Transcript

Dan Pace (00:00)
Hello, Dan Pace here from Genuine Technologies with an episode exploring the journey of getting started And this episode will have a bit of a focus on local and even international sports and athletics. So my guest today is James Davis. He is the general manager of FC Monmouth, a fast growing soccer or football club, if you will, that plays at the Count Basie Park in Red Bank, New Jersey.

So, and this general manager position is a position that he started just about four years ago when he was 19 as well. So first question for you is that as a general manager, I mean, what do you handle? You what is a general manager's role? Let me start there.

James Davis (00:37)
Yeah,

totally.

First off, thanks for having me. Very excited for this. This is awesome. It's pretty broad, would say. You're handling a lot with a little bit of time and a lot of lack of sleep, I should say, is the biggest thing. So I learned how to drink a lot of coffee in a short amount of time pretty quickly with this. ⁓ But really, I think people just have this genuine conception that it's a general manager. You get to sign all the players and do all the scouting and pick up the paperwork.

Dan Pace (00:57)
you

James Davis (01:08)
And it's really a lot more than that at this level specifically, I should say. It's a lot more about building the sustainability of a club and seeing what we could do to really drive the ship towards our general growth. And it's whatever the saying is in terms of as the tide rises, everybody goes with it. So as we begin to grow, we're able to help more people in the community, which is our biggest goal. So really the way I like to break it down is it really is.

general, if you will, in the sense that, there is the player administration aspect that we have to put together a team to be able to be on the field. That is important. But at the same time, it really is a business, too, at the end of the day that we have to keep the ships searing. with that, we have a lot of sponsorship opportunities. We do all of our marketing, depending on the time of year.

We have a pretty large volunteer and intern staff that I oversee as well that do an incredible job of not only showcasing ourselves, but the community, everything that we have going on across all of our socials, all of our events. And at the same time, it's just getting out there and letting ourselves be known too. So there's still so many people across the county that I say we.

We reach about 5,000 people here at our games currently and there's 650,000 people in Monmouth County. So I'm not doing a good enough job yet, I should say. But with that, it's obviously a very big year and very excited to be involved at a pivotal moment, I would say, for the county specifically, and as well as the state and the rest of the country.

Dan Pace (02:25)
you

I had lot going on, especially in terms of soccer. It's in a lot of social media types of posts to keep coming to me. I'm not even a soccer player, so it's hidden, hidden all my stuff in the, in the algorithm. I mean, yeah, it's definitely a broad aspect. You know, was expecting to just go straight into like ticket sales or marketing and all the basics, but I mean, yeah, you went way, way deeper than that. So I'm what's like the thing that surprised you from the, from the role, what didn't you really expect as you were going into it that you saw, more and more as you got in.

James Davis (03:03)
Yeah, yeah, I think I was a little bit siloed in the fact that I'm such a soccer nerd. So when I first started, I thought that everybody would just understand it to the capacity that I do. I quickly and roughly found out that that's not the case. And oftentimes you do have to really kind of educate as well as a big part of it and educate the importance of what we do.

that definitely plays a role, I would say. And was probably the biggest hurdle from the, from the start was overcoming that. And sometimes you're beating the drum a few too many times to my liking, but it is important and it has to be done. And again, the more people that become aware of what's going on in our backyard, I feel like on, on the topic of just how big of a year it is, I feel like people don't realize how much is going to be coming to our area. And I hope it doesn't get to the point that it just.

hits us all like a truck and everybody's saying, my God, what's going on for the next five, six weeks this summer? But again, it really is going to be a big deal. And as we've grown over the past five, this is the sixth year that I've been doing this now, it's definitely improved. And I've been able to see a lot of different aspects of the club in terms of our growth. But as it's grown, it's...

become more recognizable and more accessible as well, which is a big thing, which again, only helps everybody else as well in our community.

Dan Pace (04:27)
100%. Yeah. I love the community aspect. You keep bringing into FC Monmouth and you'll keep mentioning it's definitely, especially with that team Monmouth, right. It's grown over the last years, especially the last season, right. That was a record breaking season with the championships and such. Yeah. How, how, how has it grown from like the start to the, what is now in terms of maybe size in terms of maybe programs in terms of like the team comp as well as the team performance. So it changed a lot over the five years.

James Davis (04:39)
Yeah.

