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Down the right side,
using his strength and skill
on the ball.
Inside, quick shot, score!
Zusi!
One, nothing
Sporting Kansas City.
♪
Hi, I'm Robb Heineman.
I'm the CEO
of Sporting Kansas City.
The reason that we changed
the name from
the Kansas City Wizards
to Sporting Kansas City
was actually pretty simple.
When we looked at every
measurable category
from a business perspective :
merchandise, ticket sales,
we were last, and there was
really nothing from
an ownership perspective
that we thought was
all that endearing about
the name "Kansas City Wizards,"
so, what we wanted to do
was do something that
was different.
We had a lot of different
branding agencies say
we should change the name
to fountains, or boulevards,
or something that was
relevant to Kansas City,
but what we really wanted to do
was do something that--
what we thought was relevant
to what we wanted to do
in Kansas City, which was
create a vertically integrated
sporting club.
So, for us the name
Sporting Kansas City
has always been very literal,
and, you know, it's a name
that we knew people would
probably be a little cool to
at the start, but they really
warmed up to it since.
One of the things that
we've tried to do in the context
of Kansas City sports was
be much more transparent
and open with our fan base
and, you know, the Chiefs
and the Royals obviously--
probably don't have
the opportunity to do that
quite as much because of
some of the rules
around their sport and for us,
because Major League Soccer
is a little bit newer
we felt, "Let's try it.
What do we have to lose?
And so, let's try to be
as transparent as possible."
And--and we still have a sport
that we're trying to teach
a lot of our fans different
nuances within the game,
and--and even we, as owners,
are learning more
different nuances of the game
every day so, for us we thought,
"What's the down side?
Let's try to be very open.
Let's talk to our fans.
Let's let them be as much
of an owner as we are."
And so far I think the returns
have been good.
Holds it, shoots it,
Zusi has two!
You know, so what's ahead
for Sporting Kansas City
in 2013?
I mean, I think a lot
of really great things.
I think we're gonna have
a fantastic team so,
I think we've got
the opportunity to
win some championships.
And for us, as an organization,
that's the most important thing.
More important than
anything else is winning.
That's where it all starts
here in professional sports
and for the first two years
of Sporting Kansas City
we've, we've won.
My name is Matt Besler,
I'm number five,
and I play defender
for Sporting Kansas City.
I would've been happy
to play anywhere in the country,
but the fact that Kansas City
drafted me back to my hometown,
that was a dream come true
for me and that was
my number one choice.
It's always been my dream
to come back and play
in Kansas City.
I really feel like
Kansas City sports fans
are the best in the country
and they're very underrated,
they're very passionate,
they've created an environment
that is very hard to play in
if you're an opposing team,
and it's a big
home field advantage for us,
and we use that
to our advantage.
I think right now
in Kansas City, you know,
Sporting KC is the--
the "it" team.
We're the cool team.
We're the--the cool place
to be on Saturday nights.
I think there's a lot
of reasons why Sporting KC
has been successful
in the first years.
I think it starts with
the ownership group.
We have very, very dedicated
owners--local owners
from Kansas City that
want a Kansas City team
to succeed.
And I think that goes
a long way because
that's very rare
in today's sports world.
The biggest benefit
of being locally-owned
is that, you know,
all of us, as owners,
are here all the time.
So, we see exactly
what's happening,
we know where the flaws are,
we know where the great things
are, and we're very committed
to Kansas City.
We have, you know,
thousands and thousands
of people that, you know,
work with us on a daily basis
in our organization so,
we've got a sense of pride
that we want to uphold,
and we always ask the question,
"Why not in Kansas City?."
You know, we have New York
and LA and all these
huge cities in our league,
but for us we always say,
"Why can't Kansas City
be the model?"
And that's our mindset.
It should be,
and we want it to be.
♪
The biggest challenge
with building this franchise
was really getting
a new stadium and, you know,
we tried several different
times at several different
places throughout
the Kansas City Metro Area,
and it was very difficult to do,
and luckily we found
a great partner
in the state of Kansas
and unified government.
