What is it about a Detroit WNBA team that really is appealing for you?

Well, I think to I think a few things.

First of all I think the momentum and sort of the movement that's happening overall in women's sports, that the time is now and we've always had incredible women athletes and women basketball players, you know, including Swin Cash, among others.

But now I feel like after 25 plus years of the WNBA, now you're starting to see it sort of resonate with everyone.

You know, you have the media partners are starting to pay attention more.

The ratings are higher.

Corporate partners are more engaged.

So it's a it's a great time.

And if you look the NBA and the NFL and sort of the traditional sports, they've been around, you know, for 100 years or 75 years.

For, they've gone through the ebb and flow.

They've grown.

They're here to stay.

And I feel like the WNBA is on this incredible growth trajectory.

And and so its exciting.

So from a business standpoint, I think it's a smart investment.

So I think we're all feeling good about that.

But then for me, selfishly, to do it in Detroit, to come back a city where it all kind of started for me, where I was drafted.

You, Sandy, you're one of our most dynamic business leaders who happens to be a woman.

I'm not going to say our most dynamic women business leaders.

Why did you choose to be an equity investor in this effort around women's sports?

You think about sports.

Sports has always had the power to unite Detroit and look what happens when our teams are thriving.

The restaurants are packed, the streets are alive.

The feeling is really electric.

And long term, the, you know, sports plant the seeds that really help young people see new possibilities.

And you see additional investment in infrastructure hubs being created, small businesses, you know, growing up.

And the legacy that this has an opportunity to lead is way beyond the scoreboard.

Personally, I did grow up in the city of Detroit.

Many people in this room know that my parents owned a bar on Chene Street and we lived in a flat above the bar.

I'm the youngest of ten children, and I was the first one able to go to college because we were poor and I had good grades.

And this is where Ill tear up, I'm sure.

So I am grateful to be able to give back in a small way to the city that raised me.

Swin, you were a Detroit Shock and helped lead them to championships, what was your favorite Shock memory?

Obviously you go to the championships.

I think with any athlete, people always think you're going to say the championships.

It was never the final championship for me.

It was always the journey.

I think with your teammates in that locker room which you build throughout this season, it's truly... to Sandy's point, galvanizes the city when you see 21,000 packing out the palace in Auburn Hills, which still actually holds the record in the WNBA for the most fans ever in a finals game.

So when you see your team having to move from Auburn Hills and you're in another finals and then you're at the Joe Louis and then you're packing that out and they're trying to find standing room tickets, We always knew what the WNBA could be, and my fondest memory right now is not much about me, but it's watching where the league is and understanding how so many women that played in Detroit, sacrificed, won championships loves this city could possibly have another opportunity to cheer on a team that you all will bring back to the city.

Arn, can you talk about the community component of this and plans around youth development?

We plan to build a youth sports youth academy that's going to serve all the kids of Detroit, and it's really to promote youth.

And the idea there is to promote youth sports, to break down barriers to access, which in Detroit there is a lack of quality facilities for all the schools, for junior high schools and for high schools, the field, even teams.

So to break down barriers to access and to give every child in Detroit the opportunity to play, compete, no matter their zip code.