Latest / A Level Playing Field / Changing the game: Mario Lapointe's plan for Dumbarton Women I A Level Playing Field I Episode 26

Transcript

Changing the game: Mario Lapointe's plan for Dumbarton Women I A Level Playing Field I Episode 26 · A Level Playing Field

• 0:00
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• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to a level playing field.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: I'm delighted to be joined by Cheryl Smith, and today we have Mario LePointe, the owner of Dumbarton.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you for hosting us, Mario, and uh we're in quite uh quite lovely surrounds this afternoon.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well thank thank you for coming here.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we're like I say, we're a small club with the big rock.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: So so you know we we uh we welcome everybody to to to come and see us and uh I take the opportunity to to talk to your your fans and so on at the same time and let them know what what we're all about, you know.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: We're um we were really encouraged by your views and philosophy around the women's team here at Dumbarton, understand that they're going to play all their home games here and share the same facilities and resources, and you want to pull resources between the male and the and the women's team.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: Just give us a bit of background and first of all, how you got involved in Dumbarton and how you see the progress of the women's team going.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, okay, so it's two big questions there.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I could we're we could be doing this for a half hour.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: So how how I first the Dumbarton, why the Dumbarton?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so many people ask me, and and that's why I'm writing my memoirs now to explain to you guys why Dumbarton.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: But basically, if you do the uh the uh the benchmarking between teams that were for sale and and so on, uh the Scottish uh this team compared to all the other ones that I saw, whether it's from Portugal, Italy, everybody that was for sale, the potential was bigger here of growth.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the passion rate, I I came up with a little equation that you what you do is you take your season tickets and you divide by your average uh attendance, and I call that the passion rate.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh here it's through the roof compared to other places.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: The passion of Scotland per capita is about twice or two and a half times what we see in England as well.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the demography didn't change so much here.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, so historic numbers or history, when you look back, you can you can say, well, this is the crowd you're gonna get, that's the type of crowd you're gonna get, and so on.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, so out of let's say six, seven teams initially, it goes down, it goes down, and eventually you're you're in between maybe two or three teams.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And Dumbarton had the best location.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: And on the first day that I came here and in the first week, I could see also that uh I had the most talent in volunteers.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: The volunteers are unbelievable.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: The talent that we have here is unbelievable for volunteers.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's incredible.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: So so that made the choice pretty easy.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the program for a woman, it it was a hard.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um if you look at it administration-wise, just just let's say a project manager, somebody that looks at only number, an accountant, you wouldn't do the program.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't do it because there's no money involved.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's no money, it just draws money.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so so knowing that, and and most clubs go through that because they're in premiership or or whatnot, and they're in the super league, and so so they they that kind of money at that level uh can be found or or they have it from the man's side, right?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: But our man's side, we don't have money.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, so we had to come up with something differently, you know, something that's different.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: And because I have a little bit of background in music, well, if you go to clubs, you know, bars and things like that, a lot of the people what they have as model there is that the owner will tell you the the the bands, you get the gate, we get the bar.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and what happens is that the band members become megaphones for the events, right?
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: They they knock on doors of family, friends, work orders, uh, work workers uh with them, you know, uh what do you call that?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Work work people that's yeah, mate, workmates, colleagues.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Here you go, thank you.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: French is going up to take it uh take it away a little bit.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Anyhow, so what happens is that the the gate gets big enough that it makes makes sense for for for the folks, right?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: That that they they go play there and so on.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I stole that a little bit and I said, okay, we're gonna take the gate money, we're gonna split it in half.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because we have to pay the gender all things, and we have to make sure that uh if we ever have to have security and so on.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: But half of that gate is gonna go directly to the team.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, it's not gonna make a lot of money.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: We know that it's a start, but you had to have a model to base it on.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, so example, the first game was a cup game, not even a season game, and we had 130 people.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we didn't charge anything at this point.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: The next ones we're supposed to charge five pounds.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we're gonna try to charge five pounds, and everybody that's under 18, no, no, no cost at all.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and we're gonna see where that takes us, okay.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that money initially will make a drop in the C, you know, like a little drop.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: But eventually I would love to see it start paying expenses.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: So right now the program, because we're fifth year, we're not we're not like the uh the super leagues, you know, and stuff like that.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: We're fifth year.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: So right now they pay to play.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: We want eventually to come to a point that we're paying expenses, eventually that we're paying enough that we don't have them to pay anything.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And one day maybe we pay them to play.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so so it's a domino.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: You have to go through stages, and obviously we can't continue as as fifth tier.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta get better as well, uh on the on the club as well, right?
