Connecting the community to the club – Shawn McIntosh, Las Vegas Lights FC

This transcript has been transcribed by Riverside.fm, no edits (please excuse any errors)

Sean Callanan (00:01.474)
Very happy to welcome Sean McIntosh. He's the CEO at the Las Vegas Lights FC. Sean, welcome to the podcast.

Shawn McIntosh (00:08.684)
Thanks for having me, Sean.

Sean Callanan (00:11.286)
Not a problem at all. I always start the podcast trying to figure out people's sports business origin story. How did you get your start in the world of sports?

Shawn McIntosh (00:21.622)
Man, I got my start working in this great industry. Like many people, it started off with an internship. I got my undergrad degree in criminal justice. My first job out of school was working at a juvenile detention center. Wasn't something I was super passionate about. So like many people took a step back.

and try to think of where I wanted to take my life and what I was passionate about. And sports was something I played and cared deeply about, but knew I wasn't of any level to go on a professional journey. I had been connected with some folks that had recommended sports business. So got my master's degree in that field. And at that time, got my degree, moved back home to where my family was.

in Virginia Beach and literally walked into the two local teams, both minor league, both the Norfolk Admirals and Norfolk Tides. The Norfolk Admirals, a triple-A hockey team, so they were in the American Hockey League at the time, had a position open for an internship and took that leap and never really looked back.

Sean Callanan (01:41.516)
And so, yeah, so that's, mean, it's a, it is a similar tale of one, unfortunately, lack of ability. So we can't be on the ice or the field or the court. And, and we start putting our passion for sport into, into working behind the scenes. So at the admirals, you've got a good grounding of the, the, the things that move a sports business, which is cheeks on the seats, making those sales. And we're in a bunch of those roles that at the, at the admirals.

Shawn McIntosh (02:09.354)
Yeah. And look, my experience there is one I always recommend to new folks that are trying to break into the industry. And I'll get the question all the time from kids right out of school that are looking to get their break. And I always go back to my time with the Norfolk Admirals. And the reason being is that typically minor league teams are low resource. They don't have huge staffs. They rely heavily on

their interns. And so whether it's in an intern role or a entry level position, your opportunity to grow and learn is tremendous. And so for me personally, I got to step in and be involved in every single department from stadium and arena operations to promotions to marketing to to the team side to of course, putting as you said,

cheeks in seats and having my piece on the group sales and revenue and selling sponsorships. for me, it gave me the incredible opportunity to learn what I liked and what I didn't like and find areas of a business that I didn't think I was good at when I started to all of a sudden finding myself landing some deals on the revenue side that opened up a whole new pathway to me. I highly encourage anybody that is seeking

their first opportunities in sports to consider minor league opportunities because they do give you a chance to learn so much.

Sean Callanan (03:43.236)
And I think one of the things that's definitely a common thread in your career is sales. If you can sell, whether that's tickets, group sales, sponsorship, you can bring everyone in the door, you will find a home in the world of sports. And so you went from the admirals to the Houston Dynamos in a similar role in that sales space and kept refining your ability to sell, get the cheeks in the seats.

Shawn McIntosh (04:09.12)
Yeah, absolutely. So I spent four years with the Norfolk admirals left there as their director of game operations, essentially match day presentation and group sales manager wearing two hats to taking that next step in major professional. So I went from Norfolk to the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury, where I was then really keyed in and focused on just the revenue side more specifically.

the ticket sales side of things and primarily in group sales where, again, I was no longer wearing multiple hats and had a big opportunity to sell at the highest level in the NBA with big goals on our heads and a chance to learn from some of the best in the industry and really, really focus on one piece of the business. I take a lot of my time in Phoenix and really see that as

launching point for me and just honing in on my craft and the skill set when it came to driving revenue.

Sean Callanan (05:18.124)
terrific. And so again, you sort of in that and apologies, I skipped the, I skipped a step with the sons and say, you know, a vital one, but again, you sort of kept tracking those, sales roles and sort of refining them. And was there, mean, people outside of sports, don't realize that some of the nuances of going from different sport to different sport, where there's some changes going from, you know, ice hockey to basketball to soccer to football.

I mean in the end fans are fans but are there some variances?