Yeah, the historical side of it

is yeah, yeah. Historically, when I wasn't involved prior to COVID, the team had a really strong start, you know, doing playoffs first two years and our men's team competing nationally starting in 2018. And then obviously COVID happening, COVID affects every business in a different way. Obviously it hurt us pretty bad. We didn't have a 2020 season. The 2021 season was tough to find ways to engage people, you know, and it slowly...

kind of grew back to where we wanted it to be. But I'd honestly say we didn't get back to those 2018, 2019 kind of figures up until probably 23 or 24. So one of my bigger personal accomplishments, I would say, was launching our women's team in 2024. They were pretty highly successful right from the get-go, and they still are. So they were national team of the week.

last year out of 150 teams across the country. We had national player of the week out of over 5,000 players. So it's only going to continue to grow. So our men's team made qualified for national playoffs for the first time in four years. So we definitely have a lot of momentum on the field, I'd say, going forward towards this 2026 season.

Dan Pace (06:01)
I'll bring your attention for the even higher, you know, quality players, hopefully. Has that spread over to like other athletics too, like the success of SC Monmouth, all the marketing and such and bringing in that, you know, is that spreading to other athletics, other sports at that field,

James Davis (06:05)
Yes. Yeah.

It's always fun when you can kind of tell different stories of how we're able to be as much as we want to spread our spread our net across the whole county. We really do try to support local in Red Bank as much as we can. know, the prime example I can give is we had a game that overlapped with a local Red Bank youth team probably at the start of our season last year. And there's parents walking over and again, not even knowing what we do, which is completely OK, but

They stuck around for half hour and they were like, oh my God, this is so awesome that I can bring my kids here right after a game on the weekend and have an activity to do that's free and it's accessible for them at the same time. So I definitely think that there's some, little bit of overlap for sure. And it's something that we're trying to actively do more, whether it's bringing in the local schools, how can we support those? It doesn't always just have to be about the travel teams. There's any way.

Any shape of mind, idea, I am open to all of it and how we can get creative to involve the sport with any group or individual. Because at end of the day, it's really only a benefit to everybody involved.

Dan Pace (07:26)
the sports are just bringing in people and how some ways that you intentionally have been bringing in new people, bringing in, I guess, new people into that community and so they can enjoy the game and also kind of create some stickiness so, you know, they keep coming back.

James Davis (07:31)
Yeah.

Yeah, the retention part is one that I dabble with every single year and I'll get into that in a sec. But kind of our bread and butter is being able to support different youth teams. Whether it's having a team outing or a team night, we offer fundraising opportunities if teams want to get involved and get engaged, come out to a game through fundraising, through ticket sales, whatever it may be. We are open to everything. But I'd say again, right about that 2023 time once we started to

really kind of recover from COVID. And we kind of saw a need to get a little bit more creative outside of the basics, I guess I would say, to be able to engage different communities and to be able to bring people into our games and to raise awareness. So with that being said, we kind of launched a little bit of a pilot in 23 in terms of getting into theme nights, know, kind of dabbling a little bit with that minor league baseball style of family friendly fun. We did it for

one of our home games and it was total hit. So we were like, all right, 2024, we're gonna hit the ground running with this. And we did a theme night for every single one of our home matches and people loved it. And then that carried over this past year as well. So we've done so many different things under the sun that I'm trying to think of right now. mean, we've done first responder night, pride night. had Monmouth County night last year. Different ways that we're able to incorporate.

holidays, whether it's a kickoff to Memorial Day, all these types of things, we're able to get creative and have a lot of fun. I personally love our fan appreciation night. It's always our last men's women's home game. Each year, pretty much, there's 90 minutes in the game. Everybody gets a raffle ticket, no matter who you're walking in with when you walk through our gates. And every 10 minutes, we raffle off some really cool prizes from some of our partners and local businesses. So some people have...

walked away with pretty much like 250 bucks worth of soccer gear just because they showed up to a game on the weekend, you know? anyway that we're, yeah, exactly. It's good ROI if we're getting down to the business aspect of it. But yeah, kind of going into that, it's an okay. We've got people in and they've always said they've had a good experience, but to your point, how can we capture retention is a big one.

Dan Pace (09:36)
Yeah, they're gonna come back.