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, so those are uh the things right now by association, when you uh when you look at the women's program that play in the stadium, you're looking at uh in in the men's stadium.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean Arsenal, Ashton Vila, and and there's three or four more.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: So by association, we look great, but they're playing in the Super League and we're playing in the fifth year, right?
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So that's one thing.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing is that finally, because of our size, we're advanced, we got an advantage.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Usually, you know, uh, small club, no advantage, but now we have an advantage.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: We have an advantage that we say, well, you know what?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't cost much to have them play here.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what attracts players?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: What attracts players is a pathway if they're young.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's it's also the coaching, the coaching style or the coaching itself.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Is it somebody that's that's done very well elsewhere?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Or you know, and then you have the stadium.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: They want to play like our captain after that la that first game, she said in an interview, she says it was so fun to play in front of a lot of people, and and we looked, you know, and they can see the rock, they can see the stadium.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it wasn't full, but but you know, it where were the girls playing before that?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Before uh some park somewhere.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure to be honest.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't know.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: So even the basics, like coming in and having changing rooms, showers, yeah, facilities very, very basics.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: They they used to come with their kids on already and leave with their kids.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: The room that you saw before when I I made you a little visit was is the men's main room.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: So so they were there.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um we're trying to give them the same environment, same, same environment.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: And plus now we don't have to be let's let's use the word the men's football is a little bit like constipated, let's say, because they don't like changes.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's been 154 years the same way, and we're gonna keep on going because that's a great solution, right?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: So so in the women's program, we have a chance to do something different, to create a little bit of a fan experience that is different, that may attract more or might fit more the the family-oriented fan instead of you know, I'll I'll be honest.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: When um when you go to the Glasgow Warriors, that feels more family than just a football game.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh not because everybody's on a smile and everything.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's just that there's more women involved, there's more women around the field, there's more kids of both a uh both uh side, uh female and male, uh, and there's different ages and stuff, right?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you gotta look at that as being a success story a little bit and and turn it and bring it to the women's side program, you know.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um I suppose what you're saying, what you've got, it's a bit of a blank Candace in terms of the women's side.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then what you were saying about you know the stadium, it's not you know Chelsea and Arsenal, it's not super league, but yeah, like you said, the players appreciate it because it was a great game, by the way.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was a great game.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: It uh we went up, they came back 2-2, and then we won 3-2.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the playing was great, uh, nice crosses, nice plays everywhere.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, so it's a different game at altogether, okay, because you you have more uh quality in uh in and hockey is the same thing.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: When you compare hockey to ice hockey to to uh men's hockey, the woman's hockey is based more on passing and and uh plays, technical plays that are already set, kind of thing.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: The men's hockey is more on instinct a little bit.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: They have set plays as well, okay?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: But but it's just different, and there's no hitting on the women's.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so uh if you look at a big success right now is the woman's basketball.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, woman's basketball just look at Sophie Cunningham, okay?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: So Sophie by her character is making this league propel itself.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: But what can sell the program, what can sell uh the football here, the woman football, is exactly that.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's character.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's um a little bit of and and it's hard to get that from players because uh here a lot of the times they they show you how to win, but they don't show you how to stand for each other so much.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's a little bit like okay, put your head down and play and and do your best.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Showing your true colors, I find that they're they're not uh uh how do you say that?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Some people are interior and some people are extra.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_02: So what's the word introverted and extroverted?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Extroverted, that's the word I was looking for.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: So so if you want to sell that game, okay, to sell the woman's football, I think you have to have a little bit of extroverted, of personality showing.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: And and if you can do that, I think you will get more crowds.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I'm not saying that it has to turn into a circus, sure.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's a good thing.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: That's an interesting phenomenon because really what we find when we're working within the women's game and and maybe it offering it to a wider media landscape is one of my arguments is that you actually have to introduce people to the audience because they don't know.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: If I'm writing a story about a midfielder or a striker, people actually don't know the backstory, they don't know who they are or what they're like.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: You know, whereas if I had to write a piece about Cal McGregor, for example, everything is already known.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: You know the personality, you know the character, whereas you're almost introducing female players into a a cultural landscape to say this is who they are and this is the story.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: You're so dead on because when I was a kid, when they were pushing the NFL, the football, uh, American football, okay, they used to have these shows, Michael Singentary, half hour, they show his plays, they show where he did in life, how he got there, which college he played.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was a whole half hour, and this was uh before a game, you know, and suddenly we're playing, oh, this guy's playing, you know, and you knew who in you you you find there's a way to attach yourself now.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're attached to this guy because you say, Oh yeah, I like I like his values, I like his core values, I like that.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: And and I was having uh another interview, and I said the same thing is that right now people are looking results, boring.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: But but the interview should be like so where you went to school, high school, elementary, uh, what's your goal in life?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: What how how where you come from?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Who are you exactly?
