Name: Bank of soccer in Canada and Angel City FC are partners with
Uploaded: 2025-02-03T15:41:37.885565+00:00
Duration: 2720 s
Channel: Adrian Hargrave

Yeah, for sure. I, well, I'm gonna start at the beginning, um, because I think there's probably people in this room that don't know Bemo. So we are a more than 200 year old bank in Canada and a roughly 40 year old brand in the US which was primary.


ly concentrated in the Midwest up until last year when we expanded into the West through our acquisition of Bank of the West and that expansion was primarily into California and a very, very important market for us within California was LA.


So as a marketing organization we had a pretty huge job to do in this new footprint we had to introduce ourselves to a consumer base that largely had no idea who we were, um, so we had to explain that we are a bank that BEMO is a bank, how to say our name it's BO, not BMO um explain our value proposition and what we were bringing to the market and, um, in doing that we, we had a a robust integrated marketing plan.


And the cornerstone of that plan in LA was the partnership of the naming rights of Bmo Stadium and LAFC and Angel City FC and if you think about like what it takes to make a really, really big splash in a new market, one way to do this is to put your name in giant letters on a building that you can see from the airplane window.


Um, but we are not in the business of just throwing our name on things and, and letting that do the heavy hitting. Um, we also wanted to be very intentional about how we entered this market from a community perspective, and that is where LAFC has been such an incredible partner as they have grown an incredibly engaged fan base over the last decade, so.


Um, it was a no brainer for us to, to find a partner that was gonna help us be able to show up like them right away, um.


We had a very serendipitous opportunity to come together, uh, to extend a platform that has worked really well for us in Canada. We're the Bank of soccer in Canada. We partner with all three MLS teams up there. Some of you guys are here. Hi, see you up front, um, as well as we have a grassroots, uh, national local soccer program, so that marrying of the professional with the community was a platform that we were able to extend to LA with the partnership with LAFC.


Um, I had the benefit of inheriting this partnership. I started in my role earlier this year, so I was not at the table for the initial conversation, so I, I'll hand it off to my colleagues here, the people that were like truly in the trenches as uh as the deal was being done.

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Yeah, for sure. I, well, I'm gonna start at the beginning, um, because I think there's probably people in this room that don't know Bemo. So we are a more than 200 year old bank in Canada and a roughly 40 year old brand in the US which was primary.ly concentrated in the Midwest up until last year when we expanded into the West through our acquisition of Bank of the West and that expansion was primarily into California and a very, very important market for us within California was LA.So as a marketing organization we had a pretty huge job to do in this new footprint we had to introduce ourselves to a consumer base that largely had no idea who we were, um, so we had to explain that we are a bank that BEMO is a bank, how to say our name it's BO, not BMO um explain our value proposition and what we were bringing to the market and, um, in doing that we, we had a a robust integrated marketing plan.And the cornerstone of that plan in LA was the partnership of the naming rights of Bmo Stadium and LAFC and Angel City FC and if you think about like what it takes to make a really, really big splash in a new market, one way to do this is to put your name in giant letters on a building that you can see from the airplane window.Um, but we are not in the business of just throwing our name on things and, and letting that do the heavy hitting. Um, we also wanted to be very intentional about how we entered this market from a community perspective, and that is where LAFC has been such an incredible partner as they have grown an incredibly engaged fan base over the last decade, so.Um, it was a no brainer for us to, to find a partner that was gonna help us be able to show up like them right away, um.We had a very serendipitous opportunity to come together, uh, to extend a platform that has worked really well for us in Canada. We're the Bank of soccer in Canada. We partner with all three MLS teams up there. Some of you guys are here. Hi, see you up front, um, as well as we have a grassroots, uh, national local soccer program, so that marrying of the professional with the community was a platform that we were able to extend to LA with the partnership with LAFC.Um, I had the benefit of inheriting this partnership. I started in my role earlier this year, so I was not at the table for the initial conversation, so I, I'll hand it off to my colleagues here, the people that were like truly in the trenches as uh as the deal was being done.

https://d3ev5earl6dvd0.cloudfront.net/public-media/videos/009/347/009347/video_ho8dbWI.mp4#t=107

