Saginaw Spirit: Hosting the 2024 Memorial Cup

We are, we are on an international stage.

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And this is gonna be an opportunity for

people, in our community to be able to

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shine our region and, uh, let people

that are out from outside our region know

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that Saginaw truly is Saginaw awesome.

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Cliff Duvernois: Hello everyone and

welcome back to Total Michigan where

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we interview ordinary Michiganders

doing some pretty extraordinary things.

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I'm your host Cliff DuVernois I have

said this before and I'm gonna keep

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shouting it until somebody listens.

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But there's some amazing things

that are going on in Saginaw.

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And the more that I learn I just

have to say it's a God thing.

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Things are just happening here

that are just absolutely amazing.

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And one of the big things that's happening

is the Memorial Cup coming to Saginaw.

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This is huge.

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This is absolutely wonderful

for the Great Lakes Bay region.

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And to talk to us about how Saginaw

won the Memorial Cup is Craig

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Goslin, President and Managing

Partner of the Saginaw Spirit.

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Craig, how are you?

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Craig Goslin: Terrific Cliff.

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Thanks for having me here exciting.

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Cliff Duvernois: Yes, it's,

this is going to be great.

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I'm really excited to talk about this.

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So for our audience, people who

may not know, just talk to us.

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What is the Memorial Cup?

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Craig Goslin: The Memorial Cup Cliff.

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It's exciting times.

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It's the this is Canada's

national championship.

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This is like the final four

and in some way basketball.

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The final four incidentally hockey.

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This is the cream of

the crop of the teams.

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There's four teams in the

Canadian hockey or four.

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Sorry, there's three leagues

in the Canadian Hockey League,

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of which four teams will

participate in the Memorial Cup.

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The three league champions

and the host team.

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And we won the right to bid that

we won the bid to host last year.

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So the three league champions will

come into Saginaw competing against

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the saginaw spirit in the Memorial Cup.

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It truly is divine in nature how

this all occurred and we're so

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glad so grateful to our community

for supporting us along the way.

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Cliff Duvernois: So let's go back and take

a unpack a couple of things here, because

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first off, this really is good news

for Saginaw and the surrounding areas.

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I mean, this is absolutely huge.

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So just to take a step back, I

want to unpack some of the big

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things that are around this.

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So first off, since this is, the Canadian

Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League,

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this is just one of a few times that the

Memorial Cup has been outside of Canada.

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Craig Goslin: Yes it is Cliff.

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This is the first time actually it's

ever been hosted from an Ontario Hockey

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League community outside of Canada.

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question, this is divine in nature.

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in the Western league.

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It's been hosted in the U.

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S., but never in an Ontario

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So yeah, this is an incredible

opportunity for our community to

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shine on an international stage.

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It's on International TV.

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And certainly I know our

community is going to do that.

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Cliff Duvernois: This is just incredible.

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And then, so the next thing is, is that,

This is also too it's not, Saginaw put

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in a bid, but there were also other

cities that put in a bid as well.

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Craig Goslin: Yes, three other

iconic hockey communities.

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Kingston, Ontario, which is

a beautiful community on Lake

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Ontario in Kingston, Ontario.

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They have a beautiful arena with a

walking distance from the arena to the

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hotels, to the restaurants, and the shops.

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We knew that was going to be a

tough a tough group to bid against.

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Niagara, same situation.

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Brand new, beautiful building Cliff

with walking distance from all the

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hotels, all the restaurants and shops

are all right there near the arena.

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And of course, Sault Ste.

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Marie, Ontario, who had the best, uh,

Best team next to Saginaw in the bid

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of the four teams that we're bidding.

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That was one of the components of the bid.

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They too have got a beautiful

community right there on the lake.

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All the amenities that the Sioux has.

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So we don't know, we knew we

were in for a tough battle.

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But the four components of the bid which

we really worked hard on in the, now

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the, the league gives you these binders.

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It's a guideline for the bids.

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And ours ended up being four

huge, four inch binders of

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information we had to go through.

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So this was a exhausting process

just to put the bid in and it

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costs well over a hundred thousand

dollars just to do the bid.

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All right.

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And so all the energy that went into that

really started about January the 10th of

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right around the clock, there was not much

downtime there to get this bid in, right.

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And the four components of the

bid where the hockey operations.

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Your hockey operation has to be elite.

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Coming back to the following season.

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Because we're competing

against three league champions.

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So Saginaw, just so your listeners

and viewers understand, we're in

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the Memorial Cup as the host, right?

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And so to be able to host, you've got

to be able to compete against the league

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champions of the other three leagues.