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Where you come from?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that and and tell us why is the sport under your skin?
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: I saw you, you you you got tripped and you got up and you weren't very happy there.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me what what was that feeling about?
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's I'm gonna get her again after, you know, whatever, you know, but show personality, but even if they show it on the field, it has to transpire somewhere.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where people are saying, you know, the biggest revenue maker or the growth of the sport should be woman's soccer or woman football, right?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: But but it's it's it's not there, it's not on the field that it's growing like this.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's then the media.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: The media have to take it and propel it.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's like um, you know, those those those boards that you the springboard that you go and do the tumbles.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: You can't just do tumbles, you need that little springboard.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and the players, when you have a player of 16 playing with 28-year-olds and stuff, that's interesting.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh last week when we won 3-2, there was a kid on the other side, number 17.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: She was not big, she was not tall, she was playing center back, and and she had the feet.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: She knew how to get that ball out.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and and despite the the you don't look at the score, you look at the person, and you go and and do an in a full um what do you call that, uh, interview, but in depth.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Stop talking about the the this and that.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: No, talk about the person because that's what we're trying to sell.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, yeah, yesterday when we had the people from um uh refuge here, I think I mentioned it before and so on, they asked me, can you find me spoke spokespeople in your men's club and your and and your woman's club?
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I say, Yes, of course we can.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: You have to use that because we need role models other than actors and politicians.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: We need real mode models for the next generations, and and that's how you build them is you you get them known first, and then you grow from that.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: And they show you personality that you that they had within all this time.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's time for our player of the week, sponsored by Nutmeg Magazine, the home of brilliant football stories.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Check out the latest issue at nutmegmagazine.co.uk.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: This week's player of the week goes to Ranger striker Katie Wilkinson.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_02: Last season's top striker in the league has picked up where she left off.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_02: She netted four goals last weekend as Rangers kept up their 100% start to the league campaign, and she is this week's player of the week.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: That was our Nutmeg Magazine player of the week.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: For more great football writing and to order the latest issue, visit nutmegmagazine.co.uk.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: I would imagine to you for what you have done here in a very short space of time and how you're trying to integrate the women's team, it gives a sense of belonging.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: It gives a sense of affinity with the club that you're in step together, and in a community like Dumbarton, it is almost like well, we're offering parity.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: We you know, we we want to project who you are and and introduce you to this community as representatives of it, but the women's team and the men's team are aligned.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: There was a group, uh uh two ladies that came this week.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: They represent Scottish Women's Scottish Convention, I think it's called.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a group that looks for equ equity, equality, uh equality, sorry, and and they go to different uh women's and they ask what how is it going in this field and how is it going, and they bring back these reports to the government and so on.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not a politician, I'm I'm the worst guy for that actually, because I'm too opinionated.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: We like the pen I think it's good.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I don't I don't have uh filter and I don't have uh yeah so so I yeah, so I steer away from politics and things like that.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: But I did like the fact that we're I invited them because I I want them to understand what we're trying to do is is exactly that.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: But you cannot have, you know, when people go out and they say, well, you know, the the tennis player, men and women, it's not equal, this is not equal, this is not equal.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: In my view, if you bring in the same amount of fans, you should have the same, right?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: But if you don't bring in the same amount of fans, well, we have to work at it.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: We have to understand.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: And and if I if if I announce a player in the man and I announce a woman player, okay, but there's a hundred fans going to see this one and there's a thousand fans going this one, of course he has a different salary.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's entertainment, okay.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you start saying by by the opposite, if you you try to use the equation the other way and you say, no, no, everybody gets the same.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you will lose money every time.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually the program will close or be sold elsewhere.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they'll they'll separate it and sell it.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I came with that model, because whatever they grow, we grow with them that that model.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: But we need guys like you guys.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: We need a voice that will carry the voice of our woman program, because not enough people are doing it.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: And and it has nothing to do with performance or or or uh, is this girl giving all she's got?
