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Nos Audietis, Episode 310: Getting to know Peter Tomazawa
68 Plays5 years ago
Back in July, the Seattle Sounders hired their first ever President of Business Operations. At the same time, Peter Tomazawa also became a part owner of the team. We first got to know Tomazawa during a conversation with reporters back in August. But we figured it would be good to check in with him again now that he’s been on the job for a few months.
Tomazawa is clearly enjoying his new role. At MLS Cup, he related a story where he told MLS Commissioner Don Garber that he should get used to coming to Seattle for MLS Cup because Tomazawa intends to be hosting it regularly. He says that not just as someone who works for the team, but as someone who is also a fan. The Tomazawas have been season-ticket holders since moving here in 2015 in order to give their son a chance to play for the Sounders Academy.
Hope you enjoy the interview.
This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)
Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you’re looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.
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Transcript
Sponsor Introduction: Full Pool Wines
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of No Sadietes is sponsored by Full Pool Wines, a Seattle-based wine seller who recently released their first book, 36 Bottles of Wine. The ethos of the book, a highly curated look at wine categories that provide exceptional value right now, should be familiar to full pool readers. But there's loads of fresh content, and since it's not trying to sell any wine through the book, there's a bit more of a sass factor.
00:00:21
Speaker
And there's food. Lots of it. Fulpel's unique writing styles apply to recipes like leftover Thanksgiving turkey, Smaltz-a-ball soup, and pregnancy nachos. This book can be purchased through Sasquatch Books.
Episode Introduction: Meet the Hosts and Preview
00:00:32
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to... There's no study at this. What? Hey, Ocean! Let's go! Jordan Morris getting in behind Florian Youngford. Jordan Morris! Scores!
00:00:50
Speaker
And how's this for a save from Stefan Fry? Here comes Roy Deans through the middle to crowd it for Seattle. What do the Tigers dream of? They take a little Tigers in. It's the Sounders and it has come. I feel a lot better than Bob.
00:01:18
Speaker
The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle And the hills the greenest green in Seattle
00:01:34
Speaker
Welcome to another edition of NOS Adietta, sponsored by Fullpool Wines. This is episode 310, and we're recording on Tuesday, January 28th. I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shan. Aaron couldn't join us today, so it's just gonna be me and Lickit. Before we get to...
00:01:50
Speaker
the bulk of the show, I guess. We have an interview with Sounders President of Business Operations, Peter Tamazawa. He took over the business side of the organization around the same time he became part owner last summer. He has a background in finance, government, and is actually a part owner of the Las Vegas Knights of the NHL, as well as a couple teams in England, soccer teams in England, that is. After the interview, we'll take some of your questions. But yeah, we'll just go ahead and start off with that interview and we'll be right back.
Interview with Peter Tomizawa: Joining the Sounders
00:02:23
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of NOS Adietes. I am Jeremiah O'Shan, and I am joined by Peter Tomizawa of The Sounders. You are the president of business operations. Is that the right norm? That's correct. OK. I was all of a sudden realizing that I may have blown that, but not at all. OK, good.
00:02:43
Speaker
So you're essentially the business side equivalent of Garth is the easiest way to probably explain this, right? Yeah. I mean, basically, Garth is the president and general manager. He's the president of soccer operations and the general manager. So he runs the team side. We run parallel organization and run the business side. We both reported to Adrian Hanauer, the majority owner.
00:03:04
Speaker
And so you came in right around the same time when the new ownership group joined, or the new owners joined the ownership group, I guess would be the easiest way to say that. Correct. You started in July, I guess, which was just a little bit before the ownership group was announced. Right. Yeah. So the transaction with the new ownership group culminated right around then. I started July 1st and the ownership group was announced in the middle of August.
00:03:31
Speaker
And I'm part of that ownership group. And I was going to say, you're part of that ownership group as well. What was the process for you getting involved both in the ownership group and then joining on? Was that the plan all along to be working with the team? Was it originally to be an owner and then this presented itself? How did that all come about?
00:03:50
Speaker
Wow, that's a great question.
Peter Tomizawa's Career Journey
00:03:51
Speaker
You know, I started looking at this as an investment side. But maybe I should step one step back. My relationship with the Sounders started as a parent of a Sounders Academy kid. I don't know if you remember that story, but I do. Yeah, in 2015, my son, the youngest of five children, actually made the Seattle Sounders Academy. And we moved. We were living in Honolulu, Hawaii at the time. And we moved from Honolulu to Seattle for his soccer.
00:04:19
Speaker
Um, he enrolled in Bellevue high school and my relationship with the sounder started as a parent of a sounders Academy kid. And he's at Stanford now, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He got, uh, he got lucky and got into Stanford and play and he plays soccer there too. And how is the, how is the soccer going for him?
00:04:35
Speaker
Um, I think it's a, you know, it's, it's always, it's always, uh, it's, I think the student athlete mix is always rough. It's a, it's a rough school in terms of academics. Um, but he's enjoying himself. Uh, he's now a red shirt junior coming up. Um, and so he's hoping to, he's having fun with it, I think.
00:04:55
Speaker
Well, that's good. That's good. But that's a big, you know, that's a big transition, I would think. Not a lot of families are picking up and moving effectively across the world. I mean, like we're really being right. I mean, it's a five hour flight, right? Yeah. Across the country at the very least. Right. To let their child pursue a dream like this.
00:05:18
Speaker
Yeah, you know, we got a little lucky. I think it was the right timing for our family. He's the youngest of five. I'd actually had a career on, you know, I guess my career could be broken up into three phases. I had a technology career in the 80s. I did banking in the 90s and the 2000s. And this last phase I'll call community.
00:05:41
Speaker
In 2010, we moved from New York City actually to Honolulu. So I could like be back with my family basically. And as I said, I have five children. And I failed retirement miserably. And it was terrible. I was driving my wife crazy. And so I ended up
00:05:59
Speaker
working for the State of Hawaii's Department of Education as a commissioner of charter schools. Great learning experience, did that for four years. 32 schools, 10,000 kids, $65 million a year budget for the State of Hawaii. And through that process, I got involved with the mayor of Honolulu, who hired me to be working in this cabinet. I worked at city government for two years.
00:06:25
Speaker
Um, and then my son made this team and he wanted to try, you know, soccer and my wife and I have always wanted to try to live in the Pacific Northwest. And we said, why not? Let's do it. Let's go for it. And so we did,
Building the Sounders Ownership Group
00:06:41
Speaker
uh, then we moved here and then.
00:06:44
Speaker
What happened post that it was kind of a fortuitous set of events, but knowing I was going to fail again and not doing anything, I ended up getting a job in Los Angeles. I worked for the Olympic bid committee and was part of a team that bid for and got an Olympic and Paralympic summer games for Los Angeles in 2028. That's how I got to know the business of sports.
00:07:12
Speaker
became an investor a little bit, you know, got involved with the Vegas Golden Knights, parts of two different English soccer clubs. And then when the Olympic thing kind of unwound after we won, moved back here to Seattle. So I was just commuting back and forth every week. That's quite a commute. Yeah, it was. It was two hours each way, I can tell you exactly. But ended up
00:07:40
Speaker
kind of thinking about what I wanted to do next. And I met this guy, Terry Meyerson, who was putting together an investment group. As you know, Joe Roth, the beloved owner of the Saddle Sounders from the very get-go, was looking to sell part of his stake. Terry was very interested in this. And Adrian was really super interested in keeping it local.
00:08:04
Speaker
the investment group. And so Terry put together this this kind of kind of blue chip roster of people. And through a friend of a friend, we got to know each other. And then Terry and I start talking about like, what, what do you look for an investment? What do you look for in the sports team?
00:08:21
Speaker
And that's kind of how we got to know Adrian. And I asked Adrian the following question, which was, hey, what do you need to do to advance this? And I'm thinking from an investor perspective, how do you get something that's great to be even greater? Right. Right. What do you need? And he sort of outlined a few things that he thought he needed. And and one of them was maybe some fresh
00:08:46
Speaker
fresh look at the business and how it's run. And I said, well, if I'm going to invest in the sounders, boy, it'd be nice to help get the right person in place. And I suggested some names. We talked about things. And after a while, it just became like we had spent so much time together. We talked about so many different things. And we found out that a lot of our views were aligned.
00:09:15
Speaker
you know, like what the future should look like for the club. And I don't know, that was like six months later and we kind of looked at each other and said, hey, why don't we, why don't we just take a shot at this thing? Right. And so here I am. And so was the, did you get
Sounders' Community Connection
00:09:31
Speaker
the perception that the
00:09:33
Speaker
I guess there was a perception that they wanted a president of business like there hadn't been a president of business up to that point. And so was that kind of the one of the things that you identified early on or that Adrian had already identified as this is a this is like what we need to take us to the next level.
00:09:52
Speaker
I think Adrian identified early on, you know, the complexities of running the business today and understanding sort of the whole landscape of how we produce revenue, you know, through ticketing, through sponsorships, merchandising through that, the whole.
00:10:07
Speaker
landscape. And as we move into a world where media will become more important to us, all those things, I think it just sort of culminate into like, and I give him credit, you know, a look, a fresh look, you know, very happy with the senior management team he had in place previous. They're all still here. Right. And at the end of the day, it was like, let's take a fresh look at all this stuff. And how do we elevate?
00:10:32
Speaker
Because Adrian essentially had been doing the job before that. Is that a fair way of putting it? I think he has. You know, he's a very, very active guy in the business. No question about it. And yes, but this allows him to have more degrees of freedom, I think, in terms of how we run the club. He was our general manager. Right. Prior prior to Garth. And you know, so he's kind of he is not at all stepped away.