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So the Western League Champion, the Quebec

League Champion and the Ontario League

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Champion, they're all going to be here

competing against each other against

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us in the Memorial Cup and we might be

that Ontario Hockey League champion.

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If we are the team that we play

in the OHL finals we'll become the

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other team, other Memorial Cup.

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So we, so hockey operations, we ace that.

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We have incredible guys team coming back.

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The business operations Cliff.

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We have the best business operations

than the 60 team CHL, right?

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There's 60 teams in the league.

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Our business operations will

outsell the closest competitor and

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sponsorships by over a million dollars.

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That shows you the quality of our

community, shows the quality of

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our people shows you the amount of

of an incredible advertising and

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sponsorship opportunities we have in

our building with all the different

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bells and whistles of the technology.

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And all these things come together

with a TV broadcast, radio broadcast,

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all those things come together into

what our clients feel are a really

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good value for their investment.

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And most of them have been with

us for 15, 20 years, our sponsors.

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So an incredible amount of

of support that we've got.

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And that's what went into the

business operations was number two.

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We aced that third one was the logistics.

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Okay.

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The logistics would, it would then

include things like the fan fest.

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That's going to be at the

Jolt Credit Union Event Park.

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Our fan fest is gonna be

incredible with a country star.

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Walker Hayes doing a concert there.

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Every night.

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There's going to be a, you're going

to be concert, Larry McRae the local

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jazz musician who's spectacular.

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Todd, Michael Hall, a number of

local fantastic, talented musicians.

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The second base symphony

orchestra is going to be involved.

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All these things that we're doing at

the FanFest is going to be incredible.

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Hockey Hall of Fame is there.

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So these are the things

that we put into the bid.

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So we nailed that.

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And then the last part of this whole

thing is going to be, uh, is the

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logistics and the local atmosphere.

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And the local atmosphere,

we really nailed that down.

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And the logistics also includes

your hotels which would, we're

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housing the teams in Frankenmuth.

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At the Bavarian Inn Lodge and

the Zender Splash Village Hotel.

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And also at the Marriott's in Frankenmuth.

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Little Bavaria.

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It's one of the, it's one of the, it's

one of our community's greatest assets.

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And it's one of the greatest

places in the United States to

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take a family and enjoy a time.

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And we're hoping that the Ontario

visitors come in by the tens of

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thousands and enjoy our Great Lakes

Bay region, and a lot of that's

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going to be happening in Frankenmuth.

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Cliff Duvernois: What I would like to

do is I'd like to take a step back to

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day one, when you thought to yourself,

You know, maybe we could win this.

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So talk to us.

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What was that conversation like?

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What was that thought process?

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Craig Goslin: actually, I've been

at 10 of the last 11 Memorial Cups.

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So I'm a good observer.

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I've observed how to do it and

sometimes how not to do it.

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Cliff Duvernois: right.

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Craig Goslin: The majority of the

hosts of the Moral Cups have done

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a phenomenal job in our league.

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They put the communities, put a

tremendous amount of energy into it.

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So I picked out the best of the best

of things that we might want to do

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when the day comes that we have the

ability to host the Memorial Cup.

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But the stars all have to align.

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First off is a measure.

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This was divine in nature.

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There's no question about that.

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God had He had definitely

had a hand in all this.

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Our hockey operations lined up,

our business operations lined up,

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everything lined up for us to bid

on this thing and to win the bid.

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That was number one.

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Number two was Dick Garber.

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Dick Garber.

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When I, uh, I presented this to Dick

we have to guarantee a certain amount

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of dollars back to the owners of the

CHL for hosting the Memorial Cup.

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The property actually

belongs to the league.

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It doesn't belong to Saginaw.

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Alright, so we gotta

guarantee there's so much.

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So I sat down with Dick and explained

to him, If you want to get something

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from Dick, I always learned that when

you take him to the Panda House in

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Saginaw, it's his favorite restaurant.

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And, and so, so I took Dick

to lunch at the Panda House.

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And, he typically knows, uh,

he's such a smart guy too.

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He knows if, if we're gonna the Panda

house that, uh, that I'm gonna be

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asking for something, you And, uh,

so basically said, what do you need?

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And he knew I was interested

in biding on the Memorial Cup.

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think he knew going in I was

gonna have an ask on this.

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I put it together for him and I

asked him, you know, at the end

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of the day, we gotta guarantee

so much money back to the league.

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And he said, what, what's

this gonna cost us?

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And I said potentially up to $750,000.

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And, uh, he said, go ahead and do it.