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: They're all doing it, they're giving it all.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now you have to make the crowd, the community, know them to buy in the program.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: You have to know somebody.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like when I arrive here, nobody, everybody has hopes, but nobody goes, Oh, I really like Mario.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go on the bandwagon, I'm gonna sit with him and we're gonna go.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it doesn't you have to you have to show commitment, you have to show that uh you're doing it for community, you have to be a leader in in a way that it's it's not uh it's my way or the highway, you know.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: No, because we're working with volunteers, you're working with with a bunch of people.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: We went from 30-something volunteers to 90 something in one year.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we've put a turf because I I said I can't wait for a third party, like a community trust or something like that, to decide if we're gonna make money.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: We need the money now, we need to put that now.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: The community needs it.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: People are going all sorts of places to play.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, they should be playing here, you know.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: So when you take decisions like this, you're trying to do it in a way that it creates a hub, a community hub, okay, with the music, with the comedy, and all this stuff.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: But the woman's program was like in parallel, but I can't even tell you where it was.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Park was you know so so so now even the U20 we brought in the U20 boys playing here Fridays okay we had 170 people that came to watch okay so so there's a demand there's a demand for it but if I if I tell you there's this team playing you're gonna go who's on the team who's you don't have that sense of like you're saying players have a sense of belonging to the place but the fans need to have a a window on the life of that person oh she works at McDonald's also oh okay and she studies she does full-time studies also wow and and she she's a starter on the team wow that's a role model for a seven and eight year old not the people on TV we don't need that you know they live a different reality completely reality of uh I'm gonna have a hard time Dumbartonshire okay is that you have highs and lows you have let's say the Ellensburg maybe that's a little bit more rich but most of the place is fifth poorest place in in Scotland so so which models should you be taking the entrepreneurs from here the the the the new brands when I say new brands is every player is a brand if they pursue it or not that's their choice you know if they show personality in an interview and you say you know what I like her a lot of where the problem is with basketball is it took a little bit of time for a man to to realize because men some men are are having a hard time with strong women I don't know if you know Stephanie Park she's a okay so you know Stephanie so she's a strong woman and over the years she had left the club okay because people were saying ah she's hard to work with and me I brought her back and I there's another guy the same thing I brought him back also because you need leaders you don't need people that keep saying yes all the time you need leaders and and she's a leader a definite leader okay and and so so it's the same thing now we have a chance like I said it's a white page okay we can do whatever we want with the program but if the program is not propulsed that little tram that little springboard that's what it's the the word springboard that's you guys that's that's the newspaper that's all these things okay that can help us to discover one of these kids or that woman okay and once it's discovered then others are gonna say hey I value that I I really like that I I think I'm gonna buy the shirts for my kids with her name on it and if we don't have it we'll make it we'll make it you you you know what I mean and and it's not for me to push merchandise it's for the kid to grow and thinking that's a role model that I had what you're talking about is a lot of what we try to do with this and get you know a peek behind the curtain of players and when you're mentioning that about having role models and people to look up to I keep you're probably the same Alison I keep thinking of there was a player who's a good example of that who was at Celtic and she's now now at Brighton and Caitlin Hayes and she was she was on a a different level of you know her relationship that she had with the fans and how they really they really looked up to her and they knew a lot about her and they followed her.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: I just saw just on um on Twitter just yesterday that you know Celtic fans now are going down to see her play in a preseason game show life last year but they still they have kept that attachment to this player and a lot of women's football can be like that where they you know where the fans getting attached to a player you you speak very passionately about about the game and about women's football but just before before you came here what was your what was you did you have any kind of knowledge of the game or did you have to really investigate investigate it because of the landscape okay so I I I coached hockey for 19 years and in my hockey clubs I had uh I think over the years maybe five or six girls uh some defense but most uh one of them is Mackenzie King uh McKenzie King was my best goalie that I've had over uh many years she was unbelievable I had a team that was a triple A team that was doing okay and when we brought her in as a goalie with the boys then we were starting to finish semifinals finals semifinals finals in every tournament because she was that good okay and now she's a teacher she's a teacher she's uh she's a 2002 so she's 24 years old and she's teaching in the school that she went to which is pretty cool uh but so and I coached uh soccer down there football uh double a so so nothing great i'm I'm a passionate guy for sports I find ways to win with sports um I did electronics company I did uh all sorts of things in my life I write a children's book I'm writing my memoirs now I started music back uh four years ago about uh and my kids I have three boys and and the kids they go I can't believe it he just passed a million streams last September I passed a million streams and he go they go how is it possible and I my music is is very niche I tried to help people with my music and and uh I I showed it today to one of the guys here I did a song for a guy in France that was going through hell and now that song got released last Monday and then others are writing to me about that song saying that they're having a it makes them feel good that somebody's got through this stuff.