Building the Next IMG Academy: NIL, Transfer Portal & NFL Combine Training | Marty Burns

Marty Burns (00:00)
We’re we’re building a boarding school for professional athletes. There’s actually one already built and it’s called the IMG Academy. It’s in Bradenton, Florida. I was there when it was brand new. It was the old Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy that that you fa famous tennis players like Andre Agassi attended. It was a boarding school for tennis players who wanna their tennis prodigies. So now we’ve taken that concept and we’re brought it to the Phoenix, Scottsdale, Arizona.

Tempe area. It’s right next to Arizona State.

Issa Hanna (02:01)
Welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Pros show. I’m your host, Issa Hanna, and today I have Marty Burns with me. Marty has a very, very unique and cool project he’s here to tell us about. Marty, welcome to the show.

Marty Burns (02:13)
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Issa Hanna (02:14)
So for people who already wanna find out what this cool and unique project is, can you can you enlighten us? Yeah.

Marty Burns (02:21)
We’re we’re building a boarding school for professional athletes. There’s actually one already built and it’s called the IMG Academy. It’s in Bradenton, Florida. I was there when it was brand new. It was the old Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy that that you fa famous tennis players like Andre Agassi attended. It was a boarding school for tennis players who wanna their tennis prodigies. So now we’ve taken that concept and we’re brought it to the Phoenix, Scottsdale, Arizona.

Tempe area. It’s right next to Arizona State.

We’ve already purchased a land lease and now we’re about to build on it. We’re gonna build a wellness center. We’re gonna build a a an academy that’ll help hold 2,500 students. It’ll be an NGO nonprofit organization. The state of Arizona will be paying the tuitions for the kids to attend the school. They go to school in the morning and in the afternoon they play in their sports. The particular sports that we’re bringing in.

Coach Noel Mazzone will be running. It’s a he’s a quarterback guru going way back to the Texas A&M, UCLA, University of Arizona schools. And he has the ability to get these athletes and train them like professional quarterbacks. He’ll have those, that school will be open for athletes to attend it as they get ready for the NFL combine, as they go into the into the college portal. All of these aspects we have taken care of and manage it. And then we handle all.

any types of injuries, rehab, nutrition, and wellness. And it’s mainly focused on football, but we’re going to have soccer fields. We’re going to have a rugby field. We’re going to be girls flag football, boys’ flag football, now that those are Olympic sports. we’re going to carry all of that so those particular athletes in Scottsdale, Arizona can come and train. They can tend the schools. And we think we’ve got a very unique project.

Issa Hanna (04:09)
Very unique, very cool. and then, you know, the the school itself, you know, you guys are gonna have programs geared towards athletes who are are gonna go pro, you know. things like managing your money. Can you can you enlighten us on that?

Marty Burns (04:23)
Yeah.

So in this day of the NIL, you’re talking about high school kids who are being given a million dollars. And those families, some are educated in in finance and some aren’t. Well, what happens when that kid, that million dollar kid, he’s promised money to go to a go to college, is and then he gets to college and now that money’s four million dollars a year. What happens when he gets hurt? How does he manage that money? How how does he secure his future? That that’s money that should secure

him and his family for a long time if it’s managed properly. On our on our campus, we are going to have a financial literacy program with these kids will, that’s part of the training. It’s part of the weightlifting. It’s part of the nutrition. It’s part of the wellness. Financial literacy is going to be part of that program. And we’re going to walk them through it from the from the very beginning, how to manage it, you know, what what to look for, all of the things that we all heard of these professional athletes down the road. They’ve been paid hundreds of millions of dollars. And

They’re 35 years old and it’s all gone. How does that happen? The pitfalls of it. We have a lot of athletes that have gone through this process that are are friends of ours that are gonna come in and talk and teach what that’s the experiences that they’ve gone through. Plus, we’re gonna have real financial literacy coming and teaching people that do do this for a living. And not to manage their money, but to teach them to look for the pitfalls.

Issa Hanna (06:36)
Amazing. And you told me, Coach Mazzone, he he was already doing this. He was already training people for the NFL. He was already training them for the Combine and these NIL the NIL deals, you know, he started having so many people and they’re they had nowhere to go in Arizona, so he decided to build it for them.

Marty Burns (06:54)
That was the pro that was the problem. He’d he’d get contacted when the process with the NFL is you’re getting you graduate from college and now you’re going into the NFL. You have to go get ready for what’s called the NFL combine. And that’s a specific series of tests. And Coach Mazzone, one of the best quarterback gurus in in the world, he gives these athletes, they take them, he runs them through all the programs, getting them all ready for what they’re to what to expect. But what he couldn’t prepare for is where am I going to train him?