James Davis (09:53)
being quite frank, it's tough sometimes when a majority of our sales are cashed through the gate or unmarked, but we try to get a little bit creative, whether it be offering some interactive experiences. So we have kind of QR codes that you can scan at our games where you can turn your picture that you took at the game into a cool little fan cover or commemorative item, and that's able to grab emails from things like that. So.

Obviously emails are a big one and we're able to be able to send out some cool things to those people that do sign up for any kind of email list or anything like that, whether it be exclusive events that we have some pretty exciting ones that we're going to be unveiling soon, as well as different get togethers, insights on what we're doing out in the community, aside from what just our games that you might want to get involved in, whether it be free clinics for

for youth athletes, what tournaments we're gonna be at, giving out prizes, it's all good things to know and to just stay in the know. So I'd say it's something that I'm actively trying to do better at, I guess I would say, just because we do see so many people coming in through our gates, but then not coming back until next year. But again, at the end of the day, there's only so much time during the summer and people have so much going on. There really is.

so much to, I don't want to say compete because everything that everybody's doing is so great. Whether they're out supporting a different fundraiser or event or just spending time with your family, know, people need time for that. And we acknowledge that and we just hope to be a little bit of the piece of the pie that people can enjoy their free time with. That's very limited during the summer months.

Dan Pace (11:33)
That's great that you're having a lot of people that are just like coming out of convenience almost because like the park will come by and then you kind of grab them in. So I'm hearing like you use a lot of fun, a lot of unique kind of exciting type of, know, aspects like events, activities. At the end of the day, though, it's always kind of creates memories. That's kind of what I'm actually equating it all to. And then those memories kind of create you to come back and have a spot in that community.

I think you've heard some of your past talks at know, events we've done in networking. And you mentioned like memories, right? Like you've developed memories early on and your job that like makes you so passionate about soccer. You're trying to make those with others and FC Monmouth and then tie them into what community events as well.

James Davis (11:58)
Thank you.

Yeah, I I think I didn't have an FC Monmouth when I grew up. It didn't exist, you know, and I start to think of it now. We've been around since 2018. So that means if we, if someone's a graduating pretty much high school or coming up around 20, 28, 20, 29, 20, 30, they'll have had.

10 plus years of FC Monmouth where pretty much probably their entire youth sports career they've had this opportunity to show up and go to games and we've had different events and occurrences now where different people that are interning for us in college now are saying I grew up going to these games and this is something that I wanted to be a part of and see how that I can get involved in support even if it's not playing so I really think the

The coolest moment is going to be when we start to have those first few players that start coming in and they're like, ⁓ I grew up coming to these games and watching these guys with my local youth team. And this is something that I aspire to be able to do. And now that they'd end up be playing for us. So that's something that's going to be a really cool full circle moment once that starts happening pretty consistently and especially with local players and that we're able to inspire people to go on and do bigger and better things. These are people that

Maybe they didn't want to go on and play soccer in college, but they saw this opportunity that they could possibly have now. And it motivates them a little bit. You leave our games with a little bit of a spark, I guess I would say is the best feeling. And it makes you want to go out and get on the field yourself. I mean, I could barely run around for 30 minutes now, but every time after our games, I'm like, when's the next time I'm getting out there with all of my buddies?

It definitely gets people going and inspires them and engages them to a level that I didn't have, like I said, when I was growing up. So I think that'll be the biggest full circle moment in the next few years that I'm really looking forward to.

Dan Pace (13:59)
Yeah, I've seen actually a lot of people have success from the nonprofit type of world, using schools and younger kids to kind of get the message out there because they're kind of receptive to it and they're also not as busy as adults. But then once you have the kids involved or hooked in some way, it just spreads to the adults naturally. Then they come to the games and support financially and they feel more materialized. And then, yeah, after a couple of years, they go through college and they start going into real life and they come back around.

James Davis (14:04)
You

Dan Pace (14:27)
Especially with the part you just mentioned, since they might have an FC Monmouth, they'll have that competition that can push them a lot further than they would out there, you high school team or something like that. So I think that's going to get people, a lot more people to decide to go to that next level in college and maybe even professional and, you know, amateur leagues. That definitely will play out. I'm excited to see that too.

