Growing up in the Bay Area, Min Park knows all about the Bay’s sports culture.
One of the newest members of The Town Football Club’s executive board, The Town Group, Park’s excited to have the opportunity to give back to the community that he grew up in.
“I’m very much excited,” he said. “Living in the East Bay , I’m very much excited to be a part of something that can offer the community and the families around something to grow and be a part of from the ground level.”
Park is a highly experienced investor and General Partner at both RNR Capital and Omakase Capital, a family office that invests in restaurants, real estate and technology companies. He brings over a decade of experience in the debt and leverage finance markets as a former banker covering technology companies globally He brings his expertise in finance and investing to The Town Group as the club continues to grow.
The dive into sports business is also new for him, but is a challenge that Park is looking forward to taking on.
“I think that the sports investing world has become an unattainable world for the few, but in reality, the value comes from the sports communities driven by the fans that support it,” Park said. “It’s really interesting to make it a little bit more approachable. There’s a way to be a sustainable sports franchise, which is why we’re starting off in the minor league level, to fine tune different thoughts we have on it to try and build a club based on live customer feedback.”
“To grow something from the ground up and with (CEO Benno Nagel)’s extensive relationships in the soccer world, it’s a really exciting opportunity,” Park said.
Youth soccer is also a major player in the Bay Area’s sports culture, more than the professional ranks pending who you ask. Park and Town FC plan to work with the youth in order to grow not just the club, but also the culture in Oakland and the rest of the East Bay.
“Youth soccer is such a big part of America and its communities,” Park explained. “The soccer culture at the youth level is amazingly strong. If you talk to anyone who has kids in that middle to high school range, they’re at those weekend soccer tournaments all year long.
“We’re really excited to offer some type of sports entertainment here as the East Bay continues to develop as well. That’s the beauty of this whole project. Not only is it a ground up for us, it’s also a ground up again for this community to start a generational bond with a new sports franchise”
However, with all of this excitement and energy, everyone around the club knows that it will be a day-by-day, step-by-step process. As the sport continues to grow in the country, The Town Group hopes that the same will happen in Oakland and in the East Bay. But the aim isn’t to be the biggest, rather, it’s to last for generations, which is really vital to the longevity of a community sports franchise
“When sports franchises exit the market, it leaves a gaping hole,” Park explained. “It really hurts the communities that are very close to it.
“That’s why our whole methodology, we’re starting this as a 20 year idea. This isn’t a five or 10 year idea. We’re doing things today to be there for the next generation.”