And ever since then
everything's changed for us.
So, we went from an organization
that really had probably
four or five thousand people
coming to our games on average
to a sold out
20,000 seat stadium,
and really everything
being completely
at a much different level
than it used to be.
In the stadium what we
tried to do was really have
the most cutting edge,
and technologically advanced
building in the country,
and out of that has spawned
a really cool, new company
called, "Sporting Innovations."
And what Sporting Innovations
is about is really creating
what we would call,
"fan experience management."
And for us, you know,
most of us in sports
don't really even know
who our fans are.
We know we have lots of fans
that come to the games,
and we know they're
really passionate,
but we really don't know
much about you,
even necessarily who you are so,
at Sporting Innovations
that's really the puzzle
that we're trying to
put together is,
who are the fans,
what can we do to allow
them to feel, again,
like they're more
in an ownership role
around what the experience
is like inside of a stadium?
And for us that's a really cool
thing to work on.
You know, another thing
that I think sets us apart
is we try to be really active
on social media so, you know,
for example, we announced
our stadium naming rights
on Twitter.
We announced the building
of our stadium on Facebook,
and for us it's not necessarily
as much about traditional media
as it is trying to do things
in social first.
And, again, when we look at
kinda that 18-34 age group,
which is what we're
really trying to grow
and differentiate,
that's how they wanna be
spoken to and so,
we've made that a big part
of our communications strategy,
and I think it does make us
a little bit different.
Corner ball's played in
and a header!
♪
Big games require big moments!
You really gotta
believe in it.
You gotta buy in,
and try to be a fan
as much as possible.
I mean, I think that sounds
really strange, but the nuance,
I think, that we have
as an ownership group
is we think like a fan first,
and sometimes that probably
causes us to do things
that most people would think
are non-traditional,
but most of our non-traditional
thinking is exactly
what a fan would want
or what a fan would think.
So, for us it's
try to be normal,
try to be average,
and I think that's what we've
tried to do, and try to
include as many people
in sort of our decision-making
in our brand as possible.
And--and for us it's, it's
been working so far.
♪
♪
♪
The whole idea
for The Paw Wash started
for my sixth grade
science fair project.
I was 12-years-old,
and I had no idea
what I wanted to do.
So, I always had the daily chore
of cleaning my dog,
Sadie's dirty paws.
And I thought there had to be
an easier way to do this.
So, I thought I'd
kill two birds with one stone,
and create something to
clean her paws and get me
an A in the science fair.
So, that's exactly what I did.
I, at first, created some
different things with bowls,
and stuff, and then we went
to the barn and got some
PVC pipe and I bought
a cap for it, filled it up
with water, put some soap in it.
My dad actually
used it on Sadie,
and that's when he told me,
"Hey, Katie, this works."
You know, it was--
Good.
I was in the garage.
Yeah.
And doing some work
and the dog ran in muddy.
I put some water in the--
back then we didn't name it
"The Paw Wash,"
it was just this device,
put some soap in it,
and water, and then put
Sadie's paw in it,
and cleaned it,
and the muddy paw was gone,
and it's a white lab's paw
that came out,
and that's when I
went in the house and said,
"You have something here.
You need to put some graphics
on it and name it."
And then she named it,
"The Paw Wash."
I handle customer service,
the logistics, the shipping,
the bookkeeping,
and the marketing
for The Paw Wash.
It is currently sold,
not only on our website,
and you can click a link
that says "retail locations,"
and up pops a map
of the United States
and it covers all the stores
that we sell in.
It truly all began
with Three Dog Bakery
throughout the Kansas City area
selling the product,
and they are a big,
local seller of it,
especially their store
down on the plaza.
But it's also sold
by distributors here
in the United States,
and those distributors
sell to stores,
and we sell it worldwide.
Well, it was not
my first thought to get
a patent when I first
came up with The Paw Wash.
As a 12-year-old kid
all I was interested in
what color I wanted it,
what designs and stickers
I wanted to put on it,
but when we actually
got The Paw Wash going
my dad said, "No, we need
to get this patented."