Shawn McIntosh (05:49.922)
yes and no. I think for me going from selling hockey to selling basketball, honestly, not a ton of differences. I think that where there's probably the biggest difference is going to be in football and soccer. I think just because you've got such a different culture when it comes to the game and this sport and the relationship between supporters and a club.

I think it's entirely different from your average fan or consumer. They are a lot more participatory. They're a lot more, not that other fans are engaged, but there's just a different dynamic when it comes to supporter culture and that of a club in soccer versus anything else. So I think the biggest difference comes in the sport of soccer, but at the end of the day, it's all about providing value.

for your fans and finding out what's important to them and delivering and always finding ways to exceed expectations. And that's always the same. It's such a relationship business and that relationship with the fans, whether it's in football, soccer, hockey, basketball, it's kind of all the same in a lot of ways.

Sean Callanan (07:06.606)
So you've had a few roles. You're at the ACES in a similar sort of role in that ticketing space. And then one of your last roles before getting here was, I want to sort of look at, was as Chief Fan Officer at Charlotte FC. I mean, that's not a normal C-level role. There's CMOs. what was that role and why was it Chief Fan Officer? What did that entail?

Shawn McIntosh (07:35.276)
Yeah. So, you know, most of my roles had been primarily on the revenue generation side. And then I kind of full circle moments went from the Aces where I was a part of their inaugural season here in Las Vegas and building that up to then going back where I started my career with the Norfolk Admirals where I was their chief revenue officer overseeing the entire business side.

of that club. And that was my first opportunity to one lead a club and then oversee every piece of the business where you spent so much of your time in, whether it's ticket sales or sponsorship, working with everybody. And so much of sports is that. But my time back with Norfolk was a chance to directly oversee it all. And so really learning a little bit more of each piece of the business and then

I took that step to Charlotte in a groundbreaking role as their chief fan officer, as part of their expansion into major league soccer and launching a club. And that was another really great opportunity for me to continue to learn how every piece of a business on the sports side works. So my responsibility there was to oversee the fan experience across all areas of the club. So.

The fan experience is so much more than just the ticket sales experience, right? It's about the fan journey from the moment they step into a stadium, maybe as a single-game buyer, to obviously building them into lifelong fans, working really closely with our supporters. But again, in soccer, that relationship with a supporter is a lot more than just a consumer relationship. It was really important to myself and the club in Charlotte that they felt every bit.

Sean Callanan (09:02.948)
Mm-hmm.

Shawn McIntosh (09:27.714)
an extension of the club. And so working really closely with them to make sure that they were a fabric of the club. And then of course, you've got all of the community initiatives and making sure that we were a part of the fabric of not just Charlotte, but the Carolinas. And it was a really unique role that came at an important time for the club. It was a role that was really a brainchild of our president at the time, Nick Kelly, who

saw the club coming off of COVID, a team that was supposed to have been launched in 2021, having been delayed to 2022. A lot of people see that as maybe a benefit, thinking that there's an extra year to launch a club, when in fact it made things a whole heck of a lot more difficult because we didn't get a head start. COVID didn't afford us an opportunity for extra time. It just made everything a lot more difficult and delayed.

really getting started. So you had all this buzz and excitement for the launch of a new club, only to be cut short with all of that excitement with COVID. And so my role was to go in there, re-engage, re-energize the fan base community partners to come in and help it work to build what our ethos was. And so what that fan experience on a match day looked like.

working really closely with our head of match day entertainment, on building out everything you saw, heard, felt, and then making sure our fans were every part of that discussion. a lot of hours being spent with our business intelligence teams on taking feedback, analyzing that, and then making sure it's executed. I like to say that every team knows that fan feedback is important.

Sean Callanan (11:10.212)
you

Shawn McIntosh (11:23.124)
Every club across every sport knows that fans are important. But a lot of times that gets lost because it's not your primary focus. So if you're in the revenue side of things, you're focused on that bottom line. If you're in ticket sales, you're thinking, how do I get another button a seat? If you're in marketing, you're looking at your return on ad spends, right? I was that person in the room that was thinking about fan sentiment at all times. And so

I was in every meeting making sure that I was the one pushing back on any decisions that we were making in the benefit of our fans. And so it was a lot of reading things online, which isn't always positive and kind of sifting through a lot of that to manage what was fair and what was valuable and important feedback and making sure that our executive team was always aware.

Sean Callanan (12:03.524)
Yeah.

