enjoyed living in the largest cities just for the fact that when I was in New York, I go to a live show three nights a week, four nights a week, and try and balance that with the hours that I was working is that fortunately, New York's open to very late, very early, whichever way you look at it. And I was in my 20s so I could deal with it. So I get home from work at 11 quick shower, jump on the path train to New York City go and catch a show and path be back home by 4am and then in the office by night. The days bulletproof, then not anymore. So
If you weren't a GM here, what do you think you'd be doing today? Oh
Probably
Probably would have remained in sports in some way probably on the field. Some of my best friends are incredibly talented coaches. And I probably would have probably would have stayed on the field in some way.
And
I found that through my career, my ability to influence the area that the situation I was in, I wanted to influence as much as possible. And I always felt that when I was coaching, I enjoyed coaching, but I could influence the 1520 players that were on the field with me. If I was a age group director at a club, I'd be three 400 players that were if I was a director of coaching of a club, that's 1000 2000 players that I was influencing utilizing the role as a programming director for a major league soccer team. Now I'm influencing tens of thousands of kids across the entire city. And that to me was my why about why I wanted to do that.
So I think if I hadn't gotten into facility management, I would have I would have remained on the field somehow. I did always want to be a train driver, though. So maybe, maybe that
What's something about you that most people don't know, but should that I wanted to be a train driver?
Most people don't know about me, but they should.
Wow, what question? I think I've shared a lot already that they have. I mean, I think
The
Wow, that's a tough question.
I think
From from a professional perspective, is that
The competitive nature that I have is in every role I've had any goal that's been set for me is never been the goal that I set for myself. It's always been it's always been greater than than that. From
From a personal perspective, I've shared a lot already about what what we should do, but
That I enjoy DJing on the side. There we go. And probably a band that you were into. I actually open for in Houston. I open for the English beat in Houston. Yeah, no kidding. Yeah. English beats in my in my play list. My people should know that my my DJ name is Mick Mc Max, the man who's the best at the game. I'm not sure what he's going to do. But I think that my DJ name is Mick Mc Max, the man with the mix. Most of the stuff, and I've moonlighted a couple of evenings moonlighted a couple of evenings. But when I start playing the jam and English beat and that's the jam that seems to turn away more people than others. But I need you around. Oh, see, there we go.
Now we've uncovered the real truth. I love that too. Gosh, you've got deep roots in music and you're and you're at the DJ in your soul. I love that. Give me the name of the DJ your DJ name again. Mick Mc Max, the man with the mix.
That is so great.
Stefan Contorno is another person that we've had on the podcast and a good friend of mine and he's also a fellow. Well, he's out of the closet now fellow closet DJ, but he was he's like full. He's like being goes to Miami all the time. He's getting trained by the real DJ guys with the real mixer boards. In fact, he had me by he didn't have me by but I ended up playing a mixing board. One of these new ones. It's really got all kinds of gadgets and features and things on it. I'm no good on it like he is. But anyway, this is turning turning into
Our second very special cast who's also got DJ in his blood. Right. So the he mentioned how would my wife describe me and that's why I said noisy because I typically play music in the house too loud for her.
But yeah, it's I'm not very good at it. But that's part of some things that people do to get released from from the stresses of the world. Sometimes when you're just doing something just to do it. Yeah. That's that's the best type of catharsis that you can get. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, music is and to hear somebody else even say English beat or the jam.
That's awesome.
I'm honored today. I mean, I think it's a really big deal. I appreciate you. I had no idea what what we were coming to or what who I was going to speak to it. But I think our area this community
Is blessed to have you who's made such a big mark in our area for for the future of the area, but also for the for the impact that you're having on so many people in our area. And I don't think that would have happened without your visionary leadership and the way you are. So we're this is definitely clearly and easily a spotlight on a good person in our community. So I appreciate all that you've done and all that you do and all the sacrifices that you've made to be here and we are honored and I pray for you. I your health and your well being and because we need you here. You got a lot to accomplish for our for our community in this area here.
So thanks for taking the time to be with us here. I appreciate that. I really do.
To me, it's it's fun and I enjoy supporting the community and
The message that I've said to my team recently is
It's there's there's a real level of honor of earning your living serving your community and there's lots of different ways that you can serve your community and to do it to do it through this is an honor and I've enjoyed most of the time I've had here. There's there's been some rough rough times. Absolutely. But, when people are here and they're enjoying the facility and there's multiple different groups here. That's when this place is ticking and that's when then I get the most that get the most out of this role. But thank you for for sharing this podcast with me and the facility. Yeah. And I appreciate all of the kind words that you have. Yeah, absolutely.
Our pleasure and we're we're going to have your we're going to give you an invitation for your wife to come in and be pampered like a princess into the salon. So but you could come in. Well, yeah, I've got about four or five haircuts left. Yeah, you can go with a lot better off than me. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Thanks a lot, man. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks.