“font-family: Verdana;”>Khalia Collier has combined her passion for business and love for the sport of basketball to create a ground-breaking opportunity for herself.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>At the tender age of 23, Collier is the owner of a professional sports franchise. During the month of May, Collier became the new owner of the St. Louis Surge, a local women’s semi-pro basketball team. The Surge competes in the Women’s Blue Chip Basketball League (WBCBL).
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>And no, you read it right. Collier is 23 years old and one year removed from her graduation from Missouri Baptist University. This is not a misprint. However, if you talk to her for just 10 minutes, you get the immediate sense that she has what it takes to pull of such a monumental venture at such a young age.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I’m a very passionate, business-oriented young lady,” Collier said, matter of factly. “My two passions have always been basketball and marketing. I am very excited about this new opportunity with the St. Louis Surge.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Selling and marketing is a huge part of Collier is all about. She graduated from college with a degree in Marketing. She currently works as a salesperson at Plaza Motors in Creve Coeur. She is constantly on the move trying to make things happen. The past two months have been especially hectic for Collier as she tries to get the word out to the community about the Surge’s final event of the season.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>On Saturday, July 23, the Surge will be hosting the WBCBL Regional Tournament at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The Surge will play the Minnesota Jaguars at 3:30 p.m. in one semifinal game. In the other semifinal, Wisconsin will play Kansas City. The winners will play for the regional championship at 6:30 p.m. The winner will advance to the national tournament in Atlanta on August 6-7.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I’ve been the busiest person in the world during the past two months,” Collier said. “This is huge project for St. Louis, but my goal is to make women’s semi-pro basketball a big thing in this community. I’ve always had the hustle mentality.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Basketball has been a big part of Collier’s life ever since she was in grade school. She was a standout player at Fort Zumwalt South High in St. Charles County. She finished her prep career with many of the school’s records. She began her collegiate career at Columbia College, but she finished up at Missouri Baptist.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Her passion for business and marketing also took root at an early age from watching her mother, who runs her own business. Tonia Collier has owned a fragrance company in town for the past 14 years, so Khalia has had the opportunity to see how to promote and market a business first hand.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Collier’s ascension to team ownership actually began this year when she began the season as a player for the Surge. Her desire to become more involved in the business of sports grew with each day to the point where she wanted to have her own team.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>As she continued to explore the avenues of starting her own team, the opportunity of buying the team that she once played for started to become a real possibility. After several discussions with the former ownership, everything worked out and Collier became what has to be one of the youngest owners in sports at any level.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>In my opinion, this is an amazing story to see such a young person aspire to have such as responsible position like this. It’s one thing to have aspirations, but to go out and make it a reality is something that is really off the chains.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>There have many examples of former players to left the game and immediately became the coach of the team. But, I don’t know of a scenario when a player actually becomes the owner, especially when that person is in her early 20’s.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Khalia is a fantastic story and she can be a great role model for young girls out there of what can happen when you have a lot of talent and a little hustle to make things happen.