Sean Callanan (12:21.036)
And was part of that, I mean, part of it is also that you even talk about the vocabulary of football, the fact that you talk about clubs and not franchises and, the, you know, the experience is really a motive and not so much transactional and entertainment, you know, in a broad, in a broad sense. do you think you had that 10 years of being at the frontline of ticketing, being at the frontline of getting that feedback, you know, and also having an opportunity to, you know, game presentation at the admirals. And it was that sort of a nice

Coming back to be able to take that experience over those 10 years, knowing what fans say, knowing what those little pain points when they don't feel heard. like you said before, the silos that sometimes happen because you've been out there being a few different spots. Do you think that, was that something you always find yourself, you check yourself to remember what it was like when you were taking those calls, when you were getting the rejection on a call to renew a season ticket and those kinds of things?

Shawn McIntosh (13:16.95)
Yeah, Sean, I think that's a really good point. think for me, look, I was uniquely positioned for this role and in a lot of those ways. For me, I always hearken back and this isn't just limited to my time in Charlotte, but just in everything I do, I always hearken back to some of my own frustrations or personal experiences, my time having conversations with fans, with season ticket members, with potential corporate partners.

I always go back to that and I think that helped me in this role because I was accustomed to listening to fans. mean, that was my job in providing solutions and ticketing platforms that made sense for them. So much of my prior roles were about having those conversations with fans. I think for me and why I was uniquely positioned for the role of Chief Fan Officer was not only my professional experience, but my personal experience.

I grew up in Italy. Playing the sport of soccer was something for me that I grew up doing. And it was a big part of my family's culture. I understood the culture. It's something that's very personal to me. And so I don't think there are a lot of people in the industry, particularly on the soccer side, that know the sport and understand it. And so I wanted to find myself in an executive role where

I was pushing the culture and the sport forward while still balancing and understanding how the business side works. And so a lot of the times that gets forgotten. And so, you know, I wanted to make sure we were obviously hitting goals as a club and there are important metrics to hit, but not at the expense of the soul of a football club and the relationship it has with its fans.

Sean Callanan (15:09.22)
Absolutely. So that takes you to your current role. You've of had those jumps to C levels, Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Fan Officer, now you're CEO of the Los Feos Lights. You've been in role for a few months now. What was your, I guess, first impressions coming into the club and as you sort of got yourself settled into the role?

Shawn McIntosh (15:30.262)
Yeah, it's been an awesome experience. think for me taking a step back, a big reason why I came out here was because of the opportunity. So the Las Vegas Lights in January of 2024 underwent new ownership. So Jose Bautista, former major league baseball player, big time star with the Toronto Blue Jays purchased the club and getting to connect with him and understand what his vision was.

Aligning with that vision as somebody who is ambitious, wants to do things the right way and at a high level in a market like Las Vegas, where I had been previously. It's a market that I love, like to think I understand a little bit. And in a sport that's obviously way past growing, it's, you everybody likes to say, it's growing in this country. Like we're way past that conversation, but

With the World Cup ahead of us in a market like Las Vegas with an owner who is as ambitious as Jose, everything really aligned for me and getting to now take that next step for me. I was in a role where it was oftentimes felt like I was a consultant, but I didn't have that final say across all of the departments. And now I'm in a position where I get to lead a club. It was really, really enticing to me. And as much as I love my time.

Charlotte this afforded me a new opportunity, a new project with an owner like Jose. It was a no-brainer and for me, I kind of knew what I was getting into having been in the minor league space. Again, we don't have the resources of Charlotte FC and Major League Soccer or an NBA side, but I always love that challenge and that's where you get better.

No knock to anybody else, but I know there's a lot of folks out here who continue to elevate themselves and their careers having worked for big brand after big brand after big brand. But you ask those guys to come in to go work for a minor league soccer team in the second division and I don't know that they know what they would do. So for me, I always want to challenge myself. I believe in this project. This sport is really special to me. And so it's been a lot of fun getting to build a club.

Shawn McIntosh (17:51.764)
so coming in from the start of Jose purchasing the team, he had a couple of agencies running everything from afar. And so I came in with my priorities being to build a staff in a club here that was local to Las Vegas, that was talented, that had the same passion and vision that aligned with Jose and myself, and then making sure that they have the resources to be successful. So.

really excited about the people that we've been able to bring in that have been successful across the industry, couple of which have been on your podcast as well. And so, that to me has been the most important piece because it's all about people. And so I wanna surround myself with people that are great humans, that push me to be better, that I can empower to go out there and get the job done and build a club that we can be really proud of.