Adrian Hargrave

Bank of soccer in Canada and Angel City FC are partners with

LAFC is the 2nd franchise to to to break the market and is a

Head of revenue and strategy for LAFC, met with BEMO about

No brainer is really kind. For a brand entering a market

LAFC and BEMO are coming together to grow the sport and grow

Naming rights are incredibly powerful assets for sports teams,

Partnering with BEO for the stadium because ultimately the

We had a war room dedicated to monitoring social media and

LAFC and BO are really committed to giving back to the

Ryan and Peter have aligned in the jerseys and shirts they're

hosted MLS Cup final celebration with BMO Partnership, hosted

I think you can see there is truly a philosophical alignment

Franchise seven years old, converted all branding across in

In Canada you're known as the Bank of soccer

BMO is a fan engagement tool that has really helped to make

staying committed to helping Bemo humanize their brand with

I think soccer is nothing without its fans

New franchises are popping up all over the country

When you think about MLS in the past, it was very fractured

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https://d3ev5earl6dvd0.cloudfront.net/public-media/videos/009/347/009347/video_ho8dbWI.mp4

Special, um, uh, room chat here. Um, welcome to the afternoon session and the kick off of that. We're here with uh Bemo and LAFC to talk about a uh a partnership that's kind of been going for about 2 years now, and this is the 2nd season. Um, it's a pretty, uh, it's an honor for me actually to be uh to be hosting this panel. Uh we were just talking off stage.
I worked with the MLS in my previous role at IMG on international media rights and distribution, and uh we saw several um franchises launch in that time from New York City, uh, from Atlanta, Charlotte, obviously into Miami, but the one that always stood out for me was LAFC, um, an incredible story for those of you that don't know, um.
Coming out of Los Angeles is the 2nd franchise to to to to break the market. Obviously Galaxy had been there before and Shivas had tried, and unfortunately didn't didn't succeed. So what we see now in in in in Los Angeles with LESC and the Galaxy being able to, you know, fill the Rose Bowl, uh, you know, 80,000 people quite regularly, um, really led to what is now known as probably rivalry week, frankly, and I think um.
I think that's a real privilege to be here to hear this story and this journey. So um welcome to Natalia and to um.
Uh, to, to Ryan from LA and Shelley and Peter from uh Bemo. So Shelley, we're gonna kick off with, uh, with you, if I may. OK. So last year you entered, uh, you entered a groundbreaking uh deal with LAFC. It's a 10 year partnership. Can you tell us why

Hi everyone. So my name is Ryan Bhara, head of revenue and strategy for LAFC. Be with the club for about 9 years, um, had the fortune of meeting Peter and team about 2 years ago when we were getting this process started to do something that


Uh, was transformative for BO and also for LAFC because it was a new reframing after COVID for our stadium and taking it to the next level, um, and it's 22,000 seat stadium in the heart of LA right adjacent to the USC Coliseum.


Right off the 110 freeway for those that have been there, so really great location and a stadium that has about 70 events publicly ticketed per year and also the home of Angel City Football Club, uh, that started in NWSL very recently, so.


With all of that, that was the opportunity in front of us to find the right partner and I think from the very first I still remember the very first meeting that we had and you know when Peter and team came to join us the difference in what we felt in that first meeting was really why it was a no brainer specifically because frankly.


BEMO has done it before many times they know how to manage and leverage stadium naming rights specifically to a level beyond I'd say others in football in the US, North America, etc. and even globally I put them pound for pound for anywhere and that was really attractive because ultimately to be the most sophisticated version of ourselves we also wanted to make sure we had a partner that would grow with us and take us to another height.


And that was definitely what we thought in the conversation, which we'll get into in more depth, but I love Peter to add to that.

No brainer really kind for.


For a brand entering a market for the first time who I think when we no not I think when we first started talking we didn't even have regulatory approval on a deal and in an industry like ours not having regulatory approval on the deal means you don't have a deal yet um so we started the conversations, um, uh, and we took them seriously from our side from day one, because we recognized an alignment of values right at the gate.


Uh, and I think it's hard to overstate the importance of, of naming rights for a brand like ours who had that daunting challenge that Shelly was talking about. How do we introduce our brand to a market like California, to a market like LA, you know, where there's two of everything, right? You're competing for attention against Hollywood and theme parks. Uh, it's tough, it's challenging and.


The brief was pretty clear from leadership. They didn't just want to enter the market, they wanted to win and we needed to find a partnership.