00:10:58
Speaker
You know, say that and he's very actively involved, very cares so much deeply about it. And quite frankly, when you look at clubs and you look at investments in general, you know, you're you're you're really kind of betting on the quality of the team, not just the players that play on the field and the pitch, but the quality of the people that you have in the business offices and all around. So it always comes down to people. And that's the reason why I actually
00:11:27
Speaker
had enough faith, it was that all those meetings I had with Adrian really allowed me to understand the person he is and how much he cares about the community, how much he cares about the team. Well, what are some of the things that you think you have brought to this? You know, you haven't been in the position super long, maybe less than six months, I guess. You've had a lot of success on the field since you've been here, which I'm sure you'll take credit for. But, you know, you came in with a different perspective than a lot of people do, not just as a parent, but you're also a seasoned ticket holder, right?
00:11:57
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. So I have had kind of the cold gambit of experience with the sounders. But the perspective I bring to is also from having worked on the Olympics, where we actually had to put together an entire plan presented to the IOC. What does our ticketing plan look like? What is our transportation plan? What is our facility plan? What is our safety plan? So all these kind of things in terms of
Impact of Winning the MLS Cup in Seattle
00:12:21
Speaker
what our sponsorship plan is going to look like, how we're going to sell tickets,
00:12:24
Speaker
And we had to present all those things to the IOC and I learned the business of sports actually in that and then I got the fortunate
00:12:35
Speaker
experience of being part of the ownership of the Vegas Golden Knights. I saw how they did it. In case you don't know, probably the most successful NHL expansion team. I mean, certainly on the ice, they were the most successful. They went to the Stanley Cup their first year, but in a market that had really been untested for professional sports, they immediately were a massive success.
00:12:58
Speaker
They nailed it, and they nailed it in the same way, actually, if you read about the history of the Seattle Sounders, was they recognized Bill Foley, who was the head, the Adrian Hanauer of the Vegas Golden Knights, nailed it. When we asked him, when you ask an owner, like, what is the most important ingredient, right, in terms of a successful sports franchise, they'll tell you it's relevancy to community.
00:13:24
Speaker
If you can build a relevancy to community, you will establish, for sure, a successful blueprint. And then you have to deliver on the field, of course, on the field of play. But actually, that is really the critical thing. And Adrian was able to figure that out by building a culture and a club that was relevant to the Seattle community. Same thing happened in Vegas. And so I immediately identified with that. And I said, this is a club that really, really is something you should be associated with.
00:13:54
Speaker
And, and so what were the, this was an organization that had been very successful, but it also in some ways started to stagnate at least growth wise, like on the field, they continue to do well, but you know, you look at the season ticket numbers, for instance, and they had kind of leveled out. Oh.
00:14:09
Speaker
Do you think you've been able to identify some areas that maybe needed reinvigoration? Sure. I mean, I think, you know, in terms of where we want to grow the business and sort of like what is your true north star. Right. And I think a lot of the things that had happened with the Sounders has been arguably one of the most successful startups in all of sport. Yeah, actually.
00:14:37
Speaker
But if you sort of look at like what happened, there was a sort of a meteoric rise for the first seven years that culminated actually in an MLS Cup. And then the kind of three years following that, yeah, it sort of kind of plateaued a little bit in terms of season ticket growth, in terms of revenues, and all those sorts of things. And it's sort of like, how do you elevate to the next level? What are the things you need to identify? And what that really means to me is sort of like,
00:15:06
Speaker
is like kind of re-identifying those things that made you great and successful in the first place. It happens to every organization, by the way, you know, whereas you grow, you become almost, I won't call it a victim of your own success, but you become very successful. And then it's sort of like, how do you, you sort of feel like it's going to happen.
00:15:29
Speaker
And I think the fan base sort of got to the place where, and I was part of that fan base, where there was an expectation, right? And I think where we need to go back to is a little bit more of what we had that first seven years, which is, and I call this the kind of the conundrum, if you will, a little bit. It's like, we don't necessarily want the invitation for our fan base to come watch us play.
00:15:57
Speaker
This is going to be kind of a radical thought, maybe, or maybe not so radical. But we need our fans to become part of us. If you look at our winning record at home, it's amazing, right? We won the MLS Cup. We played three games at home.
00:16:14
Speaker
And home field advantage is massive in MLS in particular, in soccer in general. And our fans are help us win. They are integral part of the team. And we need to continue to harp on that. And so I guess what you're saying is that don't just come watch us play. Be part. You're not coming to watch us play. You're coming to participate in our success. Absolutely. You listen to Coach Metzer. And you'll always hear him say how he feels, how the fans came out.
00:16:44
Speaker
You'll always see our players acknowledge, you know, the fan base after the match. And there's so many rituals and traditions that are so cool about this, what I will call a quintessential Seattle experience. Right.