James Davis (14:42)
Yeah,

it really, it kind of, it gives such a local grasp on what the next level is, I think is the biggest thing. I didn't really have a good grasp on.

what it means to be a Division I soccer player when I was looking to play soccer in college when I was growing up. Our local games were at Rutgers or Monmouth. And if you don't catch those in the fall, you weren't watching them at all because that's when the college soccer season is. So this is a completely different time of year. It's a completely different atmosphere. But in the sense that you really get up close and personal. mean, there are people that are now getting signatures from future professional soccer players, and they're the ones that are able to say that they were the first ones to

these people up close and personal because they were able to come to a game. from that lens, I think it really puts up close and unique connection that it offers to the local athlete.

Dan Pace (15:34)
Yeah, it definitely sounds like it. All right. Well, let me talk about some of the elephant in the room. And you mentioned a few times already, know, FIFA is coming to New Jersey, right? FIFA is coming to the whole Eastern region of New Jersey. Eastern region of the United States. First off, I you know, these numbers better than I do, better than anyone I've met so far, besides maybe the one or two FIFA like heads that have been introduced through you. mean, what can we expect in terms of people, in terms of like money, in terms of events that are going on? I how many games are we played in New Jersey, like in New York?

James Davis (16:02)
There's going to be eight in New York, New Jersey, up at MetLife Triumph Stadium. And then there's going to be six in the Philly area too, which people often kind of discount as well. But there's going to be a little bit of impact hopefully from that too.

Dan Pace (16:02)
Here we go.

No, definitely. Cause I'm expecting like it's almost five weeks or so roughly five, six weeks of the, of the tournament, but I'm definitely expecting some people who would want to come into that, you know, especially internationally week or two before week or two after and not be competing with their day-to-day agenda with the, with FIFA. So they can kind of get best of like, what I'm visiting in the States. And I also get to see the, you know, once every four years soccer tournament. Um, this, what about like people work? Do you have like the numbers of how many people on which monies these have generated in the past?

James Davis (16:31)
Totally.

Yeah,

it's an interesting thought. Yeah, it is really. The number that they're throwing around right now.

Dan Pace (16:43)
that's staggering.

James Davis (16:47)
is $3.3 billion in economic development is estimated to come to the New York, New Jersey region, ⁓ specifically just from those games up at MetLife. But people always ask, what does that actually mean? I think the number that really shows the level of growth was when this was hosted in 94 out in California, the number to the surrounding LA area for the Rose Bowl game for the final.

was just 700 million. So obviously that's a, exponential increase that's going to be coming to this area specifically, but people always say, okay, how, or what does that mean? And I think the, the biggest, moments that people have to conceptualize is again, this, this isn't a Superbowl. This isn't a one-off event. Like you mentioned, this is five weeks and people might come.

before or after, and that turns into seven, eight weeks maybe. So this is really a two month timeframe during the summer when we are already at our peak in this area that we're gonna see a little bit of an explosion, but the people that are able to take advantage are the ones that get involved and they're not just going on with their regular day.

Obviously public transport is going to play a big role. So we're going to see a lot of impact, I think, in my personal prediction to the Redbanks, the Asbury's, the Longbranches, the Bellemars that have access to this local transport for people that are going to be.

coming to the North Jersey area, I jokingly say there's going to be thousands of people flying into Newark Airport that think they're going to be landing right in New York City and then realize that they're 45 minutes away and need something to do for the day. So I really do want participate. A lot of people coming down to the shore. know here in the county, there's a lot of local businesses as well as our local government that's doing a lot of great advertising, whether it be in the train stations or the airports and saying, hey,

If have a day or two, make your way down. Super easy, super fun, and you're gonna have a great time at all the local places that we have to offer and really are able to showcase. So I think that the number last year was over 30, 31 or $32 million in just beach revenue last year. I see that number getting exploded through the roof, you know? ⁓ But really, if you wanna get involved,

You have to actively seek it. It's not just going to be handed to you. And I will say that and to engage the soccer fan. It's it's a little bit more unique in the sense as opposed to the everyday American that just wants to go to the bar and have a beer, you know, obviously playing the games is important, but having a little bit of a cultural tie in and understanding is a lot more of what a soccer fan is looking for as well. And really, what does that mean? It's again, it's there's no international person that's

walking into a Chili's or an Applebee's to watch their soccer game as a American may to watch their Sunday football game. So people are actively seeking out restaurants and businesses that are getting a little bit more creative and have a little bit of a more unique feel just because that's what their local pub has in Ireland or the UK or France or Germany, whatever it may be. And that's something that they're more appealed to. So.