Sean Callanan (18:28.74)
Thanks for watching.

Sean Callanan (18:46.722)
I mean, you're already taking the box. I was going to ask about leadership style. You're already sort of talking about it. But is it again sort of back to that fan piece, the fact that you'd been in sales roles and, you know, fan facing roles and now you're, you know, you're stepping back. trying to get that 30,000 foot view and remember the, you know, the frustrations or the blockers that you had as a staff member when you were trying to get a ticket initiative through or, or try to, you know, push it innovative sponsorship through. How are you going, you know, to, to enable and I guess,

enable your staff to show that hustle that you need to do in a minor league situation.

Shawn McIntosh (19:20.972)
Yeah, look, my coaching style, my management style hasn't really changed from the moment I was an inside sales manager at Major League Soccer to being at a second division soccer club. For me, it's all about people. think always reminding myself of the human element. As much as I am passionate and love my job, it's not the most important thing in the world. But I do…

I do have high standards and I wanna empower my staff to do their jobs. For me, like my philosophy, my culture starter is get the job done and do it well, first and foremost. I don't care, know, harkening back to things that maybe I was frustrated with earlier in my career is so much of the focus oftentimes is on the things that don't matter. I don't care about metrics for metrics sake.

I don't care about doing things for show and I make sure my staff knows that. Like, right, if you're here at six in the morning, seven in the morning, good on you. I'm not gonna see you because I've got two toddlers at home who I'm having breakfast with. I care about results. I care about doing things the right way. You're only gonna get a pat on the back from me for like hustle.

so many times before I start asking about results and quality of work. But I want people to be able to do their job. And so for me, it's about hiring really good people. I would rather have five people on my staff than 40 people on staff that are just really good humans, great at what they do. And I like to be involved because I love this stuff. but.

you know, I'm always really cognizant about making sure I don't always overstep and I allow people to share their opinions, to drive the bus and you know, I'm there to help and offer up suggestions, but I'm really big on collaboration. above all else, like just get the job done. If that means you are an absolute rock star and you can come in here and you crush your numbers or…

Shawn McIntosh (21:36.064)
you hit and finalize your projects and you can get out of here at three o'clock and go home to your family, more power to you. Why would I punish you? If it requires you to be at the job till 9 p.m., you gotta be at the job till 9 p.m. But let's make sure we're working. There's plenty of hours in the day, I think, to have enough home life balance. sometimes there's some things we can't get around.

Sean Callanan (22:02.116)
Absolutely. You mentioned, obviously, you've been at Vegas before a couple of years ago and you've come back and it's a constantly evolving and growing city and sports city. What's your take coming back to Vegas and I guess some of the opportunities to engage the Vegas markets with the lights?

Shawn McIntosh (22:22.188)
Yeah, it's look, they continue to add more and more entertainment for the entertainment capital of the world. Like they never stop growing. And so when I was here the first time it was the Vegas Golden Knights and the Las Vegas Aces. And of course you had the aviators, but they hadn't yet moved into their brand new ballpark. And now you've got the Raiders, you've got the Henderson Silver Knights, you've got LaCrosse, you've got more and more and more, right? So I think

That's always going to be a challenge, but I'm a big believer that there's enough room for everybody. And if we just got to focus on ourselves. So for me, this market is so interesting. A lot of what folks will be seeing from us coming out this season and like the marketing space. And it's really about like the duality and the dichotomy of the city really leading into areas. You've got the locals and the tourists and,

both are critically important. We probably lean in a little bit more local, given our location, given our status, but I think there's a massive opportunity for us to cater to two sides of that coin. And so it's such a fun city. It's one of the biggest things that I continue to be impressed by when it comes to Las Vegas is

especially in comparison to anywhere else I've been. I can't say that every team that I've worked for had the strongest relationships with the other teams in the cities. It always seemed like maybe there was a little bit of competition. frenemies, absolutely. I think what's really cool about Las Vegas is myself and my head of comms, who also came with me here from Charlotte, we probably expected

Sean Callanan (24:02.872)
Yeah, frenemies.