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Just shows you the

quality of person Dick is.

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How much this community means to Dick.

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And he said can you nibble

down on that a little bit?

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Maybe that down and actually I think we

have nibbled down to where it's gonna be

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close to zero So at the end of the day,

yeah, we won't make anything on this.

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But it's gonna be a great thing for the

community and that's what we're all about.

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It really is it's all about the

community anyways at the end of the day

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Cliff Duvernois: Exactly

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Craig Goslin: nor I or anybody here

involved in our ownership or in this

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for the dollars We're in this we're

in this because we love Saginaw.

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We love this community.

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Cliff Duvernois: Nice.

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And so it's interesting you say the word

community because we're going to, we're

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going to unpack that in a little bit.

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So had you ever done anything like this.

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before at this scale,

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Craig Goslin: No, I never have.

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But like I said, I've

observed how it's been done.

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We hosted the all star game, the first

ever all star game here in the U.

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S.

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too as well.

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Nothing like this.

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That was just one game.

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And we also were the first franchise

in OHL and CHL to host an outdoor game

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which was done at Comerica Park with

my good friends from the, the Detroit

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Red Wings and the Illich family.

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So we were able to get that done.

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So we, we played Windsor.

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It's the largest crowd ever in

the history of the, of the OHL.

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We had 31,000 people at the Saginaw

Windsor game at Comerica park.

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It was cool.

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So yeah, so we've, we've done

some cool things in the past.

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So we had a history of with

the site selection committee

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of doing some good things.

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They trusted us.

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They knew we could do it.

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And uh, so not at this scale though, Cliff

I never had anything in terms of saying,

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okay, we're going to host this thing.

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And this is how we're going to do it.

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Cliff Duvernois: So I

know you're a big team

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Craig Goslin: Yeah.

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Cliff Duvernois: You come back to

your team and you're like, okay, we're

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going to make this happen, right?

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Well, how did your team respond?

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How did that go?

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Craig Goslin: The team has been 100

percent on board from the start.

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This has put a lot of

work on them, by the way.

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And they've, they have been incredible.

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put that talent to I've got great people.

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And if God's blessed me with

anything, He's blessed me with the

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ability to hire really good people.

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I recognize talent.

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And I can recognize how to put

that talent to work into a team.

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So there's sometimes I interview

people and they got great talent and

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they, they're deserving of the job.

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But there's something that

doesn can't quite mix and is

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one of the links in the chain.

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And sometimes it takes me a

long time to hire somebody.

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And that, that frustrates

the staff sometimes.

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'cause the work is on them until

I get somebody in that place.

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But once, once we do, typically we

have a, we have a, an incredible

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staff member and a team member.

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And that's what we got here.

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We have an incredible group of

talented people, high character, that

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work together to get things done.

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I've never seen, actually, I mean, you

can put our business team on any sports

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team in the United States, or Canada.

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And we would improve the results of both

the game day operations, the sponsorships,

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all those things, ticket sales.

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They're incredible.

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we're, We're blessed with great.

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So, so people give Dick and I a

lot of the credit a lot of times.

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And I guess what I deserve credit for

is hiring really, really good people.

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And they, they make me look

a lot better than I am.

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I'm telling you right now.

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And, uh, and certainly that the

faith that we all have, in God's

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divine hand on, on our franchise.

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Uh, It's so called the

Saginaw Spirit for a reason.

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And, we certainly feel that, that his

hand has been all over this franchise.

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And what it's done for this community.

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And also, certainly the Memorial

Cup coming into Saginaw.

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All the glory goes to

him without question.

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Cliff Duvernois: Without question.

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You were talking before about the

four main criteria for the bid

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and I could see a lot of people

saying to themselves well ok.

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Saginaw doesn't have this.

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Saginaw doesn't have this.

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Saginaw doesn't have this.

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But you took a very unique approach and

you mentioned this earlier about, for

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instance, Frankenmuth being where they,

where they house it and everything else.

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But it's not just Frankenmuth though.

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It's, it's Frankenmuth.

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it is Midland.

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It is all these

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Craig Goslin: Isabella County.

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Cliff Duvernois: there you go, all

these other counties and everything.

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Talk to us about the thought

process of saying, you know

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what, Saginaw is not isolated.

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Let's bring everybody else in.

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Craig Goslin: Cliff, it's so rewarding

to see the Great Lakes Bay Region come

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together with the oars and the water

all rowing in the same direction.

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And that's what we have here.

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Dow is the title sponsor

of this Memorial Cup.

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They're a Midland centric company.

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There's only been two sponsors of the

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Kia and MasterCard.

