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Utah Royals FC GM Connor Oniki on tonight's game vs Washington Spirit, Special presentation at Sunday's game + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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  Speaker 1: Sean O'Connell show, you were home of the best inside
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  Speaker 1: of your use. Let's get back to wo see from
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  Speaker 1: the Murdoch Chevrolet studio of ESPAR seven nine alf Am.
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  Speaker 2: Sean O'Connell show here on ESPN seven. I think I
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  Speaker 2: think Connor Nicky's going to join us, the Utah Royals
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  Speaker 2: general manager.
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  Speaker 3: Maybe not will answer to the phone if the phone
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  Speaker 3: call comes in.
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  Speaker 2: The question of the day on the show here because
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  Speaker 2: we don't have a live show tomorrow. Well, Bill Riley's
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  Speaker 2: going to be hosting the show tomorrow and then Friday.
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  Speaker 2: We don't have a live show. We're back on Monday
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  Speaker 2: when football camp starts. But I don't want your answer
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  Speaker 2: to come from Morgan Scalley for Monday, all right.
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  Speaker 3: I don't want.
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  Speaker 2: Colton Swan telling you who the breakout defensive star on
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  Speaker 2: this football team is. I don't want Kevin mc given
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  Speaker 2: being like we're gonna give send me tell long a
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  Speaker 2: fifteen touches a game. I want you, as a fan,
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  Speaker 2: to use your predictive abilities and tell me who you
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  Speaker 2: think the breakout stars are on this Utah football team.
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  Speaker 2: Eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred offensive
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  Speaker 2: and defensive If you have an opportunity to think it out.
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  Speaker 2: Who is going to be the breakout star for Utah's offense,
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  Speaker 2: Who's going to be the breakout star for Utah's defense.
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  Speaker 2: And these are people that did not have big years
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  Speaker 2: last year. The Lance Holtzklaws, who we saw little flashes from,
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  Speaker 2: the Daniel Brays, who we saw little flashes from, Trey
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  Speaker 2: Reynolds who finally got into the starting lineup a little
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  Speaker 2: bit and was a rotational player, a meaningful rotational player.
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  Speaker 3: Who of those people is going to be a breakout star?
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  Speaker 2: Eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred are
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  Speaker 2: at real oc sports. Pagan can't be it all right,
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  Speaker 2: he was too productive at Utah State. Shoals can't be
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  Speaker 2: the breakout star. He was too productive at San Jose State.
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  Speaker 2: Those guys I think are going to be awesome and
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  Speaker 2: hopefully we'll star for the university. But I don't consider
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  Speaker 2: that a breakout because we've already seen them be primary
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  Speaker 2: guys on a college football field, even if it's at
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  Speaker 2: a slightly lower level. So sitting in those responses will
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  Speaker 2: give some of the reaction next after this segment, But
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  Speaker 2: right now, Soccer Talk brought to you by Friends over
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  Speaker 2: at beer Bar, the best place for you to watch
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  Speaker 2: MLS soccer NWSL soccer.
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  Speaker 3: They were great for World Cup soccer.
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  Speaker 2: We're having a little chat with Utah Royals GM Connor Ronicky,
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  Speaker 2: who's kind of enough to join us here on the show.
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  Speaker 3: Connor, welcome. How are you?
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  Speaker 4: I'm doing well?
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  Speaker 3: How are you doing all right? Tonight?
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  Speaker 2: Game tonight against the Washington Spirit, seven o'clock at America
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  Speaker 2: First Field.
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  Speaker 3: Is that right?
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  Speaker 4: That's correct? Yeah, looking forward to it.
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  Speaker 2: I took the family out a couple of weekends ago
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  Speaker 2: to it was when Gotham was in town. If I'm
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  Speaker 2: not mistaken, and you know, the atmosphere is great. That
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  Speaker 2: was not the result that the team was looking for, obviously.