Shawn McIntosh (24:18.05)
a little bit for us to be a little bit harder to maybe get some media attention and to have to fight through some of the other teams to get our piece of the market. And Las Vegas has shown us to be a very pro Las Vegas town. So they want to take care of their own. They want to support their own. It is a Vegas versus everybody because the rest of the world looks at Vegas in a certain light.

Sean Callanan (24:42.169)
Yeah.

Shawn McIntosh (24:45.908)
And so it's been really cool because the other teams have been so willing to share resources, help, reach out, prop us up, as well as the media here who has been like coming to us with the desire to cover us and give us some airtime. it's been really cool to see in a city like this how much they care about taking care of their

Sean Callanan (25:11.744)
It is very much an outside of perspective and everyone who comes to Vegas, they come as a tourist, they see the strip, they see all the lights and they just like, they don't even realize it's a whole local community. There's people that live in Las Vegas that love the area, that count themselves as locals. And yeah, every time I talk to people in the sports side of, aside from the Grand Prix dropping in and the NBA Cup dropping in, but when you've got…

Shawn McIntosh (25:23.871)
Yeah.

Sean Callanan (25:37.54)
a local presence, you do get that local support. And it is that balance of, know, we need the locals behind us because it gets back to that sense of club and identity and, and all the key bits that you sort of see is vital to a fan.

Shawn McIntosh (25:50.678)
Yeah, absolutely.

Sean Callanan (25:53.068)
And then I think the other part of it is, I guess the part that is a way to really connect with the community is doing that stuff in the community. Is that big part of what you do at Lights FC to one, get into the community, but also make, do it as a fan outreach exercise.

Shawn McIntosh (26:10.358)
Yeah. So for us, we sat down as a leadership team and we take this as a blank slate. are, yes, we were a club with a little bit of history since 2018. But we look at this as a complete rebuild. And so one of the things we did is we sat down and said, what were our pillars? What are the things that we want to value above all else? And how are we going to build this club? And the first thing was Vegas first.

everything that we do centered around the notion that we want to prioritize Las Vegas. We want to prioritize the community. That doesn't mean we're not going to do some things on an international or global stage because of how global this sport is, but we always want to be thinking Las Vegas first. And so, you know, this club had some challenges prior to Jose. I think back a couple of years ago, there was an affiliation with LAFC that

be honest, Sean, it wasn't great. You had players coming in from out of market on match days. There wasn't a staff here. Really hard to build a sense of community when you don't have people in the market. And so for us, it was about building relationships, making sure our club was here, making sure our players are part of community initiatives and all of the outreach and conversations that we've had with our corporate partners has been first and foremost.

How do we build the community? Like what are some of the efforts that are important to you and how can we help support it? So that community outreach for us is a really important piece as we continue to build this club.

Sean Callanan (27:50.372)
And then long-term, mean, you're only a few months into the role, but long-term, what does your long-term vision for the lights look like?

Shawn McIntosh (27:59.862)
Yeah, mean, look, again, this this sports around the next couple of years, it's going to be interesting for all clubs because you've got the World Cup coming. We are in the entertainment capital of the world with an owner who's very ambitious. Like for us, I mean, we want to be the best club. We want to raise the bar and set a new standard in USL. We'd love to have our own home.

and in a beautiful soccer specific venue. Those are all things that we look forward to. And then just controlling what we can control in our hands right now, it's step by step, but I think there's a huge opportunity for us to make a big splash.

Sean Callanan (28:44.612)
And then, I mean, you mentioned before that you're not a fan of metrics, which is, know, because sometimes you do get the metrics for metrics sake and people just circling something. So how do you take the temperature and, you know, understand where you're going from a light's perspective?

Shawn McIntosh (29:04.074)
Look, it's not that I'm a fan of metrics. Like for me, it's really important. And we've invested in software and data and all of that. It's about when you start focusing on those pieces versus the end result, right? So like when I was a seller, for example, right, getting hounded about how many calls I made, despite being number one on a revenue board, that doesn't make sense to me. So, but having that data.

Sean Callanan (29:12.376)
Yep. Yep.

Shawn McIntosh (29:32.418)
is really critical for us, because that is how we're going to measure ourselves and how we're going to determine success. So for us, that has been a big piece. It's one of the areas that we've invested in. It's new softwares to measure how we're performing in the local media market, how we measure ourselves across different competitors in the market, and obviously sales. Those revenue numbers are all metrics that you really live and die by.

