Consultant

XO STRATEGIC

XO Strategic is a unique boutique sports consulting company made of some of the country’s most accomplished individuals in their respective fields. We are unique in that we have personally and successfully undertaken and delivered virtually every activity for which our clients seek our guidance and expertise. We are former athletes at all levels, parents of athletes, coaches, administrators, facility planners and designers and builders, marketers, public funding, and legal experts. Our team of best-in-class experts has been involved in the planning and delivery of over $10 billion of sports facilities across the world, including six facilities here in the Kansas City metropolitan area, many of which have been recognized as the finest in the nation, and in one case, finest in the world.

Together, the four professionals that comprise XO Strategic: Deron Cherry, Greg Cotton, David Ficklin, and Shane Hackett have over 100 years of experience in sports, marketing, and facility development, including ownership and operation of professional and amateur football and soccer clubs, and planning and operations of Olympic Games, FIFA World Cups, and NFL Super Bowls.

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Team

The XO Team

DERON CHERRY

MANAGING PARTNER

A Kansas City businessman, former NFL star, and former minority owner of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, Deron Cherry serves as Managing Partner for XO Sports. Outside of XO, Deron is the managing general partner of United Beverage Company, the Anheuser-Busch distributor located in Kansas City.

A six-time All-Pro safety, Cherry is considered one of the best players in the Kansas City Chiefs history. He was named to the NFL All-Decade Team in the 1980s and is a member of the Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame. Known for his bone jarring tackles, his 50 career interceptions rank third in club history. In 1988, he received the NFL players Association’s highest honor, The Byron White Humanitarian Award for service to his team, community, and country.

Cherry, who graduated from Rutgers University with a BS degree in biology is known for his generous public service. Through his Deron Cherry Foundation, he helped create the Score 1 for Health program, which has provided free health screenings to more than 13,000 children living in Kansas City’s urban core. He has also been actively involved with Special Olympics, Muscular Dystrophy Association, Project Warmth, Camp Quality USA, and the United Negro College Fund.

For the past 25 years, Cherry has hosted his Celebrity Invitational golf tournament, raising over $3 million to support the children of the Kansas City area. Cherry is a frequent guest speaker at civic, charitable, and corporate events throughout the country.

GREG COTTON

PRESIDENT

Greg Cotton’s 22-year law practice includes working primarily in the areas of sports law and commercial litigation for Shughart Thomson (now Polsinelli) and as general counsel and COO of Major League Soccer club Sporting Kansas City. In the 10 years Greg worked at Sporting, he and his fellow associates developed and built Children’s Mercy Park, the Swope Soccer Village, Compass Minerals Sporting Fields, Compass Minerals National Performance Center, the Three Points skyline rooftop, No Other Pub, and other major developments.

A persistent focus on brand, culture, facilities and partners saw top-line revenue increase by over 4000% during his tenure at Sporting, which is the same focus Greg brings as partner and President of XO Sport & Development. Greg grew up in Kansas City, attending Rockhurst High School before obtaining undergraduate and law degrees in the University of Missouri system.

DAVID FICKLIN

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

David Ficklin has spent the better part of his over 30 years of professional life combining his two passions in life: architecture and soccer. After receiving his architecture degree at the University of California, Berkeley, David spent 3 years as a designer on multiple public projects throughout the Bay Area. His sports industry passion was lit when he worked for the SF Bay Host Committee for the 1994 FIFA World Cup in Palo Alto. He later transitioned to a front office job helping to launch Major League Soccer in San Jose where he spent 3 years as an executive for the Clash (now the SJ Earthquakes). He next served as Venue Director for the San Francisco/San Jose venues at the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup, achieving the highest ticket sales of any venue in what was at the time the world’s largest women’s sporting event.

Ficklin moved to Kansas City in 2001 to help the world’s sprots architecture firm, now called Populous, start their worldwide Event practice. He worked on planning, overlay build out, and game day operations for 3 Super Bowls as well as projects in Chile, Mexico, Morocco, Turkey and Russia, where he led a team over 20 international experts developing every venue and the Olympic Park master plan for Sochi, Russia’s successful 2014 Olympic Winter Games bid.

David next spent 11 years as Vice President of Development for MLS club Sporting Kansas City. In that role he directed the design and construction of Children’s Mercy Park, Swope Soccer Village, Compass Minerals Sporting Fields, and Compass Minerals National Performance Center. He has organized major soccer events at practically every level from CONCACAF to NCAA men’s and women’s championships at DI, DII and DIII. He led Kansas City’s World Cup bids for both the 2022 & the 20226 FIFA World Cups. Most recently David was Managing Director at Homefield LLC, where he led the visioning, programming, masterplan, and development of a $695 million youth sports-anchored mixed- use and entertainment destination on the site of a former water park in Kansas City, Kansas