00:00Italian soccer club Como 1907 is looking to develop businesses that extend beyond the field, making a fresh push into
00:07retail with the global launch of Route 4 fans.
00:10The new collaboration model aims to create a scalable luxury fanware platform for global sports clubs and properties.
00:18Joining us now is Como 1907 President Mirwan Soarso.
00:22Mirwan, thank you so much for joining us.
00:23And look, I think a lot of people, especially American viewers, are not really going to be familiar with exactly
00:28the model you're building with the Como platform.
00:31Can you just kind of explain some of the work you're doing at the club?
00:35Good morning. Thank you so much for having me.
00:38But basically, Como is a very small town in Lake Como, near Lake Como.
00:44Probably the lake is more famous than our soccer team.
00:47So we bought the club 2019 in the fourth division.
00:51And today we are now in the highest level of Serie A and we're competing for a spot in the
00:56European competition.
00:58And yet, at the same time, our club is so small compared to our closest rival, which is AC Milan
01:04and Inter Milan.
01:05And we have to be very, very creative to come up with revenues to then be able to compete with
01:12the top clubs in Europe by creating our own retail initiatives, sports tourism, travel and soccer camps and digital offerings.
01:24So we decided that we want to become the premium sports tourism destination in the world.
01:30I mean, it makes sense.
01:32I've been lucky enough to spend some time in Como.
01:36Have you been there?
01:37It's a wonderful place.
01:38The boats are gorgeous.
01:40The cars are amazing.
01:42George Clooney lives there.
01:44James Bond always seems to end up there.
01:47But who are you aiming these products at?
01:50And how are you getting that message to them?
01:53Well, funnily enough, is that our audience is mostly about 40% outside of Como itself in the international market.
02:00Obviously, because Lake Como's popularity, we have maybe 50% of the visitors, about 5.8 million tourists a year
02:07are coming from the U.S.
02:09So most of our merchandise is actually going to the U.S.
02:12And partnering with a brand like Root, which is an L.A.-based brand, allows us to accelerate that adoption rate,
02:19so to speak.
02:21One of the things, it's almost like you have a private equity-like model.
02:25Mirwan, for example, you look at BlueCo, the Clear Lake Todd Bowley venture, where they own Chelsea, for example.
02:31They also own real estate.
02:32They own different commercial assets.
02:34But they also own other clubs.
02:37Is that the direction you might go in to do a multi-club ownership-type strategy?
02:43We have enough headaches managing one club, is the way we see it.
02:47So what we thought about is, like, why don't we take all the learnings that we discovered, we learn at
02:52Como, to then create a multi-club servicing model.
02:57So by separating our companies into different entities, like the retail division itself, the retail company, is now servicing today
03:05almost 11 other soccer clubs, in which we create partnership with Root, through the Root for Fans initiatives, creating capsule
03:13collections with clubs in the U.K., in the U.S., in Italy, and even as far as the Saudi
03:20League, and France as well.
03:22So for us, it seems like, with such a little town, it's easier for us to get revenue by working
03:31with other clubs, as we build our own.
03:34Who else can you partner with, Mirwan?
03:37It strikes me that one of my favorite car shows is the Villa d'Este in Chernobyl.
03:45I think it's just two weeks from today.
03:48And it would make sense to see someone getting out of a classic pre-war Bentley wearing, you know, your
03:56clothes.
03:57We do have our Lecomo brand that we actually sell, and it does really, really well.
04:05Unlike other soccer clubs, usually most clubs would have 80% to 90% of their merchandising revenue coming from
04:12their jersey sales.
04:13Ours is only 38%.
04:15Our Lecomo line contributes significantly to that, but now, through Root for Fans, we're hoping to be a lot faster,
04:22especially now that we are targeting clubs with a bigger fan base than us.
04:27So hopefully we can grow.
04:30I mean, from last year to this year, I think the growth was 10x.
04:33So we're really, really hoping that we can grow even faster moving on to the next year.
04:37So are we going to see George Clooney in the stadium wearing a Root zip-up?
04:41Is that what's next on the docket?
04:44That would be very, very nice, but I think, I can't promise that, but I know we'll see the worst
04:49tomorrow.
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