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  Speaker 2: But when we see this moment that women's sport is
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  Speaker 2: having and that the WNBA getting a ton of attention,
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  Speaker 2: a NWSL getting a ton of attention, and we just
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  Speaker 2: had our own Utah Talons softball team win a championship
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  Speaker 2: in their inaugural season. Here, how how much talk on
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  Speaker 2: like a maybe not a daily basis, but at least
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  Speaker 2: weekly basis is there in maintaining this in not only
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  Speaker 2: riding this wave, but making sure that the wave continues
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  Speaker 2: the energy and generation of the wave. I mean, because
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  Speaker 2: you're carrying the load for an individual franchise, but also
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  Speaker 2: these leagues finding a firmer foothold in American sport. How
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  Speaker 2: much of that is a part of your job on
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  Speaker 2: a regular basis.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's a huge part of what we're doing.
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  Speaker 4: And I think the biggest thing is being able to
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  Speaker 4: see all the success and the investment that I think,
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  Speaker 4: you know, the country the world is having, but certainly
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  Speaker 4: the people of Utah are having in women's sports. It's
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  Speaker 4: just important for us to be putting a good product
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  Speaker 4: on the field. To your point, like, it doesn't mean
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  Speaker 4: that we're winning every single game, but that the game
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  Speaker 4: the people are coming out to they're having good experiences.
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  Speaker 4: So that's you know, cohesion across the business side, the
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  Speaker 4: game presentation side, and then obviously for us bringing in
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  Speaker 4: the right players, the right coaching staff, the right the
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  Speaker 4: support staff to be able to come and perform. And
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  Speaker 4: I think for the last two years we've been trying
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  Speaker 4: to build something, you know, as we've re entered the NWSL,
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  Speaker 4: and this season feels like we're getting the momentum that
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  Speaker 4: people have just been working so hard for and the
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  Speaker 4: people of Utah have really shown out because of that,
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  Speaker 4: and I think they're continuing to and we feel like,
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  Speaker 4: you know, we have more heights to be able to reach.
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  Speaker 4: But for us, it's always been about how do we
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  Speaker 4: create an environment and an experience that people go to
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  Speaker 4: and win or lose, rain or shine. They feel like,
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  Speaker 4: I want to be a part of that, and I
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  Speaker 4: want to be able to keep coming back. And so
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  Speaker 4: I think that you know, we had the goth of
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  Speaker 4: game three, one loss that hopefully people felt like we
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  Speaker 4: played good soccer. It was a fun experience. They come back.
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  Speaker 4: And then the next week we beat Orlando Pride for
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  Speaker 4: the first time in the club's history one MIL at home.
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  Speaker 4: And that's a fun experience for a different reason. And
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  Speaker 4: so this week we have you know, Trinity Robins coming
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  Speaker 4: into town, Sophia Smith's coming into town on Sunday with Portland,
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  Speaker 4: and you know, these are big name stars US women's
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  Speaker 4: national team players that are coming to play us, and
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  Speaker 4: we're competing with them. We drew to both of those
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  Speaker 4: teams away and now they get to come to our
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  Speaker 4: house in front of our fans, and for us to
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  Speaker 4: be able to come on and put on a show.
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  Speaker 4: I think it is really important. So it's just about
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  Speaker 4: having the right things on titch to be able to
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  Speaker 4: invite people to keep coming back and ride that wave.
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  Speaker 2: Like you were saying, look, there's you know you need
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  Speaker 2: you need your full roster to be healthy. That wasn't
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  Speaker 2: the case against Gotham as much as possible. Roster construction
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  Speaker 2: is fascinating to me in every sport. I'm a relative
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  Speaker 2: soccer novice, and obviously even more so in the NWSL.