And the assets that would help us do that and we did and so I remember those early meetings at the stadium, the first walk around, um, we tried to bring our A game that we did that, uh, uh, we tried and I'm, I'm glad to hear that, uh, it sounds like we did.

Yeah, I think I would just add that, you know, from the early beginning LAFC approached building our club street by street, block by block, one by one we really set out to be the force for good and bring joy to our community.


And BEMO has similar shared values of growing boldly growing the good in business and in life. So as you can see it's two organizations coming together in this wonderful partnership of just have the shared vision of growing the sport and growing the beautiful game.

Yeah, it's like I just said a moment ago, hard to overstate how important the fact that naming rights were actually on the table. Um, it's exciting to be a marketer and to, you know, be in the middle of an acquisition and to be challenged by your leaders to be bold.


We got that challenge. Um, it was daunting, as I said, and it really shaped the work to go look at the market and surface the opportunities that were there. Ryan, keep me honest on this, but I think when we started talking,


Your naming rights were the only sports naming rights that were non-contracted for the next decade or so. That's right, right? So naming rights are super powerful, which we'll get into in a second, but they're incredibly scarce, hard to get. You can't just go buy them when you want them or when you need them.


Um, so like I said, the fact that the naming rights were available, and we were looking at an asset that really aligned to.


A playbook that Shelly mentioned that we know really well. Um, when we started talking, we really approached this as carefully, thoughtfully as possible because the marketing challenge we had was significant.


And the timeline to deliver was intimidating.


To, to say the least, um, so why naming rights, you know, why does it matter? And I don't want to minimize our partnership to just the naming rights. We're gonna unpack all the other stuff too.


Um, but we were faced with a situation where we needed awareness in spades, right? And so naming rights sounds obvious are the best asset to be able to do that, but sports teams, specially post COVID, have been kind of rolling with new initiatives and rolling out.


New assets that are awareness driving, right? Hockey and basketball, we're seeing jersey patches. We've had it in soccer for much longer. Uh, we're seeing helmet decals, we're seeing erase and replace LEDs and DEDs, etc. etc.


Our research shows us though that when you have naming rights you have a potential to reach up to 70% of a local market, not 70% of fans, 70% of a local market, and although it's early days in the NBA, I think some uh research is out there showing that barely 50% of the fan base is able to name the brand that is on those very expensive jersey patches in the NBA.


So for us when the naming rights were available, um, we, we really buckled down and uh put forward sort of a bold plan to try and land this deal because we thought it was gonna be able to do something uh that we wouldn't be able to do just with another sponsorship, just with another mix of assets. And so for us that's.


16 unobstructed views from Shelly said it, from, from the sky, um, um.


From, uh, from the, from the airplane, you also, LA is famous for its traffic. So when you're sitting in your car, uh, you have plenty of opportunities for, uh, prolonged exposure to the BO brand when you're


the old classic, uh, the old trafficker, right? That's the whole,


yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And you know, the naming rights came with premium out of home and digital.


Um, and we were in a position where we needed a lot of out of home. We needed, um, to complement that integrated marketing plan. Um, so, you know, for us the naming rights, um, are an important feature because they, it's mission accomplished on brand exposure and awareness, uh, but the partnership offers so much more than that.


Um, and you know, from the tracking that we're doing and the early days of the track, we know it's working. Uh, so our launch event, shout out to Amy Potter, Matthew Herrick, Cassie Pruitt, all the Bemo people, Jennifer Carly's brand advertising people, all the people that helped us pull this off and launch this partnership.


Um, we hit the ground sprinting. We delivered,


go ahead, yeah, well, I will just add to, um, the impact and the measurement piece because


Uh, sponsorship attribution is hard. I don't need to say that in this room, um, but we have an interesting case study in the fact that we did this marketing launch across other similar to LA markets. We'll use San Francisco as an example with the absence of a sponsorship in that market, and we're outpacing them in awareness so we know that of all of the different tools that we have, this is a really, really powerful one.

go ahead. I was just gonna add that everything that they've been sharing the last few minutes is why we were so excited specifically to partner with BEO for the stadium because ultimately the level of sophistication related to thinking about measurement.


Realizing that it's deeper than just the signage opportunities that exist and that there's a community impact and a force for good, uh, growing the good for business, etc. that we and for the game that we got to do together that is really what deepens that connection with fans and ultimately is why we were able to make this sprint in record time happen in advance of last season and that ethos and connection.