And I was like,
"Oh, okay, cool."
I really had no comprehension
of what a patent was.
Just the applications,
and the cost of a patent
can be 20, 25 thousand dollars
and after that then
you have to have
a factory to make your product.
So, you have to have molds made.
A mold's $20,000.
You've got a large
and small unit,
and you have mitts so,
right there you're probably
at $50,000, and then
your first run--you can do
a short run, which it's
more expensive per unit,
just to test the waters,
like we did to see
how it would sell,
but then when you make
a big run with a container,
like a 40-yard--a 40-foot
container or a 20-foot container
or smaller, then you're
gettin' into the $60,000
and $70,000 orders.
And so on and so forth.
And then as you go along, too,
you have to have attorneys
involved so, there's cost
incurred there, but I would say
literally $250,000 just to
get this company going.
♪
A lot of people think
I am really rich
or a millionaire,
but sadly, I'm not.
I've been--since I've
been copied so many times
people say it's
a great compliment,
but it's extremely costly.
First of all, what happened
is I get a phone call
from a friend who said,
"Hey, congratulations
I saw your product on TV."
And I said, "We're not out yet."
We're in--you know,
we've got our prototypes
and things like that.
We have a patent,
but we're not, you know,
out on the market.
And he goes, "Well, there's
something just like yours
that you need to look into."
So, again, we looked into it,
and contacted our local counsel,
got the product sent to us,
investigated it,
and they found that
one of the claims, they felt,
was being infringed on.
And maybe I would've been
a lot further and my profit
would've increased a lot
if I hadn't had to go through
all these lawsuits
and troubles, but I mean,
that is where the passion
comes out of having
The Paw Wash as it's my baby.
It's my passion,
it's everything.
And having my awesome team
behind me keeps us
pushing forward.
You have to have
a family member, or a friend,
or somebody who's gonna
actually believe in the product
to keep it going
because if you're the only one
with the passion, and no one--
there's no one there
to help you or support you
then it's gonna be really hard
'cause you go through
some really hard times,
and having a good family
to stay up late with you,
and box 'em or do whatever
is the best gift.
With all the money
and the funds my parents
put into it, there's no way
this would've gotten
to the point where it is today
'cause a 12-year-old
doesn't have that type of money,
doesn't even understand--
I didn't even understand
how much money
that would've ever been.
So, without my parents
my idea would just be an idea,
and it wouldn't be anywhere
to where I am today.
As a former teacher
I really enjoy teaching others,
but I have been taught
a lot as this business
has grown.
China, manufacturing,
making sure that it arrives
in this country,
putting containers
on the water to get here,
and then over to the warehouse,
and from there the shipping,
and the logistics.
It's been a learning experience
for that aspect
of all that is involved
when a product comes to market
from the ground up.
Why we chose to get
the product made in China
instead of the U.S. is basically
because of the price point.
We would want to make it
here in the United States,
but the mold cost here
in the United States
could be $100,000
for what we have
versus $20,000.
We looked at local companies
here in Kansas City,
and around the country.
Great people, they even
said to us, "We can't do it."
And because you can't even
get it on the market
so that the consumer
can buy it at a good price.
It's truly still a small
organization in terms
of when I said,
"shipping and logistics."
I box 'em, I ship 'em out,
I go to UPS, and that's a lot--
how we do our shipping,
and the Postal Service.
So, it's still just truly
a small organization
though sold worldwide.
Of course, it will be the dream
that there's enough financial
backing in the future
as the business grows
that you are able to have
that warehouse that
definitely packs it all for you,
and ships it for you,
and, and gets it out,
but currently it's, it's just
mom and pop, and me doin' it,
and taking the calls,
and so, it's fun--I, I--
it's full-time, full-time fun.
While my profit isn't
exactly where I'd like it to be
there's always gonna be
dirty paws and my business
is growing and expanding,
and I believe in it
with all my heart.
And I have the best team
behind me and I know
we are gonna continue
to grow and do even more
wonderful things.
A co-production of KCPT
and Outpost Worldwide,
at home in Kansas City.
♪
Captioned by