Sean Callanan (29:49.752)
Thank you.

Sean Callanan (30:02.084)
Absolutely. One of the things, know, speaking to a few CEOs as part of the CEO series is, you you come up through the ranks on the business side, know, sales, revenue, all that kind of stuff. But when you're in CEO role, you're also looking over the high performance coaches, players, rosters. How have you gone in like understanding that side and realizing that everything you're doing on the business side is to help make sure you, you know, the best team you get out in the park and the coaching and.

everything like that. Has that been a bit of a learning curve in understanding that side of the business?

Shawn McIntosh (30:33.922)
Not so much. I think for me it's been awesome. We've got a sporting director here. His name is John Neglia. He came to us from Venezia. So he was a big part of that club being promoted to Serie A. I think John's got a really great grasp on the sporting piece. For me, it's been great to come in and quickly build a relationship with somebody who just understands it, who also understands the business side and how critical it is.

for us to be able to lean on them and vice versa, right? If we're not putting butts in seats, it's really hard to go out and spend the money that they want to spend on a transfer fee. And we want to be a support for us. We want to be a place that our players see as a destination. So on the business side, we want to find ways to help them do that. So if there are opportunities and corporate partners that can help

boost and build the fan experience or the player experience, that we want to be able to do that. And so really working together on ways that the business side can support the player side and then finding ways to make sure that the players are part of building the community efforts and building those relationships with our corporate partners and finding ways to integrate them with our fans. think the beauty about the culture that we have here is that we're all rowing in the same direction.

versus some places I've been, it's you've got silos built up. And so it's been a breath of fresh air here to have that same buy-in on the sporting side.

Sean Callanan (32:06.51)
Yeah.

Sean Callanan (32:13.804)
Absolutely, I mean, yeah, it is a common one where there is a bit of separation if you can. If you can get the playing group and the coaching group, you know, like you said, rowing in the same direction. It's really important. Sean, I really do appreciate you taking the time. I want to get to the Sportsgeek Closing Five. Do you remember the first sports event you ever attended?

Shawn McIntosh (32:33.89)
I I do. was a Dallas Stars versus Detroit Red Wings game in 1999. First major professional match I went to inside a stadium. If we're saying inside the venue, that would have been my first one that I went to with my dad on Easter day. If we're not counting being inside of the venue, then my parents tell me that.

At the age of like four, I was at Italy versus Argentina in Napoli outside this stadium when Italy was playing Argentina in the 1990 World Cup. But we were not in venue for that.

Sean Callanan (33:10.788)
Well, I'll accept both entries. They can't be Googled or fact checked. So that's completely fine. You would have been a lot of different sports events in your time. Do you have a favorite food memory or a go-to food at a sports event?

Shawn McIntosh (33:14.55)
Ha

Shawn McIntosh (33:24.554)
Go to food. So I love a good hot dog. So I love trying out, particularly if there's like a local flair on a hot dog. I got a chance to go to Monterey to see Rayados in Mexico a couple of years ago. And I was out there with a couple of staff members and it was like our hunt to find like what's the best hot dog that they've got. So always, always love to go on a good hot dog hunt.

Sean Callanan (33:55.269)
yeah, always, normally you can't go wrong, normally, normally. What's the first app you open in the morning?

Shawn McIntosh (34:04.438)
Man, that's a good question. And I don't know that it's the same app every single morning. I would say it's either a combination of my calendar or Twitter.

Sean Callanan (34:19.852)
Okay. Yep. No, that's fine. And it does. You don't have to have some people have a set routine and, others. And it is a bit of a change. is there someone that you follow? might be an author or it be someone on Twitter that the podcast list you should give a follow to and why.

Shawn McIntosh (34:24.928)
Yeah, it's probably.

Shawn McIntosh (34:37.986)
So I'm a big fan of, and I primarily will look at his stuff on TikTok, but I know he's on Instagram, Eugene Healy. So he does like culture analysis and marketing trends, does really good, know, minute long TikTok videos, highlighting a lot of what's happening across different brands in the marketing space. I find him…

Sean Callanan (34:47.406)
Okay.