00:16:59
Speaker
I go to every march of the match, by the way, and I love it because it's all part of the ritual. It's all part of the
Community Value vs. Profit in Ticket Pricing
00:17:07
Speaker
experience. You know, our fans helped us win, for sure, the MLS Cup. Our fans, the people in the stadium, the energy that was there, it was awesome. And in the first two playoff games, for sure. I can still remember the Vancouver match from last summer. Do you remember that?
00:17:25
Speaker
We won in the last 95th minute. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Kevin Lirdham, late goal and the Danny Lavin goal. And the Danny Lavin, almost goal. Yes. But showed his quality though. Yeah. Showed his quality. I will say that that match to me defined.
00:17:41
Speaker
the experience. The fans went home elated, but it wasn't. They they actually urged the team on from the 85th minute into the five minutes of extra time to help us win that match. That was a win by the fans. I'm telling you that the players felt it. They felt an approach to the appreciation. It was down a locker room afterwards. It was just just a great overall city feeling.
00:18:04
Speaker
So you bring up MLS Cup and I think that was kind of one of the things I really wanted to get into with this discussion because I came into MLS Cup week and I'll give you some of my thinking in talking to Sounders fans over the years is before the Sounders signed Clint Dempsey I always thought if they could just bring in that one player
00:18:26
Speaker
that would just set it off. And there was a little bit of a bump, but in terms of like the relevancy in the market, it was still kind of a pretty steady, like it didn't, it wasn't this big blip. And then I thought, okay, if they can win MLS Cup, that's where it's going to change everything. And then in centers when MLS Cup, and it was still steady, it was good, it was like, it's deepening the relevance, but it wasn't like this explosion. But the week of MLS Cup being hosted here,
00:18:51
Speaker
I look around and I see this is unlike any other, probably, market in the United States. People are engaged. People are coming to this thing. I was getting phone calls from people saying, hey, can you give me tickets that were never asking before? We saw the ticket sales go crazy the way they did. To me, it felt like it had the potential to be a transformative event that, and winning it was how you pushed it over the edge. I'm curious, what have you, has that come to fruition from,
00:19:20
Speaker
Inside the kind of inside the beast yeah, I mean like you know we sat down We sat down I'll share this with you and the audience about a month before the MLS Cup And we're talking about how we were going to price stuff
00:19:37
Speaker
And you didn't want to ever jinx yourself by saying, oh, this is how we're going to price the MLS Cup because we're going to be there. But we had to decide. And in around the room, and I'll say there's very senior members of our team all sitting around a table. And one of the things that we were kicking around was, is this an event that, are we profit maximizers or are we value maximizers? Are we for the people or are we for ourselves?
00:20:07
Speaker
And the answer was clearly we are value maximizers. This is our chance to say thank you to the city. Thank you to the fans. Thank you to all the people who have supported us over the years by not price gouging. We could have clearly
00:20:27
Speaker
raise prices significantly higher. The demand was there. But we felt like it was really important to accentuate and emphasize that we want to be
00:20:39
Speaker
part of this ecosystem, part of this great city of Seattle. And so we purposely set. This was a very intentional decision that we made about this. And then, yes, we had this magical run. I think my
Business Leadership in the Sounders
00:20:53
Speaker
favorite game of the year, actually, the MLS Cup was huge. But going down to LA, honestly, dude, that was crazy. I can imagine. Right? No one gave us a chance.
00:21:03
Speaker
This was tailor made for a Brian Schmetzer coach team. He used that, you know, that we're up against everybody else attitude that no one believes in us but ourselves. And that was true. There's literally no one to believe that we thought we could win that game. We went down there, beat the best team in the MLS by every measurement that you can think of. And it got ourselves in a chance to win, you know, an MLS Cup at home.
00:21:28
Speaker
And it was a transformative event. I will tell you, I'll share with you a story. I got up at three o'clock on Sunday morning, anxiety ridden. Of MLS Cup? Yeah, not because of the match and not because of our lack of preparation. We were so prepared. We were prepared for every event possible, everything possible. One thing that I was really kind of worried about was how many people are going to show up to the march
00:21:54
Speaker
Because we have, you know, on a typical day, we'll have 3,000 to 5,000 at the march. And we were saying, you know, it's going to be least double that. But it could be triple, it could be quadruple.
00:22:05
Speaker
And I got down to Pioneer Square, Occidental Square. And it was 7 AM. I asked the first person in line, what time did you get here? And she said, we got here at five minutes ago. And I said, you know what? I think you're lying. And her friend goes, yeah, we got here actually a half hour ago. And I go, oh my god. And the line is around the corner. And so we sort of had to go, hey, we got to go to plan B.
00:22:34
Speaker
There's going to be way more people here.
00:22:36
Speaker
And it was just amazing, it was magical. The city came out, you know, and it just came off so great. We had such support from our ownership group, you know, McLemore playing. He just wanted to do it. He wanted to be part of that process and it was magical. He came out and just rocked the house. The march was an epic, epic march. And like I said earlier, I've been to every single one.