If you're kind of advertising yourself as that standalone American business, you might want to think about getting a little bit creative this summer and ways to kind of switch up and engage or host your own watch party. Maybe it's for a specific country. Maybe you have a French night. don't know if there's the Paris Baguettes of the world stay open for a little bit later for the one o'clock games or the three o'clock games to be able to watch.

Dan Pace (20:01)
Yeah.

James Davis (20:18)
the soccer matches with the coffee, you know, there's so many different ways that you can go on about it to really differentiate yourself as a business. But the one thing I say is you have to get creative and you can't just be the person that just puts it up on the screen and hopes for the best because that's, that's what everybody else is going to be doing. So with their, with the thousands, if not millions of people that are going to be visiting in us, there there's a genuine opportunity here, but it has to be taken advantage correctly.

Dan Pace (20:46)
Yeah. Add some sort of fun, unique and exciting to it. Right. Definitely bring up a great point with, uh, you know, a lot of people want to fly into Newark a lot of people going to fly into, you know, JFK and all that, and then take the train right down to the shore. Cause it's just so convenient. The trains right there, especially at Newark airport. Um, so yeah, if you're a business, that's a close to a train station, find some sort of marketing on that, on that billboard. That might be the most valuable place to be. It sounds like, then, and then that June month. Um, and also you actually kind of came up the great idea because I spent way too much time in the restaurant industry. But when you're saying like these, you know,

countries playing like making Italian special, making French special and maybe having versus each other like, you your vote goes towards that team or your dish choice goes towards that team or something. I'll post on social like the winner who won the more favorite cuisine out of France or Italian that day. Yeah.

James Davis (21:23)
Yeah. Yeah.

simple stuff, which team do you think is going to win? ⁓

That'll bring in double the amount of tips that you would normally have just by engaging.

Dan Pace (21:37)
Yeah. And then you can

make a conversation too, if you're happy, or, know, server that's, you know, knows soccer, you can definitely make a conversation out of it and get some more rapport going. Yeah. It's tons of opportunities. Yeah. You just need to think of it and then take advantage and then, you know, work towards it. I know you've talked so many times how much work and how much time go into getting like the permit for a watch party, getting any sort of, sort of a FIFA relationship that's on a formal, you know, If you want to talk, have you been building any of those for FC Monmouth or are you involved in setting some of those up?

James Davis (21:43)
And really just like.

In terms of

watch parties, 100%. So ⁓ it's definitely a lot of things that we have on the back burner for this upcoming summer. It's going to be pretty exciting. I would say we can't really reveal too much right now. ⁓ again, like I said, it's five weeks long. There's going to be games going on almost every single day, whether or not we are ended up.

Dan Pace (22:08)
Yeah, watch parties or any sort of a relationship with the FIFA officials.

Yeah, I walk into tears.

James Davis (22:31)
collaborating with local municipalities, local cities, different groups that want to be hosting specific parties for specific nations. Those are ways that we're able to get creative and we're able to come in. And the way that I view it is we are an event amplifier and we're able to unite and connect people a little bit more through that, whether it's us bringing a player to be able to meet the community and hang out with the kids that are going to be there kicking the ball around. We have awesome setups that we're able to

give out different giveaways, prizes. Some of them might be country themed for games, which are always fun and cool. Whether it's different games that we have that's a little bit unique to soccer. And again, we can't really spill the beans too much, but there's gonna be some cool setups that we'll have and some cool events that we're gonna be doing pretty much, I don't wanna say on a daily basis, but we're gonna be pretty widespread across the county as far south as.

kind of that Bradley, Manisquan area all the way up north to kind of Middletown Keyport, you know? So we want to, and as far west as Friel, you know? So we really want to be able to make our presence known and to be able to support as many people as we possibly can. But also being intentional about it is important too. It's one thing to just kind of slap your name on an event and say that you're a part of it, but it's another thing to actually show up to support, get involved and to, again.

be an amplifier for that local community that you're going into.

Dan Pace (23:53)
Yeah. If you want to really benefit you, have to present, you have to be relevant, right? got to be. Nice words from the first podcast I ever did that's still sticking with me. That presence and relevance is everything and everything you're doing. So I saw there was a new partnership with Monmouth County Tourism that I saw that was announced and it's what? Historical first. I mean, what's going on with that? Can you tell me a little more about that? How that's going to play out and relate little bit more?