Is really what made it sing from the very jump and why we've really together we're doubling down on it even last this year, so we're really excited about that.

and just I'll share a quick anecdote that, that just, that came to mind. And it's Shelly talked about serendipity, we talked about the speed of the pace that we had to get this done. Um, we're seeing it in the data that it's working, which is great, but one of the, one of the proof points that I like to look back to, uh, was Labor Day weekend, um, last year, and it was Inter Miami's first visit to LA.


Uh, it also coincided with the conversion, the full conversion, right, of all those Bank of the West branches toemo branches, and you need a long weekend to be able to do that apparently with banking acquisitions because a lot can go wrong. It's hard to flip the switch. So we had an entire war room um dedicated to monitoring.


Um, social media buzz, all those things, cause so much could go wrong and we wanted to stay in front of any issues.


Well, that night at Bmo Stadium, when it was 22,000 packed, I think 40 or 50 A-listers, Prince Harry, a lot of stuff going on.


The war room started buzzing.


And they thought, oh no, what did we break? What didn't go right? What went wrong? Well, the reality was there was a soccer match happening and it was happening at Bmo Stadium, our new home, and it's a great little marker for us that shows it was bold but it was the right play for us at the time.

I would just like to add that I'm most proud of how well we brought the community to Bmo Stadium since we kicked off our partnership. Um, there's so much commitment from both LAFC and BO to give back to the community of Los Angeles and there's several community programs that we've kicked off at Bemo Stadium that welcome that community, including Match Access. We host nonprofit group.


Such as Paro Los Ninos, I have a Dream Foundation, Rainbow Labs, all from very diverse backgrounds, and we bring them and give them an experience that they normally would not have transportation, tickets, food, meet and greet with players to be able to kick a ball after the game.


It's priceless. It's something they'll remember forever. Um, this year we proudly kicked off the inaugural LFC unified team, which is in partnership with VO and Special Olympics. We hosted a signing day at Vmo Stadium for them.


Which was so special. Our co-president general manager John Thorrington was there. Club legend Giorgio Collini. RAFC Captain Eli Sanchez welcomed all of these athletes and unified partners. They signed a contract on the pitch, put on their uniform, had a media day like a normal player would to experience that for the community was memorable. Uh, we host Bemos.


Business spotlights we've honored over 22 small businesses. They've had a chance to come set up an activation booth pre-match at the stadium to be able to showcase our business. We honor them at halftime. We promote them on social media and newsletter and really give them the platform to grow their business, and that's just some of few programs that we do together with BEMO and LHC that we're really proud of.

I mean talking about brand alignment, and I'm going to kick this off with you, Ryan. Clearly you and Peter have aligned in the jerseys and the shirts you're wearing here on the stage, so I'm very pleased that this partnership is working super well, but how are you approaching the alignment, because obviously I would call LAFC a bit of a disruptor in the LA market versus kind of the traditional.


Um, sort of franchises that we've seen before, um, obviously the fan base is pretty, um, is pretty wild, you know, dare we even, you know, say, say similar to Raiders in style. Um, but no, going back to that, how, how do you see the, the brands aligning? It's a long term deal. Um, there's a lot of football and soccer, should I say, going on.


Over the coming, you know, 24, 48 months here, um, how do you see this alignment working and, and how are you approaching that as you, as you sort of start this, this partnership?

It was, uh, I'm sorry, I'll jump in here. It was quite memorable, uh, experience for me professionally to bring to life BMO Partnership. I remember hosting Peter and the BO leadership team at the MLS Cup in 2022 when I would introduce them as my friends because I couldn't talk about what we were about to announce.


We were so intentional and we wanted to honor that everything that BIO was going through with acquisition of Bank of the West that uh you know it was a very small group of us that were keeping this secret as we called it Project Avocado uh to to bring it to life and thanks to Peter, I survived our PKs uh to the championship. Thanks for all the pats on the back.


And I would say that, uh, you know, it was for us very important that we celebrated our new partnership with all the different elements of LAC and BMO community.


I remember that you know as soon as we knew that the announcement date was locked in we were ready to go. First thing we did was host the town hall for LAC and BEA employees, uh, virtual town hall we jumped on and we made sure that they heard the news first, uh, about this ground groundbreaking partnership, um, and then we were sprinting to, uh, kick off, uh, you know, the home opener and making sure the signage was in place and.