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Now the third one is Dow.

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So it's so exciting to see how our

region has come together to support this.

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It's going to cost over five million

dollars, Cliff, to host this.

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To do it right, to do it big, to give the

fans an experience that's second to none.

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It's five million dollars

all day plus, right?

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And the community has come

together to help us to get

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there, or get close to it anyway.

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So I guess, I'm not

sure we'll get over it.

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We'll get close because we've got to

guarantee the league back so much money.

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And so at the end of the day,

the region has come together.

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One of the things that Dick Garber

did when he bought this franchise, he

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explained to the board of governors

that we're going to market to the

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entire 400, 000 people in this region.

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Midland County, Bay County, Saginaw

County, Mount Pleasant, Isabella, uh,

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Aranac, outside the end of the thumb.

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And that's what we've done.

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All right.

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The success of our program is

that 30 percent of our revenue

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comes from Midland County.

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18 percent from Bay County, right?

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We get six or five or six or 7

percent from Aranac, the thumb

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and areas outside of that.

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Even Genesee County to a certain extent.

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When you look at a successful

business model, 52 to 53 percent

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of our revenue comes from

outside of Saginaw County, right?

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that's a great thing, right?

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And then, and then you got to, of

course the core base that's here in

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Saginaw County, it's been incredible.

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So it's a great example as to how to

use the entire region to come together,

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to do make something special happen.

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Cliff Duvernois: I bet.

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And part of it was when you were talking

before about, about, Dick Garber and

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the, the hockey team that was here,

there was actually a little bit of a

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sting because the other hockey team just

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Craig Goslin: Yes.

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and that was part of the problems

with the, with the Board of Governors

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when they granted Dick Garber a

franchise was that the history of

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hockey in Saginaw the Saginaw Gears

early with Ryan Blair was great.

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That was a league that was directly

contacted and in line with the National

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Hockey League as their top affiliate.

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But once that franchise had gone into a

different route, the leagues that came in

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here and the ownership groups that came in

here behind that weren't quite that good.

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It wasn't necessarily

the ownership groups.

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It was the leagues.

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The leagues very good, And so what

happened was one of the last league

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that left here, the owner and the

league left in the middle of the

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night, holding the season ticket

holders and sponsors, it basically,

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they, they left them high and dry.

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Right.

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And so now here we come

along with an OHL team.

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But we had a great owner, got a great

league and then the community renovated

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the Dow Event Center that'd being Saginaw

County taxpayers, the Saginaw County

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taxpayers renovated that Dow Event Center.

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That was the first link uh, the

chain that brought us all together

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so that we can, we could do

things like host the Memorial Cup.

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So really you can trace all this back

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If they had said no to that millage

to renovate that building, there'd

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be no Saginaw spirit, there'd

likely be no Great Lakes saloons.

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All these different things that

have happened after that vote

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by the Saginaw County Taxpayers.

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I'm forever grateful to those folks.

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And it's amazing how all

these things happen when you

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get a yes to something like

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Cliff Duvernois: man, deed.

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I've got goosebumps just thinking

about how saying yes to that millage.

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Now, one of the big benefits is of course,

is the Memorial Cup coming to town.

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And what I would like to do

is I'd like to explore that.

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But we're going to take a quick

break to thank our sponsors.

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When we come back, we're just going to

learn more about winning the Memorial

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Cup and what you can expect when you

come here, we'll see after the break.

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Well, I can tell you

there's a lot more to come.

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375

Hello everyone and welcome back to

Total Michigan, where we interview

376

ordinary Michiganders doing some

pretty extraordinary things.

377

I'm your host Cliff Duvernois.

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Today we are talking

all things Memorial Cup.

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And the awesome things that

are going on in Saginaw.

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And sitting with me today is the president

and managing partner of the Saginaw

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Spirit, and that would be Craig Goslin.

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Craig, before the break, we were talking

about really the Great Lakes Bay Region

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basically coming together to, to help

make The Memorial Cup bid happen.

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Now, what I would like to do is, cause

we talked before about how there's

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some money costs and you had to, you

know, there's money that you got to put

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down for the bid and everything else.

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But what I would like to do is I'd

like to look at the flip side of

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the coin and talk about the money

that's coming into now the region.

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Because I can imagine that

ROI is going to be huge.

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Craig Goslin: It is, it is Cliff,

and the economic impact is going

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to be well above 30 million.

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I think it's going to be north of

40 million when you get down, when

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you look at the renovation of the

building, just in the legacy project

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alone, that it looks like we're

around $18 million in legacy projects.