So in Arizona, he’d go to a local high school. Well, the local high schools are saying, Hey, we don’t want that liability. So you gotta get you that that athlete off of our campus. S smaller and smaller this world became. And he said, I need to get my own fields where I can bring in not the 10 that they’ve hired me to do, but I can bring in the 60 that they can hire me to do. And I can bring in other coaches to do it. I can also manage their nutrition. I can manage the what’s what are they getting ready for the next year? During this whole process.

The portal industry came. NIL people were going into what a portal. And that’s kind of like a a zone where they have no place to go. They can’t go back to the college they came from. They can’t go anywhere to train. So where do they go? Well, they don’t have a place. Well, they’re gonna be able to come to the yards. We’ll get them all their film, we’ll get them trained properly, and we get them exposure so that they have, you know, they’re they’re in purgatory, if you will.

But now they’ll have a place to land and get ready for that next step in life.

Issa Hanna (08:22)
Amazing. You guys are giving them a more opportunity. you’re shining more light on some people that may get lost in the shuffle and and coming from a former college athlete, you know, and and having friends who who are professional athletes, a lot of people get lost in that shuffle and that portal. and you guys have built something that that is so unique it doesn’t exist right now. yeah, so

Marty Burns (08:45)
no

one’s addressing no one’s addressing that portal problem right so again you you we hear about it all the time john and john entered the portal well the second he that that quarterback enters a the portal they cut off his key card meaning at when he’s on at campus on at you know x y z university he goes to school the next day he’s d he’s done so he can’t he can’t enter the portal are you there I cut off sorry about

So he he he can’t he can’t lift weights at that school anymore. He can’t go work out. So he’s done. So what we’re offering is that soft landing for him to come and train and get ready and we market and we get ready for that next college that he’s able to go to.

Issa Hanna (09:28)
And you have one of the best in the business doing it, Coach Mazzone. And you yourself come from a very accomplished background in the s you know, business and sports world. Yeah. You are the founder of Power Balance so I’m sorry, power power balance. and you were wearing one.

Marty Burns (09:42)
Power Balance.

Yes, I’m wearing one. It’s an old product that you guys probably saw. And when kid I always see, you know, gosh, I’m seeing professional athletes today when I see them and I meet them and I they go, a Power Balance. I said he goes, I you know, these guys will say, I had every color. I was in sixth grade, I had every color. And now these guys are the you know professional athletes. I s we started the business with Shaquille O’Neal. We had I had it on over 250 athletes, Drew Brees, tons of Hall of Famers. We had it on the Ryder Cup golf for the US team and the and the European teams.

We had it in over 60 countries. We he started it in 2006 and in 2010 it became the sports product of the year by CNBC’s Darren Rovell, which was a very prominent award I’m really proud of. And we sold the company in 2012, but people like yourself have have seen it back in the, you know, back in the day and always will ask me, hey, do you have any, you you can send me? And then I’m always shipping them off to people. And and people have been asking us to re you know, reboot it.

Take it again and re redo it and we’re possibly talking about doing that again because it was such a fun, fun product for people to have.

Issa Hanna (11:26)
Definitely. And I had one myself. So you know definitely cool first circ full circle moment talking to the founder of of of Power Balance. That’s unbelievable. I wanna talk a little bit of future now. you know, you you’ve got these grand plans and it’s already in in the way. Five years from now, where are we gonna see the Phenom school and where are we gonna see? That’s a

Marty Burns (11:29)
That’s that’s so great.

Great question. Thank you for asking that question. So this is going to be the first of its kind, and we’re going to build five more of them. We’ve already secured land in Nashville. We’ve already secured land in Miami. So this will be the prototype. And w we know that this will be a massive success, but we’ve already started looking down the line at doing this in other locations. we could we’re looking in Vegas right now, we’re looking in Dallas, but the next

We’re do in five years we sh should have two or three more of these done. So they will all come from the success of The Yards in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Issa Hanna (12:24)
Amazing. Amazing. and like I said, nothing exists like this. You guys have filled a hole. you guys are doing stuff for the young athlete that that I wish twenty years ago I had as a as a college student.

Marty Burns (12:35)
I wish my parents would have sent me to a boarding school that all I had to do in the from from eight to twelve, I could study, and then from from two to six, I was playing I was a ex-volleb player and I was an ex pro ex flick pro, no no pro quarterback, played at San Diego State, and I was super into my sports, playing basketball in this basketball season and volleyball and football. This is that’s what this school is going to do. And it’s gonna be a focused, it’s gonna be a focused situation.

And we’re gonna help navigate the sports world for them.