Everything went up on time, quite, quite record time there and uh you know we hosted a long day of events at Bmo Stadium to really celebrate that with our community. We started with the press events where our ownership team, including Magic Johnson and everybody were there to welcome, uh, everybody to Bmo Stadium. We hosted 50 students from LAUSD for the honorary first kick on the pitch of BMO Stadium.


Um, and then we had a luncheon for Bank of the West employees to make sure that they as well had a special moment, and last but not least, we hosted town hall with our supporters, the 3252, for them to really meet and get to know BO as our new biggest partner and uh we surprised them with a really fun drone show that they loved. Uh, it was beautiful, you know, lit up the sky of Los Angeles and she really like kicked off and celebrated our partnership. It was, it was a great day.

I think you can see there is truly a philosophical alignment amongst our two brands, and I think at at our core our commonalities are, you know, for us, our customers and your fans are at the forefront of every single thing that you do we are both very, very committed to the community and we're very, very intentional about building out our distinctive brands and so for.


BO what that has looked like from a marketing perspective is over the years the creation of a brand construct that is unmistakably Bmo it's our colors, it's our tone and voice, the way that we are very human in conversation.


Um, we have a reoccurring character in all of our marketing. It is, uh, we call him the Bemo guy. He's played by actor Lamour Morris and he personifies the experience of banking with Bemo and he takes a subject that can be, you know.


Kind of serious and makes it really approachable for consumers and does it in a way that has this really sophisticated wit and humor and so that is the foundation of what our brand stands for and then when we're partnering with a brand like LAFC.


Um, we had a really unique opportunity with our front of Jersey launch, front of kit launch. Um, LAFC approached us and said we'd love to offer up one of our, um, owners to do the launch.


Will Ferrell. And so, you know, for another bank that might be a little bit of a stretch to work with Will. Nobody says no to Will, but um, but for us it was a really nice extension of our brand tone because we had that foundation of humor already.


Um, and it's a, it's a really good example and representation of when two brands can come together, kind of bring the best of both and really win the moment. I mean it was like more than a moment it was a full media cycle and, and a really good, um, example of what that partnership looks like when it comes to life and I think we can show you what it looks like if we can just queue up the, the tech.

I mean, that really is incredible. A seven year old sort of franchise and then I will ask you how long exactly did it take to convert all the branding across because you keep alluding to how quickly it was. I mean, how quickly are we talking? We


kicked off January 22nd, 2023 when we were ready for home opener.


March 3rd.


I'm so happy I was not in this job at that time.


It was quick, we had fun.

Well, that's that's phenomenal. Well, well, congratulations to everybody and I think this is a good segue into um into sort of asking you at Bemo and I'll probably start with with you Peter here actually, um.


In Canada you're kind of now known as the Bank of soccer, um, and obviously emerging into a market like LA coming from, you know, the East Coast to the West Coast is a very different thing altogether. Um, why is this long term investment so important to you, to the, to the bank um and um and, and how are you looking at soccer specifically uh as as as the footprint for you guys now?


Yeah, thank you for that.


I think to understand Bemo and Bank of Soccer, you kind of have to understand where we come from, right? And Shelly mentioned, we're a Canadian bank. Uh, so you kind of have to understand the Canadian sponsorship industry.


There's a lot of similarities um with the Canadian sponsorship industry to the, to the US market here where we are today. There's a lot of differences too. One of the differences is that there just aren't as many tier one sports properties or assets in the Canadian marketplace as there is down here. And so what that leads to in our category, financial services and retail banking.


Um, is a lot of long-term incumbent deals with those marquee professional sports properties.


Um, and you pair that to with, I think this traces back to around 2010 when the Vancouver Olympics were happening, where the industry got really focused not just on defending product categories through exclusivity, but also on recognizing the power of storytelling and themes and wanting to build.


Protection around stories as well in 2010 that was actually the launch of uh PNG's Thank you mom campaign which has been sort of the spine of their Olympic program for a very long time and so all of that combined means that us and our competitors have used sport and sponsorship.


To create contrast and distinction and carve out an ownable space and for us it's been soccer it's been soccer for about 20 years coming up on 20 years now so long before um any of us have, have uh been involved uh on the BMO sponsorship team. Um, so over those, you know, decades of experience, we've developed the playbook, um, we, you know, have 3 MLS clubs.