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Things that are going to go, going to

be here well beyond the Memorial Cup.

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So yeah, the amount of economic impact

to our restaurants and to our hoteliers

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and to, and, to our convenience stores

and others that are going to benefit from

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the, uh, from those that are coming here

from outside our area to spend money.

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and that's a wonderful thing.

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Cliff Duvernois: So I would like to so to

take a step back here So we're looking,

401

we're potentially looking at north

of 40 million for an economic impact.

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And you mentioned really briefly the

legacy projects that are going to extend.

403

So this isn't something where we're

just pumping a bunch of money in,

404

we're going to look good for 10 days

and then afterwards business as usual.

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This is ongoing.

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Craig Goslin: Cliff.

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It's incredible.

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Again, it's divine in nature.

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Nobody could have done this

without the hand of God on this.

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And, uh, one, one, one of them that,

uh, it sticks out there's a number of

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stick out, but, Quentin Messer from the

Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

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He's the CEO.

413

Joe Frost is a local representative

for the Michigan economic

414

development corporation.

415

We did put a presentation, to

them to the state for a million

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dollars for a food truck alley

that will, that will perpetuate

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here long after the Memorial Cup.

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ah So food trucks come down, people come

downtown for lunch at these food trucks.

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spring, summer, fall, type thing.

420

So the food truck alley was,

uh, was presented to them.

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We were hoping to get a portion of that.

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They were able to get that across

the finish line with the state.

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We got the whole thing.

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So, so the million

dollars came in for that.

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The other thing that's really, really

been gratifying is that Dan Kildee and

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Jake Bennett who's a local representative

for Dan Kildee, help, uh, Glenn over

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at STARS and Jimmy Green here locally,

and Kayla Pionk, our local event

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manager, put together a, uh, a grant

request to the federal government, for

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$5 million for 10 new buses at STARS.

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And they leveraged, they leveraged

the Memorial Cup on that, that,

431

you know what, we need it.

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new buses to be, gowing and transporting

people throughout the city of Saginaw.

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And throughout Saginaw

County, for the Memorial Cup.

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And some of the buses were in disrepair.

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Dan Kildee and his group took that to,

uh, federal, uh, uh, appropriations.

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And they got it approved.

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And, they, now we have 10, You

New buses at STARS, $5 million.

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So there's all, and then The other

thing the new mural that's on

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the, on the outside of the parking

deck at the Dow Event Center.

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That's one of the, like, it's

probably, all of the LED ribbon

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inside the Dow, the curved wall

display, which is, those are 1.

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5 million total for all that.

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So you look at all the, different things

that happened because of the Memorial Cup.

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Uh, and not to mention the

renovation of the building, by

445

Saginaw County and Spence Brothers,

in an amazing amount of work done.

446

That's going to be nine

or ten million dollars.

447

you can include that

in the economic impact.

448

And then, uh, one of the coolest things

of all is the Hoyt Park project that Mr.

449

Garber's doing.

450

Yes.

451

Yeah, yeah.

452

And, and what he's doing there basically

is we asked Dick to take a look at,

453

working with Larry Brethauer and

the Friends of Hoyt Park to leave a

454

legacy project for the Memorial Cup.

455

since the community is, is

doing so much for the Memorial

456

Cup, what can we give back?

457

And particularly Dick, right?

458

Uh, And uh, anybody that knows Dick

Garber knows that this man has a

459

philanthropic heart, beyond the

ordinary, to say the least, okay?

460

And, uh, so Dick took a trip

down there with Larry Brethauer.

461

They looked at what they needed there.

462

I spoke to Larry multiple times

about, that he needed a new pavilion.

463

Because he wants to attract baseball

teams, softball teams, things like

464

that, that come into the region,

and stay in our hoteliers, eat in

465

our restaurants, that type of thing.

466

But the park needed to be updated.

467

We need new lights, we need new

bleachers, we need a pavilion, we need

468

new fencing, all that type of stuff.

469

yeah, Dick had Larry price it out,

it's gonna be over two million dollars.

470

I thought, well, this is something

we'll do as a community over time.

471

Dick said, go ahead and do it.

472

Uh, so, yeah, so, it's gonna get done.

473

And uh, hopefully that's

gonna be something that,

474

well beyond the Memorial Cup.

475

We're going to put plaques in each

one of these areas, by the way.

476

The Henry Marsh Bridge Project is

another one that worked with Annie

477

Rummel and the Convention Visitors

Bureau to do for the Memorial Cup.

478

All these things, we're going to put

plaques in every one of these areas that

479

said this, this project is here, because

of the support this community gave to the

480

481

it's pretty cool.