00:23:04
Speaker
And then you get in that stadium and to see a sea of green and just the adoration and just the will, it was like, we're going to win this game.
00:23:20
Speaker
And it was like you said, as you say, it was transformational and I spoke to Don Garber, the commissioner, after the match and he goes, wow, that was magic. That was crazy. I got, I got texts and my email blew up.
00:23:37
Speaker
from people in England, from people all over the world, saying, what an amazing event. And look, we are so ready to host a World Cup as a city. I think we showed it to the world. And it is going to be transformational. And you asked, what's been the impact post?
00:24:01
Speaker
Our season ticket sales are off the chart. Sponsorship activity is brisk, crazy actually. And we just got so much interest in the club going on right now. This is the halo effect for sure. It has nothing to do with me.
Sounders' Media Strategy and Streaming Rights
00:24:19
Speaker
I'm just here for the ride to be honest. We have got a great group of people here. You know, one of the things you asked about earlier was like, you know,
00:24:28
Speaker
What did you think when I, or you might have asked this before we really got started about when I first got here, you know, and Adrian asked me this question. He said, Peter, what are you going to do? What would you do? You know, maybe that's a standard interview question, but what are you going to, what's the first thing you're going to do when you get here? I said, Adrian, how many people do you have in the business side? Because I got 95. I go, I got 95 meetings.
00:24:54
Speaker
I'm gonna meet every single person, and I'm gonna ask them what they're all about, right? Because the culture of this club is people first for sure, and if that's the case, you better know your people, and that's how we do. So what did you learn from those 95 meetings? I asked and I sought, and I really probed to see why are you a sounder? What drives you to want to come to work at this place? What is it about this club?
00:25:21
Speaker
And the culture. And I think the fans feel it, too. You know, and that's kind of how we coalesced around the concept of family. You know, when you saw our partnership launch, I was the 12 family. I thought that was very clever, I got to say. Yeah. Well, the whole family thing was like, whether it was a gimmick or whether it was I thought it was a very clever way to pitch it. And it was an interesting way of bringing it in. And I thought it came off as very genuine.
00:25:47
Speaker
Well, you know what? It was genuine, because we had this introspection, and Robin Heintzmann, who's our head of marketing, she came up with this tagline. She's like, I think, I think, because one of the things I asked people when I first got here was, what do you think the sounders stand for?
00:26:02
Speaker
And we got a lot of answers, you know, as you would. Right. But one of the things that came coming up is that we're a family. We're a family, you know, and we want people to be part of our family, you know, and that's really a critical element to the
00:26:18
Speaker
The reason why I think people have been season ticket members for 10 years, right? And the new families that moved to town, we want you to be part of this experience. And it's bigger, it's about being something bigger than what you are. And so I always like to say like Seattle Sounders going to a match at CenturyLink, experiencing the march is a quintessential Seattle experience. And people say, what do you mean? What does that actually mean?
00:26:48
Speaker
And to me, the sound is representing everything good about living in the city. This is a city that's awesome.
00:26:58
Speaker
It's perennially got a little bit of a chip on its shoulder, I would say. We've got the best technology and technologists in the world, yet down south people give them a lot more credit, right? We're always constantly citing to seek ourselves. But one of the things that when you look at the Seahawks, you look at us, and you say, what is the recipe for success? We just never give up.
00:27:23
Speaker
Right? That is the hallmark of a Brian Schmester coach team. And then you combine that with the Garth Lager way, you know, kind of super intelligent way of thinking about how to build a portfolio of players. Right? It is a supercharged, powerful combination.
00:27:42
Speaker
I think. Yeah. And that kind of represents what Seattle is. We've got a little bit of a lunch pail, you know, roll up your sleeves, kind of a combination with high tech. Right. But we want to be true to ourselves and the work ethic and the ethos that we represent is all about, you know, hard work and never giving up. And that's the kind of players we recruit.
00:28:09
Speaker
That's the kind of people we have out in Pioneer Square Business Offices, and that's what we embody. That's what we want you, your listeners, our fan base to be a part of.
00:28:21
Speaker
So one of the big technological things that's facing the sounders right now is the streaming rights. We saw that YouTube is no longer going to be carrying the games. I know you can't give away a lot of details, but can you speak on that a little bit and where we are in that process of identifying a new streaming partner?
00:28:42
Speaker
Well, look, streaming is a really important part of the future, for sure, part of the present as well. We want to make our product, us, accessible to as many people as possible. And we are in the midst of some very interesting discussions.
Enhancing Fan and Stadium Experience
00:29:01
Speaker
We're not ready to make the announcement yet, but they're actually with a variety, a couple of different potential.
00:29:09
Speaker
opportunities, if you will, that I think will be as good or greater than what we've ever offered in the past. One of the things about professional sports
00:29:20
Speaker
is media. And the differentiator, I think, between the different markets, whether it be hockey, football, baseball, is sort of the size of the TV contract. Right now, that's the opportunity for MLS. Very shortly, we'll be involved as a nation, as a league, I should say, in a broader discussion about the television contract renewal for MLS.