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  Speaker 2: So the mechanisms for transfer in for you know, like
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  Speaker 2: like RSL has their academy system and builds up these
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  Speaker 2: homegrown prospects, and then in the NWSL, as you're trying
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  Speaker 2: to put a championship product on the field, what are
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  Speaker 2: some of the mechanisms that we need to be I
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  Speaker 2: need to be aware of as someone who follows this
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  Speaker 2: kind of stuff in every sport.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a great question. The NWSAW, I think, really
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  Speaker 4: models itself pretty closely to the European market. So to
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  Speaker 4: your point, it's mostly transfers where we're paying cash for
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  Speaker 4: players to their clubs to be able to come and
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  Speaker 4: join us. They're certainly trades within kind of within the
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  Speaker 4: league and then there are some youth mechanisms where you're
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  Speaker 4: basically out of college, you're a free agent, and so
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  Speaker 4: then we're just competing with other teams to be able
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  Speaker 4: to bring players in. But it's really expansive, and if
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  Speaker 4: you look at our team in the way that we've
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  Speaker 4: built it out, we have players from the Japanese national
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  Speaker 4: teams for the men national team, Mexican national team, US
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  Speaker 4: women's national team, So we have we've we've created a
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  Speaker 4: pretty diverse group that plays the way that we want
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  Speaker 4: on a play, but it's largely international. Transfers, intra league
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  Speaker 4: moved and then college free agency are kind of the
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  Speaker 4: three main ones. I would say that we're using to
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  Speaker 4: build out our group philosophically.
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  Speaker 2: Is there any place where you are like over indexing?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, are you someone who's obviously heavily involved in this,
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  Speaker 2: who's like, we got to build the young prospect, it's
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  Speaker 2: got to be these college players, We've got to build
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  Speaker 2: the roster that way, or is it you know, thirty
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  Speaker 2: three on all three main.
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  Speaker 4: I think that for us right now, we're probably over
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  Speaker 4: indexing on the international piece. We have a lot of
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  Speaker 4: international players who've been able to come in and that's
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  Speaker 4: a really cool thing. Like we have the Women's World
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  Speaker 4: Cup next year, and if you start following the Royals
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  Speaker 4: right now, you'll get to see those players playing in
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  Speaker 4: the World Cup. I think the way that we like
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  Speaker 4: to play is a very kind of build through the third.
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  Speaker 4: We like to play with the ball at our feet,
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  Speaker 4: and there's a lot of European Asian teams that play
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  Speaker 4: in that way, and so we've found being able to
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  Speaker 4: bring players in that can play that way, You're going
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  Speaker 4: to have to look internationally to be able to do that,
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  Speaker 4: and so it's created this really cool ecosystem for us
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  Speaker 4: where we have really strong American players, but then we
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  Speaker 4: also have, you know, these players that have come from
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  Speaker 4: all around the world who are able to play the
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  Speaker 4: way that we want to play. And so I would say,
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  Speaker 4: right now, that's where we're at, but certainly to the future,
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  Speaker 4: looking to you know, kind of even those along and
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  Speaker 4: I would say that philosophically has just been about how
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  Speaker 4: do we compete now and then let's look to the future.
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  Speaker 4: As you know, we were kind of able to establish ourselves.
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  Speaker 2: Tell me about this Kopatana walk that's happening with the
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  Speaker 2: Portland Thorns match.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it should be a really good turnout, and
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  Speaker 4: I think that we have a lot of Yeah, we
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  Speaker 4: try to just do a lot with all of our
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  Speaker 4: different matches, just to be able to have teams, to
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  Speaker 4: be able to bring in different folks and be able
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  Speaker 4: to you know, just make it a fun to the
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  Speaker 4: game presentation point. I think that it's just been really
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  Speaker 4: important for us to make sure that, you know, as
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  Speaker 4: much as the average Utah Roles fans is able to
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  Speaker 4: come through, it's really important. But we also just want
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  Speaker 4: to make sure that, you know, we're also doing fun
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  Speaker 4: things that highlight people in our community and folks in
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  Speaker 4: our community who you know, can can find ways to
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  Speaker 4: come and celebrate and participate with the group. And so
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  Speaker 4: we're really excited about that Portland game and some of
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  Speaker 4: the events that we have going on there.