482

A lot of neat things happened

well beyond, uh, the ending

483

of the Memorial Cup June 2nd.

484

Cliff Duvernois: When you start

talking about Dan Kildee, right?

485

Who's the, who's our federal

representative down here, we're

486

talking like all hands on deck now.

487

Craig Goslin: Oh yeah.

488

down.

489

The governor, governor, everybody.

490

Governor Whitmer, she's coming

to our Rival the Cup Ceremony.

491

Doug Ford, who's the premier of Ontario.

492

He's coming.

493

Alright.

494

It's pretty humbling actually,

when you see God work and Yes.

495

And you see him work through us.

496

Uh, and you know, I'm just a, just

an average guy here and I see the

497

I disagree with that, Well, yeah.

498

I, I, you know, when you look at the

power of God, I'm pretty average.

499

And, sorry, that's, yeah.

500

Yeah.

501

No, and he's worked through me and

through others in this, in this project

502

to do some extraordinary things.

503

it's quite amazing actually.

504

And, uh.

505

It's All you guys took to take a

look around you and you'll see all

506

the things that he's doing that's,

that's beyond, beyond the ordinary.

507

And it's, it's very humbling

for me to quite frankly.

508

Cliff Duvernois: So you put the bid in.

509

all hands on deck, everybody's on board.

510

okay.

511

Now it's like the waiting game,

512

Craig Goslin: game, Yep.

513

Cliff Duvernois: right?

514

So in between of that time, did you

go through this typical, man, maybe we

515

should have done this, or maybe we could

have added this, or maybe we could have

516

done a little bit more or something.

517

Craig Goslin: Not really.

518

No, no, no, I thought we nailed it.

519

When we put the bid in, and actually

we had to present the bid to the

520

CHL site selection committee.

521

All right, and there's seven

people on that committee.

522

All right, each community

has to present the bid.

523

The day that we presented that bid

Dave Drinkill our general manager,

524

our head coach Chris Lazary, Mr.

525

Garber was there along with the county

representatives representatives from

526

ASM Global who managed the Dow Event

Center, our broadcasting director

527

our vice president and our CFO.

528

All these folks were in the room.

529

We did the proposal to the, CHL

site selection committee, we

530

looked around at each other and

we all looked and said, Wow.

531

That was amazing, right?

532

And again, it's divine.

533

I mean, it's we, None of us take

credit for it because it wasn't us.

534

You know, we just feel It was above us.

535

And it was an incredible success that day.

536

We all felt really good about it.

537

We felt that if somebody's

going to beat our bid, they've

538

deserved it and they've earned it.

539

Right.

540

Cause we put together a great bid.

541

And we put together a great

proposal as to Why Saginaw.

542

Why the region?

543

We're going to grow this league

by tens of thousands of new fans.

544

Before the Memorial Cup was given to

Saginaw as a since that time, we've

545

already generated tens of thousands of

new fans to the league that people are

546

looking to say, no, what is the OHL?

547

What does this say?

548

What is this all about?

549

Then they come to a game.

550

They're like, wow, these

athletes are unbelievable.

551

Right?

552

And, you know, athletes on our ice.

553

Are equivalent to the top athletes

in the world in their age group.

554

The best athletes in the

world in their age group.

555

When you see the, these amazing, highly

skilled athletes, playing here in Saginaw.

556

I, I had somebody tell me a

couple weeks ago said, man, I

557

didn't know what I was missing.

558

Where where have I been?

559

He said, this is incredible.

560

you know, and I wanna buy season tickets.

561

He said, this is great.

562

And so that's what, that's what we're

hoping to do is grow the brand of the OHL,

563

grow the brand of the CHL, throughout the

entire, uh, state of Michigan and beyond.

564

Cliff Duvernois: Certainly.

565

And so I want to visit this so now

it's announcement time yea they're

566

getting ready to announce who the city

is you know who won cause there's four

567

cities that are involved with this.

568

They're getting ready to announce it.

569

They come across and they

say Saginaw won the bid.

570

T What was it like?

571

Craig Goslin: Well, for me,

it was extremely humbling.

572

It was a very, spiritual experience for

me, Because, I give all the glory to God.

573

And, I can tell you he's the

one that made this happen.

574

So for me, it was getting on

my knees and thanking God.

575

Cliff Duvernois: Beautiful.

576

And one the things I would also like

to talk to, in the time that we've

577

got remaining is, because you talked

before about this being 10 days.

578

So there's so much that's going on.