00:29:49
Speaker
And that will be transformational for the league, I believe. And if you really think about it, but until that point in time comes, that's 2022.
00:30:02
Speaker
Until that point in time that comes, the critical thing for us is to focus in on fielding the best available product, being very intelligent about how we utilize a very scarce resource, which is money, and also maximizing the ability for us to afford these great players.
00:30:21
Speaker
is selling more tickets and sponsorship. Those are the two levers that we have truly that move the needle. That's why we're so focused. I think that's why MLS is such an exciting place because every club focuses on the experience at the stadium. We have an experience like no other. We have to do that because we need people at the stadium. That's what we have to strive for and that's the fun of it.
00:30:47
Speaker
Are there any changes? You guys don't obviously control all the various aspects of the stadium experience, but it seems like the Sounders have started to be able to have more say in the stadium experience. Is there any changes coming this year that fans might notice?
00:31:04
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there's a couple of different things more on the convenience side. There's going to be some announcements coming out very shortly. I think that'll improve the fan experience at the stadium. And again, those will be shortcoming, but they're very much of mind. And you are actually very precisely and correctly talking about, like,
00:31:28
Speaker
Yes, we have more say now than I think we've ever had. The Seahawks own 25% of the Sounders. That combination has been very powerful in the past and will continue to be so. We've always had some say in this and varying degrees of it. I guess we always want more.
00:31:49
Speaker
But at the end of the day, the collaboration between Seahawks and Sounders and the management of those has really, really accelerated and it's a really good place right now, I think.
00:32:00
Speaker
Yeah. And how does that help? I know you weren't necessarily here during some of the times when the relationship wasn't quite as good, but it does seem to be kind of at a high point right now. And I mean, is there any way that you can really kind of articulate maybe how a positive relationship with them helps?
00:32:19
Speaker
Yeah, sure. It's like it's like a positive relationship in your personal life. You know, you listen to each other, you you respect each other. And at the end of the day, you hopefully make decisions that are good for each other. And that's kind of what's been happening, really, is that, you know, such a positivity around this and that we're all in it for the same goal, which is to have a great fan experience and a great
00:32:46
Speaker
great vibe and a great feeling. And we want people to leave CenturyLink elated and positive. And that's exactly how the Seahawks think about themselves. And so it's very congruous, actually. I think the bigger question is why, if there was ever a problem, why did that happen? And so I think this is a very natural evolution of a positive relationship.
00:33:08
Speaker
So two of the other areas that are kind of big, exciting areas, I think for Sounders fans that Adrian at the various times has talked about, but obviously there's, there's this Tacoma stadium that's getting built and then there's kind of been this in the background, this idea of a new training facility, which I know you probably don't have a lot of news to share right now, but I'm just curious how involved you are in either one of those projects and if there's anything you can say about either one of those projects.
00:33:36
Speaker
Uh, you know, again, I am involved in those projects. Um, and, and, uh, I know that we have come out in the past and talked about the training center and that, and that we've kind of.
00:33:50
Speaker
narrowing down our choices, and we've gotten even further down that road. And one of those choices could be to stay at Starfire. We were very happy with Starfire. And so that's not saying that we won't be there at all. But it is prudent for us to look at the different alternatives. If you notice, not just because all the other teams are doing it, but there is a lot of benefit that we can get with the new training facility.
00:34:19
Speaker
But those are all things that we're exploring the options of it. One of the tenets that I love about working with Adrian is, you know, in terms of like the different objectives that we have, which is like, you know, win MLS Cubs, lead server and invest in the community. But the bottom line was like running a fiscally responsible business. And I know he said this to you in different
00:34:40
Speaker
Podcasts or whatever before an interviews, but it's okay, but but it is really true We really take a very very serious look at it and and that's why we that's why I'm here actually Is that we need to run a fiscally responsible business that is our that is our duty really? One
Sounders as Community Stewards
00:34:59
Speaker
of the key things and or kind of running short on time plus but one of the things I wanted to leave with you is that Everyone, you know, I talked to you about like how we had interviewed everybody or I had interviewed it
00:35:09
Speaker
To a person, one of our favorite sayings around here is that we are stewards of a community asset. To a person, everyone believes that, and we behave that way, and that makes a big difference in terms of how you think about things, how you think about pricing, how you think about the experience and all those things. We truly believe that we are stewards of a community asset, and that's what I love about being part of this organization.
00:35:37
Speaker
And I'll kind of close on this on that same note, is that seems like a very tough thing to balance, right? Like on one hand, you have these aspirational goals of being the best team in MLS, maybe the best team in the Western hemisphere, right? And on the other, you have an understandable desire to remain fiscally responsible and to, you know, like Adrian talks a lot about trying to run a break even kind of business, you know, some years you're a little down, some years you're a little up, but like,
00:36:05
Speaker
You're kind of keeping this line in mind. I guess how do you go about like how how have you found finding that balance? Yeah, no, that's right. I mean, I think that the balance is actually positive and that it forces us. It's a framework that forces us to try to make the best decision that we can actually make.