Um, in Canada, um, we're the number one associated brand with MLS in Canada. That's ahead of Adidas. We've reached almost like endemic status. Um, it's what we're doing in the professional game, but also what we do at the grassroots community level.


Um, so that's, that's Bank of soccer, and a couple of years ago, you know, we, we've been bank of soccer so long we've questioned ourselves, how much longer do we want to be the bank of soccer? Should we still be doing this? Is this how much soccer's enough soccer? What's too much? We, we ask those questions around summer of 21 because the soccer market was changing.


The World Cup was coming, um, the, the market ecosys we could watch it change. It was a comfortable space that we've been in for a long time, um, and we started to see more deal activity, we started to see more interest from competitors, we started, you know, to, um, realize like most people that Canada was gonna qualify for Qatar 2022, a full cycle ahead of anybody having them qualify.


Um, so at that time, we kind of redoubled our efforts and said this moment's coming.


We have the best asset mix, we have the equity. This can be a bit of a superpower right now for us. Now is not the time to retreat. Now is the time to get our elbows up a bit, make sure that we have the assets that we think we need to have to make the most out of the opportunity that's coming, and we've been just trying to ride the wave ever since. But I just, I wanna add one more thing and I'll ask Shelly to weigh in on this. There's a bit of a misconception out there that's a challenge for us, like,


Soccer's core to our identity. It's not the only thing we do, and it's not who we are and we as a brand have been, you know, very active and aligned with um.


Some of the best uh sports sponsorship assets across North America.


Yeah, absolutely I think soccer is an incredible platform for us and the fact that we were able to take that platform to California has been has just paid off in dividends but if you look at the rest of our portfolio, we do have nice diversity across sport so um for us especially in the US we look at our brand regionally.


And within the markets that we um that we show up we want to align with the best and the brightest across that footprint and so we have you know in Chicago and Milwaukee really long term deals with the NBA and the NHL um so we are very proud of our diverse portfolio as well as the really strong platform that we built in soccer specifically in Canada and now with you guys.


That's great. And, and so I'm gonna to Natalia and Ryan now, um.


Obviously from the club's perspective from the franchise perspective, how do you see um the role of the clu

Absolutely. I would say that um what's been wonderful about Bemo is they're, they show up very intentionally within the fan base and really prioritize fan engagement.


Um, you may have heard of 3252, our supporter union. Uh, they've transformed our match day experience is a big part of the fabric of our club, and as, as I alluded to at the beginning, like BA understood the, the not just the opportunity but the importance of showing up.


Up and sitting down and building that relationship with our supporters and that included uh not just that initial town hall and meeting that we have it's our continuing investment to have that relationship and listen to them, have them ask questions and provide feedback.


When we unveiled their jersey, we hosted an event for them to see it first as we're preparing to launch our debit card, same, same strategy and approach. I think it's uh important for us to continue that that fan connection and to have those conversations are crucial.

Yeah, and as long as we are staying committed to helping Bemo humanize their brand with our fans and our attendees every single day and staying very true to that consistently throughout the partnership, no matter how the objectives and the goals may change, uh, by different business line or by different community vicle or different events or marquee moments in our history with football growing so quickly.


Then we are maximizing our relationship and also all the assets that uh we created together and invested in together to showcase this amazing story and put this partnership and the pinnacle of Major League soccer, football, you know, be uh be the pinnacle that people can strive for and other properties can do as well.

And yeah, just to just to build on that and.


Connect to some content we heard this morning, we heard, I heard a really interesting line this morning like.


Football is nothing without fans.


I think in our case, soccer is nothing without supporters. The LAFC supporters, like they are the heartbeat, right, of the stadium. And for me, when we first started talking, we first visited the stadium like I got really nervous about how blue was gonna meet black um and Shelly and I have talked about this stadium as.


A billboard and as marketers it's a billboard as a supporter, as a fan, it's a cathedral, right? They, that's, that's their language, not mine. And so we.


With a lot of trust, worked really carefully together on trying to figure out, OK, what does our brand stand for, what is your stand for? Where do we sort of come together and how do we make that work? And I think we did it in a really special way where you can see the building does carry our blue and our red, but the kit honors the black and gold and finding those balances and at that event that Natalia was talking about, it really hit home for me when one of the supporters said, hey,


You know, you guys have done more for us, you know, today than um the other naming rights partner has in a number of years.