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: So so I took snapshots of that and I sent it to the guy in France and see look your song our song because he did the cover art on it our song is helping other people now you know so you're asking me was I a big guy in in soccer no I'm a big guy in athletes and and and and trying to develop you know in in hockey it's one out of 10 000 if you take 10 000 kids of eight year old one will make it to the big league the top league in the world one so really what you're doing is you're trying to develop 9,999 young men or young women if you're lucky they're gonna be developed in the athletes the cell this the mindset of of self-ambition self setting goals and and and achieving them and perseverance and things like that.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're really really really lucky you'll have one guy out there that that makes it right so so why focus on that one you can't focus on that one you gotta focus on all of them in a proper way to and and the the cream always goes on top the right one will will will end up there and I'm not saying that we're playing for fun no way I'm not one of those that that believe you play for fun and I people here know that I hate friendlies there's no such thing as friendlies you're playing to win every time okay now you might lose I'm not a bad loser I do like to win though I'm a bad winner probably if you ask my friends uh they know I'm a bad winner a little bit but you know I come with a grin after a victory you know it happens but the the the fact that I I took on this is because it was gonna close Lombarton was gonna close and and after that liquidate then this whole place would be flats in two three years and it was at that point um so so I actually paid for the kit before I had the the ownership to make sure that we weren't gonna be late and they made the schedule before I became owner also so I came in on the right time just just on time and the the people put it on the what do you call that when you go to hospital and they put you on those machines there.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well life support yeah so the people with their where where all the stuff they did they put it on life support and I came in and I I I finally you know gave it a little bit of a heartbeat you know and and there's no merit to it at that point there was no merit it's money.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone with money and I've I've said that to many people that I've met here that are billionaires and millionaires in Scotland and it's why would you do this?
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I would turn the question why didn't you you have more money than I ever will have you know and they didn't because their attachment to history or or intergenerational um legacy is not as hard for me it's very important.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I've never been to Scotland before about this I've been to 25 countries before but never to Scotland.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: I did go out with a uh a girl from Scotland from from uh Glasgow uh for three years in Montreal she was living in Montreal when I was in uh pre-university just end university a little but that was the only thing that I really but the thing is that I couldn't let it slide out like that and when I look at the potential and I I know what I'm doing I I think I I I have enough confidence to say I can turn it around.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: When you long term what is your what is your aim with it particularly the women's side where do you see it?
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well I want it to go you know instead of being fifth year I want it to be fourth year and then eventually death year you know go up uh but you can't do that because you can't attract people without a pay okay so we have like I said before little dominoes is let's cover eventually you know the expenses and then oh we have a crowd of 200 all the time oh good oh let's cover now you girls don't have to pay anymore okay so now it becomes a little bit more attractive as soon as more attractive that means you get you can attract more talent also there's there's already like the group yesterday they were pushing a little bit saying it'd be fun if we could have girls from United States to to come here and do their master's degrees let's say or or or something like that and they could play through and say yes it can happen but there's no salary there's no you know they come on a student visa there's no salary you you get maybe expenses paid and things like that you know and we can get to those things but we need somebody that believes you know uh because if you if you have some if you just have any any person that has no passion for it it will be just like a run of the mill oh I have another event okay and then boom boom I need somebody that sees the future that says you know what okay now we're working on the fans experience it's getting good now we have like 200 300 because we have also a director of football on the woman's side but he's been doing the same thing over and over so we need people that can challenge that too okay we have everybody has to be challenged in life if you want to advance if you don't get a challenge you don't advance and and if you don't advance really you're more than stagnant water because others are advancing so you're backing up just before we go quickly like what support would you like to see in place to develop the women's game in Scotland?