00:36:25
Speaker
And we really do that. We really try to figure out the same way that Garth tries to build a club every single year and Brian tries to manage it on the field. We actually do that on the business side. Got to get the right people in the right place at the right time. And we had to have the right programs in place, had the right incentive systems in place, everything. So this is all congruous with running a good organization.
00:36:49
Speaker
And I believe that a soccer club or a sports team is no different than any good business. If you run a good business and you have a great product, you're going to do well. And that's the culture that we built around here. And it's something that is sort of a standard of excellence that we truly try to achieve. And we think about what can we be doing better. We were already thinking that after the parade.
00:37:19
Speaker
We took a day, but the day after the parade, we were already thinking, how are we gonna do better? How are we gonna make the experience better than this? And our mission statement is, we're here to create moments, enrich lives, and unify communities through soccer. And I think we hit on all those three with the MLS Cup, but we're always thinking, how do we do better?
00:37:46
Speaker
Well, that seems like a wonderful place to end this, Peter. I really appreciate you taking the time. I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do when you have a whole year. You did all this stuff in just a few months, right? It's always better to be lucky than good. Well, thank you very much. You're listening to NOS Adietes.
00:38:06
Speaker
Paul Paul wines are based in Seattle, owned and operated by Sanders fans, and have been sponsoring Nota Adieira since 2011. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest. Their model is simple. One, they email compelling offers.
00:38:25
Speaker
Two, you request bottles that sound appealing and three, your wine arrives at their soda warehouse and is ready for pickup or shipping. Their soda tasting room is also open to the public. If you're interested in joining their mailing list or learning more about them, visit fullpaulwines.com.
00:38:46
Speaker
Welcome back
Yacht-Con and Preseason Updates
00:38:47
Speaker
to NOS Audio Discs. So Aaron, like I said, Aaron isn't here today, but Lickit and I are going to take some of your questions, talk a little bit about Yacht-Con and just kind of wing it here. There's not a ton of big, big news as of today, but part of why we wanted to record was
00:39:08
Speaker
You know, just to ensure that the Sounders actually announced some signings this week. Um, so who knows? Maybe by the time you're listening to this, they'll already have announced some signings, but, uh, very strong suspicion that at least one signing is going to be announced this week. Uh, maybe more than that. So we'll see how that goes. Uh, yeah, go ahead and fire away. Look at right on, uh, Twemberly 23 asks, will the Sounders have any preseason matches streamed?
00:39:37
Speaker
That is a good question. As of now, it doesn't look like it. Although my guess is that when they're in Mexico, they're gonna be playing a few matches in Mexico and I...
00:39:48
Speaker
I'm guessing some of those matches will be streamed, but they, they have a match, uh, tomorrow against, I guess, loyal and Marymount. That is a closed door scrimmage. Uh, they play, they usually play a few college teams in the preseason. Uh, I guess they've been working on. Kind of their, their building out of the back, uh, style of play that they want to try to incorporate more this year and.
00:40:16
Speaker
So playing against a college team is probably a good practice for that. But yeah, that game's not streamed. The game against Pennyroll was not streamed. I don't think the one even against Sacramento Republic, which is at CenturyLink Field, is going to be streamed. So not a lot of options to watch the Sounders yet this preseason. I guess that's one downside of not playing in something like the Desert Diamond Cup, where they would presumably get to have some games streamed.
00:40:45
Speaker
But yeah, so I don't, I don't have a good answer for that. I will, uh, I'll see what I can find out though. Okay. Next question. Uh, two or six hometowners asked the team just hire a new video analysis guy. And there have been other staff fluctuations. Damien wrote in, in particular, uh, any insights in the current state of the technical staff group?
00:41:07
Speaker
Yeah, I asked about this back when the sounders were in Seattle at Starfire in the first part of training, and they didn't have any announcements at the time, and it kind of sounds like they might be hiring Damien Rodin's, like at least there's a possibility of them hiring Damien Rodin's replacement from within. The guy who has been doing his job, whose name is totally escaping me right now,
00:41:37
Speaker
has been with the team for a couple of years and they seem to be reasonably happy with how he's doing. I don't know. I don't have a lot of insight into how well they thought Damien Rodin was doing, but they seem pretty happy with him, I guess. But they have built out that staff a ton and
00:41:58
Speaker
you know, it'll be interesting to see what they end up doing. The guy that just hired to be a video analyst, a guy named Jorge Garcia, he most recent, most recently was at Leeds with, with Claudio Beelsa. And then before that, he was with
00:42:17
Speaker
Why am I blanking? He was with Athletico Madrid with Diego Simeone and Then before that he was with Valencia. So he's got some pretty good pedigree It'll be interesting to see how they continue to build out their analytical staff as well But we don't have other than that I Don't I mean I don't have
00:42:40
Speaker
any great insight into what they're doing, but they have plenty of people on their staff right now, that's for sure. I was thinking, I was talking about this with someone the other day, how back in 2009, they basically had
00:42:55
Speaker
Dave Tenney, they had Tommy Dutra. Dave Tenney was the head physio. They had Tommy Dutra, the goalkeeper's coach. They had Ezra Hendrickson, who was the main defensive coach. They had Sigi, and they had Brian Schmetzer, and that was basically the whole staff.