James Davis (24:12)
Yeah, yeah, so the

Dan Pace (24:16)
And also, is there

James Davis (24:16)
count walk.

Dan Pace (24:16)
other opportunities for like other corporations, organizations to be involved in that program? Or is it more just you and FC Monmouth?

James Davis (24:19)
Yeah, 100%.

So I think the county is incredibly supportive of us and want to really make that known. Both all of the commissioners as well as the tourism department specifically. And what I really like to say to people is...

The tourism department, just like us, is an amplifier for the local community. If you go to their website, they have their events page. That is completely free to post on and to advertise events that you are hosting. The only criteria is that it's in Monmouth County. It's pretty simple. So with that being said, we're really looking to work with them to not only offer everything that we do, whether it be with our players or our games, to be able to obviously bring more people into this community, whether that be...

Who knows if it's international that's looking to catch another soccer match for a game that they're in the North Jersey area and they see a matchup that we have and the players that we have they might think it's interesting and they're coming to Red Bank this summer that's extra tourism dollars that's going into the local businesses after they go to that game and they're out buying dinner or grabbing a beer post-match you know and it's it's a small impact but it really snowballs into the future so people are looking

for local things to do, specifically soccer related. And the fact that we are the county's team and we represent the county across the country, we're very appreciative to have been recognized for that. So I think really the people, we're gonna be starting a lot of initiatives that raise awareness for everything that the county offers.

Obviously, Brewed and Distilled in Monmouth is a great example of what they've done to showcase all the breweries across the county. Now they have Slice in Monmouth, which they just launched this past month where every single pizzeria across the county, and I say we have the best pizza in the world, I would argue, but those businesses have an opportunity to be showcased now. And there's different ways that we're going to be able to...

Dan Pace (25:57)
Thank

⁓ yeah.

James Davis (26:11)
get creative, whether it's through the Ride in Monmouth program that people don't know about, that you can have accessible transportation through Monmouth County. It doesn't have to be through train or Uber or everything like that. There are literal buses that the county has that they use to offer services. So again, little tidbits that we're working on, whether it's being able to provide transportation to underserved communities to get to our games that previously might not have been able to.

to be able to experience it. There's so many children and teams and different groups that when we go out for feedback, they've told us before, this is something we would love to be able to experience. I just don't have a way to be able to bring 20 kids from my soccer team here to be able to get to this game. So the county is really kind of stepping up and getting involved with us. And again, we're so appreciative of it. And it's really gonna help grow everybody around us together.

Dan Pace (27:04)
Yeah, it's going to tie in perfectly with the 250 celebrations that they're doing everywhere as well. And they're doing a lot of participation, a lot of transportation with that going on

Yeah. There's one thing that you just said that made me think of, um, almost sounds like you could use as like a, you know, international traveler, someone's coming here for FIFA. Like they could use a booklet for like, this is how you get around. This is where the train stations are. This is like this, that, the other thing is some like, no, just all the

tips and tricks that will help immeasurably get acquainted here.

James Davis (27:28)
Yeah. So, um, the county has their tourism

guide that they're going to be, I don't know if it's in April, they publish it every year. So, uh, right now they have their, their photo contest that just closed for the front cover. Um, but they're going to have a whole specific soccer page about things to do and restaurants to get involved at all these different types of things. So that will be launching and then that's available either virtually, um, which is just a simple PDF that you can access. And then it's going to be.

Dan Pace (27:33)
Is there something coming up that that?

James Davis (27:56)
And we're going to have it on site at our games for people to grab if they're looking for local resources. And again, it's, they're, doing a great job of making that accessible as well to make sure that again, like we said, all these people that have no clue what Mama County is, hopefully they will know by, by the end of these five, six weeks.

Dan Pace (28:14)
Yeah, but it's tons of opportunity to show them, like you kind of saying, they're going to be looking for those questions. Like, how do I get around? Where are these transportation hubs? Where are the transportation opportunities to specifically that? like you made a good point there. Mom is putting in a lot of buses, bringing a lot of transportation type of know, shuttles all over the place for the FIFA as well as the 250. So I mean, that's perfect to take advantage of, but it's also kind of hard to find because especially cause it's kind of new and I'm not sure if that's going to be.