Shawn McIntosh (35:06.284)
Find his videos like really easy to consume as most are on TikTok and really interesting. I think a lot of times folks can kind of limit themselves to like consuming just like sports business. And so he's somebody that I find really interesting and his insights just across different marketing brands are things that I can generally like pull from and find is really valuable.

Sean Callanan (35:29.476)
Absolutely. I'm a big fan of steel with pride and yeah, looking at other areas and other verticals or other industries is a great for sports. I mean, we can always be stealing from other markets and other sports, but like looking at what music's doing or what the streamers are doing to promote all the different things is always one that's worthwhile. And then lastly, I always ask people, social media platform is their MVP? And I'll give you two options. You can have your personal one and then from the lights point of view.

Shawn McIntosh (36:00.588)
So I'll start with the lights point of view. We just launched all of our business plans, our department business plans this past week and spent a ton of time on social media and talking about that. And I'd say from the lights point of view would be Instagram. We just see that as like the most clear insight or look into like the holistic club brand.

But personally, if you would have asked me this like two years ago, maybe three years ago, Twitter is definitely a, look, first and foremost, Sean, I probably spend way too much time on social media, like across all of the platforms. I love them all. They all have their space. I think that Twitter is a great place to build a community, interact with people. I'm a big city, yeah.

Sean Callanan (36:46.915)
Aye, guilty.

Shawn McIntosh (37:00.642)
Calcio fan, so it's been a place where I've been able to build relationships with fans of the sport in Italian football. But I really enjoy TikTok, love it. I think for me, it's a lot more fun. And I think their algorithm is incredible. I love that it is a space where if you are really good and talented and you're creative,

Sean Callanan (37:16.75)
Yep.

Shawn McIntosh (37:30.146)
no matter what it is, whatever vertical, if you're a comedian, if you just, if you have a cool story to tell for me, I love this idea. It's truly the American dream that you now have a place that you could go to create content. And if it's good enough, somebody will find it and, you can make a name for yourself. So really big fan of TikTok as a platform and there's no rules.

Sean Callanan (37:54.916)
Absolutely. There's no rules. There's no rules. I follow up to that one because it is potentially in the cards. What happens if the plug gets pulled on TikTok in the US?

Shawn McIntosh (38:06.626)
It's a great question. I don't know the answer to that. I would make the assumption that like anything, particularly in the US, like if the door closes, another door is gonna open, somebody else is gonna create something. You you've seen Instagram make their attempts to adopting a lot of what TikTok was. I'd always love it. So I think there'll be something that happens to fill that void, but…

But yeah, think TikTok has figured it's something out that the others hadn't and it's just, it's just was a different space. And again, I just, I love the fact that there's not really a rule book for TikTok that you can develop your own personality and go nuts with it. And from a brand standpoint, as a club, it allows you to test different things, allows you to pull in a completely different audience without hurting your own brand. So.

Sean Callanan (38:49.006)
Yeah.

Shawn McIntosh (39:02.466)
We'll see what happens. Really interested. It's something we're obviously keeping an eye out here in Las Vegas.

Sean Callanan (39:08.152)
Yeah, I mean, it is gonna be an interesting, I guess from a sports marketer's point of view to see how it all shakes out. know, if it a click of a fingers from government and all the TikTok accounts are gone and it has been an avenue to talk to that younger fan. But like you just said, TikTok is for everyone and it's growing for all demographics and it's got content for everybody. So it's gonna be really interesting to see.

in 2025 where it all lands. Thank you very much for coming onto the podcast. I'm glad we were able to reconnect after a bit of a technical glitch a couple of weeks ago. I always ask listeners to reach out to guests and say thank you. What is the best platform for them to reach out to you, Sean?

Shawn McIntosh (39:53.634)
I am so part of my role at Charlotte FC was just to be the most connected executive in all of sports. So I continue to make sure that that is the case here in Las Vegas. So honestly, you can reach me across Twitter at Sean underscore Macintosh on Instagram at Sean Macintosh on TikTok on LinkedIn via email. So whatever is easiest, I'm available. Happy to always have conversations with people.

Sean Callanan (40:23.812)
We might spell Sean differently, but we're definitely kindred spirits because we have both over connectors in that same way, having our own handles on all the platforms and happy to be connecting. So thank you very much for connecting on the podcast. Really do appreciate it.

Shawn McIntosh (40:37.836)
Yeah, thanks for having me, Sean.