Issa Hanna (13:05)
Amazing. Amazing. and now I want to get your I your advice because you are very accomplished in in the business world, in the real estate world. and our business depends on relationships. I mean, one of your business partners was Shaquille O’Neal. so for people just starting out and they’re maybe struggling on on starting to grow their networks, what advice would you have for them?

Marty Burns (13:29)
One of the things that to be totally honest with you, my real estate background is very minimal. I’m my I’m a sports marketing person, but because we’re buying the the land and we’re we’re in a actually on a land lease in Arizona, unlike other facilities, like we’re buying the we’re buying the land in Nashville, we’re buying the land in Miami. So that’s gonna be a different real estate situation versus a land lease on on a reservation land, Native American land, we’re leasing that property. So that is a different real estate play.

All I’ve been doing in the last four years when I’m building this project is learning about all the different types of land real estate. And again, I’m so new to it and I still have so much to learn. But the more people that I engage, the l lenders getting involved with lenders and lenders teaching us about the pitfalls of yes, I can do that. No, I can’t. What’s my level of interest? That’s not my expertise.

Taking every phone call and every opportunity that I can get in front of people, that’s what I would do. I would say no, I I don’t say no to anyone. I’ll take and do anything I have to do to b one, educate myself because I’m constantly learning. And and two, there that’s adding to my network. My network has grown tremendously in the last two, three years just doing this project.

Issa Hanna (15:31)
Amazing advice. so in other words, you guys learn. yeah. Never, you know, don’t be too proud to learn. Don’t be too proud to ask questions. No don’t to be too proud to do stuff for other people and not expect anything in return. So

Marty Burns (15:45)
You know, Coach Mazzone always says, Hey, if you got a qu question about what you’re gonna c what I’m gonna call on the five yard line going in, I I I can handle that question. I know how to audible to something that I know I could score. That’s what we always talk about. But when this comes to the l to the real estate situation, the w the w we had to get around people that knew knew what they’re doing. And that’s what we try to surround ourselves with people that are are better at it than us, teach teaching us every day.

Issa Hanna (16:11)
Definitely no different than sports. You know, you gotta build the team when it comes to business and everybody has to just like every position on the field does their job and they make synergy. same way with business, you guys. So

Marty Burns (16:23)
Ironically, the company ironically the company that’s doing our school is is called Synergy. Syner Synergy, that’s the that’s the actually the name of the the company that’s looking to fund us.

Issa Hanna (16:28)
And

That is amazing. Well, like I said, a team, it’s all about the synergy that you guys can create together. you guys have got it so well thought out and such such a a great you know, a great founding team already. So

Marty Burns (16:47)
looking for people to get involved with us. That’s one of the reasons why I’m doing this podcast is we’re looking we’re we have a we have a land loan that we’re looking to put together for it. So that’s kind of if there’s an interest level at any point or an at any level anyone wants to get involved with us, I I’m I’m I’m here to take the call because we we’re we need we need partners that are w wanting to take go down on on this run with us.

Issa Hanna (17:08)
So my viewers at home are members here at Investor Fuel. You wanna be part of a super cool project for a good cause that’s gonna make money and run by total professionals in the industry. Yes. Make sure to make sure to contact Marty. And now if they wanted to contact you, yeah, how could they get a hold of you?

Marty Burns (17:26)
You can reach me via email. It’s [email protected]. And then or they can just do they can I’m gonna leave my cell phone here for you. It’s (949)412-2321 I’m located out in Newport Beach, California. And again, our project is in Scottsdale. It’s in Tempe, the city of Tempe, right at right next to Arizona State University. And then our other two projects

that we’ve committed to are in Nashville and in Miami. So that’s kind of you that’s that five year plan. It’s gonna take us probably two years to complete this project in in Arizona. But and that once we get this one going, we’re gonna start moving on to the next one, which would be Nashville.

Issa Hanna (18:08)
Amazing. So make sure you guys contact them. Young athletes, you know, you wanna you wanna get involved with this? It sounds like something for you, make sure to contact Marty. Marty, I’d like to well I’d like to thank you so much for coming on the show. I mean it’s not every day I get to talk to somebody, yeah, like a very unique such a unique part of the the business world you’re in and very exciting that you get to deal with NFL guys and

And NBA guys and and young athletes coming up. So thank you very much.

Marty Burns (18:37)
Appreciate it. Thank you very much for having me.

Issa Hanna (18:39)
I appreciate having you into our viewers at home. if you enjoyed my conversation with Marty and want to see more just like it, make sure to hit like and subscribe. I talk to people every day that can bring us different knowledge on every aspect of the real estate industry. Until next time, the Real Estate Pros are out.