James Davis (28:23)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Pace (28:40)
Stick around like, know, pass the 250 as much pass the FIFA I'm sure there's gonna be quite a drop of traffic, you know, But yeah, a lot of opportunity there to, you know, educate all the  tourists that are going to be coming is going to need some education on that topic of education is actually one of my last questions I want. I've been going through this question a bunch of my head, especially with FIFA coming up and I'm not necessarily in the soccer community, but you know, non soccer person.

James Davis (28:51)
Yeah.

Dan Pace (29:05)
I want to be respectful to fans that are coming especially internationally So my question is should we be calling it futbol when they all come for those five weeks? Or should we still say soccer and just not because a little more genuine since we're not playing it or just felt like it might be an imposter type thing or Is it respectful or is it imposter?

James Davis (29:12)
both.

It's a, it's a, a, it's

it's a, a, it's a, it's a, a, a, it's a, it's a,

So when we call it that, again, there's gonna be plenty of bar fights over this and that's just gonna be fun stories that people will be able to People will be able to tell these for 30 years. I have so many different friends right now that they're able to tell stories from 30 years ago when we hosted the World Cup in 94. And again, that's something that I want to be able to say that we were able to do as well. Like again, we are Monmouth County's soccer team, you know, and people will...

Dan Pace (29:52)
All the memories.

James Davis (30:12)
Who knows, maybe there's some random tourist that comes in and says, what does that mean if you're the county soccer team, you know? And then they get to learn and then they go back to England or who even knows, England, Senegal, Asia, wherever it may be. And they're telling their friends, I went to this local community soccer game. And then they're like, what, soccer? And it turns into this whole conversation. So I honestly kind of like that aspect of it. And it kind of got my brain thinking in the sense that...

we're doing something that's gonna stick with them and that will always stick with them. So hopefully the US has a few good games that we can back up our talk and they don't say, you can't call it soccer anymore because you guys don't rule the world. But if we have a good tournament, I think it'll really make a lasting impact as Americans, I would say.

Dan Pace (31:00)
Definitely. No, that's a point. Good point. All right. So I feel a less, uh, feel a little more like into, I can just call it soccer. I feel a little safer than now that have someone that's in the soccer community that gave me an okay. All right. Well, hey, before we close things up, I mean, any, like last words, need like last thing, messages you want to send out for athletics, for soccer, for FIFA.

James Davis (31:10)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I really always like to leave it just with again, it's going to be such such a big year and there's so many different ways to get involved and I'm more than happy to be a resource to anybody that reaches out to me or to us as a club. Our socials are great handle to be able to see what we have going on. It's literally everything's at We Are Monmouth It's a cool way to kind of really represent everything that we we do because

We are here for everybody. We're here to connect, everybody inspire and entertain. Those are our three biggest pillars or three biggest goals. So I want to say it should be pretty easy to be able to do that this upcoming summer. But again, it's going to take a lot of lack of sleep, a lot of hard work and a lot of hours put in. But it's something that I want to be able to look back in August and not have any regrets. So I'm really excited for it. I'm really excited for

what it's going to bring, not only to the tourism aspect that we mentioned across the county, but really honestly, just putting the state of New Jersey on the map as well. It's small state, big attitude, and we're here to show it, you know? So we're ready to put on a show this summer. We're really excited to welcome some new faces to our home games at Count Basie Field and Red Bank. And any way that we can support, anybody's welcome to reach out. So thanks again.

Dan Pace (32:35)
Great. Thanks to you for being here. Thank you for getting started with FC Monmouth Hall. Five, six years, you said. Which like I said, you're 19 years old. mean, just started to get your feet under you and now you've got this entire thing to put together and put together almost from scratch. And plus you had right down the road, four or five years from now, you got this massive FIFA type of event coming to the States that you had to look forward to. And you know, want to capitalize on that. It's a big position of responsibility and you've been measuring up.

James Davis (32:41)
Yeah.

Dan Pace (33:04)
And I'll also leave in a couple of words that, I always think about when I see you, it's a, getting comfortable being uncomfortable thing. And you just epitomize that so much. I think you do that with your players and kind of all of FC Monmouth really epitomizes that very well.

James Davis (33:16)
Totally, I really appreciate