579

And you mentioned, the orchestra and at

the very beginning, you mentioned a couple

580

of like big name musicians coming in.

581

So what I would like to do is, is

if somebody is listening to this and

582

are thinking to themselves, you know

what, I want to go check this out.

583

Craig Goslin: Yeah.

584

Cliff Duvernois: What can they expect?

585

Craig Goslin: Well, they want to

come to the Arrival Cup Ceremony.

586

It's free.

587

It's May 23rd at 4 p.

588

m.

589

at the Jolt Credit Union Event Park.

590

You want to be there for that.

591

It's going to be awesome.

592

All right.

593

And we're going to, the whole

community is on display there.

594

That's where we're going to have a

parade coming in there with the Rival

595

of the Cup That's going to be at 4 PM.

596

But what they're going to be able

to expect is the fan fest itself

597

was sponsored by UA Local 85.

598

Uh, and, um, we're grateful to

Justin Pomerville and his whole

599

group there for, stepping up

and, and sponsoring that for us.

600

And, the fan fest itself is gonna

have the Hockey Hall of Fame there.

601

And, and for a day or two we're

gonna have the Stanley Cup.

602

That's gonna be part of the

footprint of the fan fest.

603

Along with, and, uh, inside the

fan fest itself, you're gonna have,

604

music each day starts at 4:00 PM.

605

All right?

606

Each day of the game.

607

Games are at seven, or 7 30 is

depending on what TV, uh, TSN

608

really, and national TV kind of just

directs what time our game starts.

609

but you know, from 4 PM to, let's

just say 7 30 each night, there's

610

going to be, activities in and around

that fan fest, which is when we're

611

closing off the street on Johnson.

612

So that whole area from the Dow

Event Center, all the way through the

613

back of the Jolt Credit Union Event

Park is going to be all fan fest.

614

And, a number of activities in there from

face painters to live music to, food truck

615

alleys and, a number of, of activities,

balloon artists, we're gonna have, we're,

616

there's, there's so many activities

in there, you can't remember them all.

617

But it's gonna be something for families,

it's family oriented, so you're gonna

618

wanna bring the kids down and let the

kids just enjoy something very special.

619

It's a once in a lifetime opportunity.

620

We're likely never to host

this again in our lifetime.

621

so it's, it's something that, uh,

you're going to want to have, you

622

and your kids and your grandkids come

down and say, you know what, I was at

623

624

Cliff Duvernois: And talk

about never hosting it again.

625

And you mentioned this, before

I turned on the microphones.

626

But this is being televised

nationally, internationally.

627

I mean, Saginaw is gonna

get a ton of airtime.

628

Craig Goslin: Well.

629

For that alone, it's

worth what we're getting.

630

If you check the airtime, we've already

gotten, we have a nine part episode out

631

right now that's called Spirit Rising.

632

That's on International TV.

633

And this is a nine part behind the

scenes look of the Saginaw Spirit.

634

So if your listeners haven't

seen it yet, just go to YouTube

635

and put in Spirit Rising.

636

We've gone through the first

five episodes right now.

637

They're awesome.

638

They're 23 minutes a piece.

639

Made for television.

640

Cause they got to put seven

minutes of ads in there.

641

They've gotten great reviews.

642

And it's an ESPN quality broadcast.

643

And it's a behind the scenes look

at, at the, at the quest for the

644

Memorial Cup for the Saginaw spirit.

645

If you saw the HBO series with the NFL,

with hard knocks, with the Miami Dolphins,

646

and they did one with the Detroit Lions.

647

It's very similar to that.

648

Where they get with the players, you

get with the coaches and they get

649

with the owners and they, we had them.

650

It's been a blast.

651

and, uh, But it shows you the everyday,

happenings, of a major junior team.

652

what a player goes through when he

goes to school in the morning, when

653

he goes to the rink, and what he has

to do to prepare for a hockey game.

654

It's amazing what these young

student athletes go through, right.

655

Uh, to prepare for.

656

so that Spirit Rising is in is incredible.

657

So, yeah.

658

And then we're gonna be on

international TV on TSN, which

659

is Canada's version of ESPN.

660

All Right.

661

and then we're also on the NHL network.

662

And we're gonna be here CBS locally.

663

We are, we are on an international stage.

664

And this is gonna be an opportunity for

people, in our community to be able to

665

shine our region and, uh, let people

that are out from outside our region know

666

that Saginaw truly is Saginaw awesome.

667

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

668

That's what I call it.

669

Cliff Duvernois: Man, I could

not have pictured a better way to

670

draw this interview to a close.

671

Saginawesome!