The board is now up. We've got an 8 minute of your time to go. So, um, I kick off with you, Ryan, actually, um, you know, there's a lot of growth in this country, especially new franchises launching. I know there's a couple in the crowd that are looking at future franchises, not just in the men's game, but in the women's game as well, um, and obviously, um, there's a a USL as well as an MLS and NWSL.


How um how do you, and what advice would you give to those franchises in, in finding this kind of partnership, because it's not an easy business, you know, I spent a long time at IMG and I've got a former colleague in the yeah.


I got a former colleagues it's a, it's a lot of uh it's a lot of work, it's a lot of, a lot of time, so how would you go about advising, um, you know, the future franchise and even existing ones on, on, on finding partnerships? New franchises are popping up all over the country, especially in the women's game. How do you advise existing franchises on finding a partner to help them grow and even expand their business?

Definitely so great thing is that taking the clock back a bit 789 years, consider where MLS was and where it is today in a few different ways and then I'll answer the question about how to go about it most effectively. When you think about it back in 2017, 2018.


A partnership revenue across the entire league was half of what it what it is today, so you can quickly see that growth. And then on top of that, on the broadcast side, we were in a place where every single team had a disparate linear local broadcast deal.


And the national broadcast was also on various different channels at all times, so as a fan, as someone who wants to get into soccer potentially learning about the clubs they can follow and ultimately for our brand partners that are investing and carrying the league truly.


It came a long way when now, you know, many years later we're all in one place and it's truly global and we can actually track to the individual user where the view is coming from, for how long to what level, etc. so versus before it was all disparate and very difficult to track real value so to have that reach and then continued growth, um, also doubles since that time.


It's shows where the league is going, where the sport is going, and how the mutual investment that we're making together with our intellectual capital, our assets, and our brand partners passion and purpose behind growing the game takes to the next level and so now for the properties that are ultimately looking for.


Whatever the situation is, even the sport doesn't matter. The keys to finding the right partner like Bemo, uh, for their individual situations, it's always tied to understanding.


If I'm at the other side of the table, I'm working at the brand that I'm potentially interested in having be my partner, why would I do this deal? Like what are the object like try to be the CMO, try to be the the CEO of that company, what are the objectives that that brand has and how does that connect to what this club or team or sport is doing.


We just heard about why it made perfect sense for Bemo and how that elevated the entire experience for Bmo Stadium and uh for the growth of the game for future for us. The key is finding that same brand and that's not easy because.


They don't grow on trees, but also you have to really think very critically about those objectives and do a lot of research in advance to find the right brand and partner and that means being forensic with objectives doing really understanding the brand voice that you're potentially looking to talk to and understanding where they're trying to expand like what what markets, what products, what services is it something that our fans can actually use? Is it even relevant to them?


Is it gonna resonate with them, all of them.


Positive sentiment that we've garnered from this BMO partnership as Peter just mentioned and highlighted from the supporters, our first launch day that's because there was that intentionality we spoke of earlier but also it provided us the ability to connect in a human way and if you can have that human element when you're researching those brands as a property.


It, it makes it the why be very clear and make it a no-brainer for the brands to potentially say yes to elevate both organizations.


Yeah, I would say partner with partners that have shared values with partners that have collaborative spirit and with partners that are committed to growth and success.


Fantastic. Same question to Bmo, um, but with a slight difference, where, you know, what can you advise other brands and where the pitfalls are and and all those kind of, uh, little, little things it would be great to hear from from your side.


Oh gosh, the pitfalls, um, well, I, I think I, I completely agree with the collaborative and philosophical spirit and finding that alignment. I think the table stakes is looking at your objectives.


With the partnership and ensuring that those are covered so for us it was we have a key market that we need to address we want really highly visible assets and and then a nuance for us too is to be able to create experiences to host our clients that can't otherwise be bought so as a bank that's another really critical piece of us being able to drive business.


Um, but then, you know, at Bemo and I would advise other brands to, uh, to take the same approach our relationships, whether it's with our sponsorship partners or our agencies or vendors are not transactional at all. We are very intentional about managing those relationships. Um, we talked a little bit about having the buying of the leadership team going into this partnership and that's huge because that will get you the enthusiasm to get the check signed.


And then that's actually like the easiest part. Then you have to build the relationship together and I think we've talked ad nauseam today about what that takes and being able to show up together and and have that level of partnership, but it's not all rainbow