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is the media the first one is the media and it's not the media about oh the women's team has won or lost uh third loss in a row no it's it's really get involved go in depth find out who are who are playing for that team where they do on their passionate you know they they are they painter artists are they playing in a band whatever show the people so that there could be now an attachment with the fans finding out you know a fan will will will attach something that has reflective values you know something similar to them right or or hardship some hardship sorry that they went through that they say you know I really like that girl she shows so much character it doesn't have to be as rough and tough like like uh Sophie Cunningham in basketball that's not what we're looking for but if it happens great okay but this is this is the first thing first step is really media second step is trying to see if if all the resources for women in Dumbartonshire okay can get together and support their their their peers in the football and why not you know and then they bring their boyfriends and they bring their their nephews and kids and nieces and so on and we can have a family event and when we see that happening I will grow it we'll grow it but we can't grow it before because it's it's nobody's gonna come on its own feet yes yes of course it has to stand on its own feet but we have to give it the same environment the same chances too many places they they oh we have a woman's program they sit there and they think it's gonna come no you have to create that demand you have to create that that that new entrepreneurship of that division you know people will not just come you have to create something around it because it's kind of a new sport uh it's not new you know when I was a kid there was women playing football but it it's it's it's it needs to be supported and if there's nothing in the media well it's not supported nobody cares.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's interesting but you Alison can probably speak to that because you deal with newspaper editors daily and the struggle to get a space for women's sports in general and women's football in Scotland it's it's difficult.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um not through no one to try and I think the you know things like this podcast is trying to fill a gap almost in that but you um you can speak to that more than me because you're dealing with these and just how the how difficult it can be at times.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_02: It can be I think you're always competing with it and you're actually competing just now in a really difficult period for media and newspapers because everyone is judged just now on clicks and numbers and page views and page retention and so everyone is very antsy because of of the changes that the media landscape is actually going through too and and the precarity around jobs and job security and people say well I can't really justify carrying something if it's not going to attract numbers and need to know that you know that it it's worth carrying it needs to air in its space in the media too so you have it it's a it's particularly challenging I think to to find a way around that and circumstances I had a magazine at one point that was called Business Newsmakers and I put everybody in there that was not a business newsmaker.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: So all small companies all little companies and I would give them three pages each we'd do an editorial on their services their products and so on and I then I would tell them give me a hundred um addresses where you want this because it was sold in magazine and stores and stuff but where do you want to influence people?
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: You want us to mail it to your banker your insurance whatever they would give us a hundred address and we'd mail it on top of the normal distribution so that they would show them that they were business newsmakers right and that was to try to elevate yeah thank you the the small businesses to try to get them to another level you know in in the corporate eyes okay didn't work out you know why it didn't work out I could not get anybody to put ads in there publicity from car dealerships or whatnot you know what you regularly see in in the magazine.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: So at one point I I said okay I'm gonna do the other model instead is I'm gonna tell the company do you want to give a little money and I give you three pages and we do this and most people didn't want to do it either because they're small companies they didn't have the the the means like if we go back to the views and clicks and stuff this year we should hit a hundred million views our club plus pick and Pedro together pick some picks by Pedro sorry and that takes us probably in the top five of championship teams okay are my players less strong less technically uh than championship of course are they trying less no they're trying to the maximum of their potential okay so so when you're building a community and I go back to my 1000 and my one okay am I building a whole support group for that one or am I building a whole support group for the 999?
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's the community that's the main core of the community so when when you say you know it's hard to get a page or a quarter page or whatnot from your newspaper because they don't have that vision but if you have an allocation every week of that same size you will create that demand that eventually they will say hey how come they don't talk about example Dumbard this week no because you created that demand by exposing it all the time imagine you have uh uh an in-depth every week of a of a player what happens is that next week I'm expecting to see it oh because I really like the one before that you have to create it or else it will not come.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think that speaks to the landscape of women's football in Scotland in general just now because people want an immediate payday and there is no you know it's difficult to get people to see a long-term vision there it was great to speak to you and really interesting conversation and I know everyone listening will be interested to hear it and we look forward to seeing where you go with it we'll be following your story.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: It was a great great conversation really interesting to meet and thank you for your time thank you to Alison and thank you to you for listening