672

Craig Goslin: Saginawesome.

673

We are Saginaw awesome and the people are.

674

we have great people.

675

And at the end of the day, when

you look at results of things

676

around here, it's all about people.

677

And when you get, when you got this

kind of commitment from people and

678

you look in the eyes, I tell you, one

of the greatest things that I do at a

679

game Cliff look at the smiles on faces.

680

And, and, you watch,

you watch a young man.

681

In fact, I had a situation

occur earlier in the year.

682

We haven't lost many hockey games

this year, by the way, the team is, I

683

think we're 46 and nine in our last,

uh, yeah, We won 50 games this year.

684

So, an incredible start to what we hope

is going to be a Memorial Cup final.

685

this, friend of mine was walking

outside the arena and I like

686

to greet fans as they leave.

687

So I'm out in the atrium.

688

And I'm, I'm thanking people.

689

And we'd lost the game.

690

I'd had a sour look on my face, you

know, He's got his, uh, daughter on

691

his, arm, his son on his shoulders,

they got balloons, they got their

692

face painted, they got all kinds of

merchandise, he's got flags, he's

693

got, he's just loaded up, right?

694

He comes up to me and he says, Hey,

uh, Goose, we had a great time.

695

And I said, Oh, I'm glad you had it.

696

He said, Well, what's the sour face?

697

Ah, it was a big game for us.

698

And, uh, he looked at his kids, he

said, Look at the smiles on these faces.

699

And I needed that at the time.

700

I said, you know what?

701

You're right.

702

Sorry.

703

I said, that's what it's

all about right there.

704

Look at the smiles on those kids faces.

705

And when they, and they, I

watched them walk outside.

706

They were in a door and

I said, you know what?

707

That's what it's all about.

708

Those young kids, those kids come

here, had a great time with dad.

709

and they want, and they want

to come back again, right?

710

And that's what it's all about.

711

When people leave.

712

They come back.

713

They say, you know what?

714

That was fun.

715

I had a great time.

716

And I want to go back again.

717

And that's what we're hoping

to do with the Memorial Cup.

718

Not just with the fans.

719

But also with potential

investors in the future.

720

That they come here, they see this

community, they see something That's

721

right here right now that could go here.

722

And say, you know what Let's make

an investment in that community.

723

Cliff Duvernois: Yes.

724

Craig Goslin: we'll draw a

few with some of those people.

725

Cliff Duvernois: Yes.

726

Craig, if somebody's listening

to this, they want to check

727

out more about Saginaw Spirit.

728

They want to come see the Memorial Cup

729

Craig Goslin: Yes.

730

Yep.

731

Cliff Duvernois: What's the

best way for them to do that?

732

Craig Goslin: Go to

saginaw spirit dot com.

733

All right.

734

And on there, you're gonna see

all of our information at the top.

735

You're gonna see, you're

gonna see a spot where you can

736

click on for the Memorial Cup.

737

And there's a drop down list on there.

738

And if you want to buy

tickets, they're on there.

739

If you just want

information that's on there.

740

You're gonna see the map of the fan fest.

741

That's all, that's all on there.

742

So everything we're talking

about here today, Cliff.

743

you know, a fan can just

go to SaginawSpirit.

744

com.

745

And, uh, click on the Memorial Cup,

uh, heading at the, on the top there.

746

And you'll be able to drop down to all

the activities of the Memorial Cup.

747

So it's all right there.

748

Kayla Pionk again, done an incredible

job, an amazing, job organizing this.

749

We're so organized and

ready to start tomorrow.

750

Yeah, yeah.

751

Yeah.

752

and it's stress free.

753

We're all, it's like, you know, you, you

know, you, you know that you, that the

754

staff has done a great job when there's

no stress, everybody's Hey, we got this,

755

Cliff Duvernois: Yep.

756

Craig Goslin: it's, it's

going really, really well.

757

Love

758

Cliff Duvernois: Love that.

759

Craig, thank you so much for taking

760

Craig Goslin: time Cliff, thank you.

761

super busy schedule to talk to us today.

762

Yeah, this is great.

763

I welcome your listeners to

come out to the Memorial Cup.

764

And really come out and enjoy.

765

And the word is enjoy.

766

Enjoy a celebration of something that

this community did that's really special.

767

Cliff Duvernois: Yes.

768

Awesome.

769

And for audience, you can always

roll on over to Total Michigan.

770

com and click on Craig's interview and

get the links that he mentioned above.

771

We'll catch you next time when we

talk to another Michigander doing

772

some pretty extraordinary things.

773

We'll see you then.