Lay of The Land #108: Michael Murphy (Cleveland Soccer Group)
Michael Murphy, on a mission to bring professional soccer to Cleveland as the Co-founder and CEO of the Cleveland Soccer Group.
Previously, Michael served as President of Gravitas Ventures — whose story we featured back on Lay of The Land’s 68th episode with Gravitas’ CEO (linked here), Nolan Gallagher, Michael’s current co-founder at Cleveland Soccer Group!
At Gravitas, Michael was instrumental in growing the company’s distribution footprint, managing their library of more than 3,000 titles of movies and TV to over 100 transactional, subscription, and ad-sponsored Video-on-demand operators on a worldwide basis — ultimately affording Gravitas distribution into over 100 million homes in North America and over 1 Billion homes worldwide.
Prior to joining Gravitas Ventures in 2007, Michael was Captain in the US Army where he served on active duty as a Judge Advocate. In 2005, he deployed with the 3rd Infantry Division in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom where he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal.
Michael is a member of the Cleveland Chapter of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), a member of the U.S. Soccer Development Council, on the board of Boys Hope Girls Hope of Northeast Ohio, and on the advisory council for the Northeast Ohio Women’s Sports Alliance.
He also coaches track, basketball, and, of course, soccer at St. Dominic School in Cleveland.
This was a really fun conversation — we cover everything from the cultural importance of sports in American society, how he envisions Cleveland Soccer as a community pillar going forward, to the logistics of starting a professional soccer club, from stadiums to financing to building a competitive and formidable platform and team. Really enjoyed learning more about Michaels’ vision for the Cleveland Soccer Group and I am excited to follow along on this journey as it unfolds — please enjoy my conversation with Michael Murphy.
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Connect with Michael Murphy on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-murphy-5602005/
Connect with Nolan Gallagher on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/nolan-gallagher-7a6a852/
Follow Cleveland Pro Soccer on Twitter @cleprosoccer — https://twitter.com/cleprosoccer
Follow Michael Murphy on Twitter @CLE_MMMurphy — https://twitter.com/CLE_MMMurphy
Follow Nolan Gallagher on Twitter @NolanGravitas — https://twitter.com/NolanGravitas
Learn more about The Cleveland Soccer Group — https://www.clevelandprosoccer.com/
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Connect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/
Follow Jeffrey Stern on Twitter @sternJefe — https://twitter.com/sternjefe
Follow Lay of The Land on Twitter @podlayoftheland