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  Speaker 2: Before I let you go, we already mentioned kind of
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  Speaker 2: the top of this conversation how the women's professional athletics
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  Speaker 2: is getting a lot of push right now and it's
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  Speaker 2: fascinating to watch, and the WNBA, I think has been
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  Speaker 2: given the at least a broadcasting space to kind of
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  Speaker 2: lead some of that charge. Basketball and soccer are very
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  Speaker 2: different sports. They have very different places in American culture.
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  Speaker 2: Your league and the WNBA are obviously very different. But
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  Speaker 2: is there anything that NWSL can take from what is
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  Speaker 2: going on within the with the WNBA, where like they're
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  Speaker 2: having these great moments, there's also some controversies, you're getting criticism,
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  Speaker 2: you're also getting praise. Is there is there anything that
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  Speaker 2: you can glean from that?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah? Absolutely, I think there's always things to be able
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  Speaker 4: to take. I think one of the things I really
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  Speaker 4: admire about the WNBA, and part of it, to your point,
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  Speaker 4: of basketball versus soccer and just the roster sizes and
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  Speaker 4: things like that, is just how they in the WNBA
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  Speaker 4: really highlight the individuals and the stories of the people,
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  Speaker 4: and to your point, sometimes that's for good and sometimes
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  Speaker 4: you know, there's things that are rough to come along
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  Speaker 4: with that. But that's true of any professional sports, certainly
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  Speaker 4: in America. And so we understand that as we grow,
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  Speaker 4: and you know, as our players' profiles grow, as our
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  Speaker 4: team's profiles grows, that we're going to, you know, you're
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  Speaker 4: going to deal with some of those things. But I
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  Speaker 4: think with the WNBA, you know a lot of people
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  Speaker 4: can name players right off the top of their head
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  Speaker 4: that you know, have had big impacts in the sport,
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  Speaker 4: big impacts in college, whatever it may be. And I
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  Speaker 4: think for us, just being able to tell the individual
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  Speaker 4: stories of the players that we have on our roster
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  Speaker 4: is just incredibly important because we want people to come
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  Speaker 4: and support the team, but we also want them to
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  Speaker 4: know the players and not just know how they are
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  Speaker 4: on the field, but also who they are off it,
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  Speaker 4: their personalities and what drives them. And I think WNBA
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  Speaker 4: just does such a phenomenal job with that, and I
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  Speaker 4: think NWSL is doing a good job with that. But
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  Speaker 4: I always think that there's room to grow, and I
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  Speaker 4: think certainly if you look at our marketing work and
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  Speaker 4: what we're doing with the Royals, I think that you know,
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  Speaker 4: if you're watching our socials and doing things like that,
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  Speaker 4: you can really start to get glimpses of, you know,
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  Speaker 4: who our players are as people, their personalities and their
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  Speaker 4: people were supporting. Our players are genuinely incredible and just
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  Speaker 4: like the best people, such good role models for our
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  Speaker 4: community for you know, girls and boys growing up playing
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  Speaker 4: soccer to be able to look to these players, it
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  Speaker 4: just I genuinely could not speak more highly of this group.
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  Speaker 4: And so we want to just keep highlighting them as
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  Speaker 4: individuals the people that they are, and I think WNBA
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  Speaker 4: is doing such a good job with that.
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  Speaker 2: Connor can't tell you how much I appreciate your time today,
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  Speaker 2: Enjoy tonight, enjoy the weekend, and we'll talk again soon.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. Absolutely, thank you so much, really appreciate it. We'll
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  Speaker 4: looking forward to to continue to listen in and yeah,
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  Speaker 4: stand in touch.
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  Speaker 2: It's Connor Roniky, who is the Utah Roleys GM. They're
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  Speaker 2: in action against the Washington Spirit seven pm at America
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  Speaker 2: First Field. Also Sunday, August two, So this weekend it's
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  Speaker 2: the Portland Thorns and they're gonna have a Lowrider live
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: music halftime celebration. Uh, it's gonna be fun. So little
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Latino theme to the Sunday night game. Excuse me that, Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: the Sunday game at America First Field. Get out there
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  Speaker 2: this week if you have an opportunity to do so.