00:43:14
Speaker
Like they had almost no, you know, they, they had what four or five guys, and then slowly they've been kind of building that out and adding more and more pieces. I want to say they have at least a dozen people on their, on their technical staff now, uh, like with the, with the coaches and whatnot. Um, and they might have more than that. It's pretty impressive. Yeah. Uh, Jerome 637 asks, who do you start as our fullbacks and CCL?
00:43:44
Speaker
Well, I would say the smart money is definitely on Kelvin Lierdom at right back. Uh, his backup is very bold choice, bold, bold choice. He doesn't even have a backup right now. Best I can tell. Um, who do we think his backup is? That's a, if the season started right now, I'm not sure who was the backup right back is. Maybe it's Christian. Um, isn't that where Alex was playing a little bit too.
00:44:08
Speaker
Alex. Oh, Alex will dawn. Yeah, I guess and he's not he's not technically signed. But yeah, I suppose Alex will dawn might be the might be the the backup right back plan.
00:44:18
Speaker
But yeah, left back is obviously the much bigger question mark. Jovan Jones and New Who are, I think, both perfectly capable of playing there. I think either one of them could in some ways be a top class left back in this league. New Who might be one of the better defensive left backs, Jovan Jones.
00:44:39
Speaker
might be one of the best offensive left backs. I think we sometimes forgot how good he was going forward. And it'll be interesting to see how they use that. I mean, right now, the way the team is constructed, I wouldn't be totally shocked to see Jones starting on the right. I mean, he was the starting right midfielder in the MLS Cup, after all.
00:45:02
Speaker
And new who I think would be perfectly fine. Uh, he's now back in training. He started a little bit late, but he's, he's now training with the team in, in long beach. So I don't know. I guess if you're asking me to guess, I think it would maybe make sense to start new who for the road game and Jones at home. It's what's the difference. And correct me if I'm wrong there, that's the like right back.
00:45:31
Speaker
Uh, it's not something they were targeting really like to bring in or anything. Uh, not that, I mean, like, no, not, we have not been linked to any right backs. At one point we had heard a rumor that they were maybe going after Nick Lima, who's the right back with the earthquakes and nothing. He's still with the earthquakes. Uh, we haven't really heard any other kind of rumblings about that. So.
00:45:58
Speaker
I mean, that would be, certainly that would be a welcome addition, but yeah, as far as we know, we haven't, we haven't heard anything, uh, in terms of like, they haven't been like none of the rumors that have been circulating about their, you know, bringing someone in from outside the league have been right backs. Lima would have been like a pretty big trade. Yeah, it would have been. Um, I don't know exactly what they would have had to give up, but you would imagine it would have been something significant.
00:46:28
Speaker
Okay. Uh, next question, bill Jones STRPT asks, assuming our two big signings are done, uh, is a four, two, three, one still the likely look for best 11, or is there any reason to think we may see a formation or style change? I mean, I think Brian likes playing the four, two, three, one. I think it has a fair amount of flexibility, you know, at points.
00:46:54
Speaker
Last year we saw it kind of morph into a little bit more of a three
00:47:00
Speaker
back three, five, one, three, four, three, I guess three, six, it would be, no, I guess that doesn't add up. Three, five, two, I guess would be how that would play out. But we saw it kind of play out a little bit at times that way in the build out where they would have Gustav Svensson dropping all the way back into the, you know, to the center backs and kind of playing it out that way. And it'll be interesting to see if they try to restart that again.
00:47:27
Speaker
because they really did seem to like that. They were essentially allowing Brad Smith to bomb forward.
00:47:39
Speaker
Anyway, so I don't think that that's going to be a technical formation change. I think we might see something like that in that you'll see the 4-2-3-1 play like a three-back formation. But yeah, I don't think there's any reason to think there's going to be a big formation change.
00:48:03
Speaker
Okay, this is probably a good time to just reiterate that here on the podcast, we don't really have any self-serving questions ever asked and we never, you know, hand her to any self-serving issues. So let's just bring the last question in here. Abom88 asks, should I bring a date to Yacht-Con if she's never listened to the podcast or read Sounder Heart but has been to a few Sounders matches?
00:48:28
Speaker
I mean, I think if I was taking a girl on a date and I had an opportunity to go take her to something like Yacht-Con 5 Homecoming, why would you not take her? I mean, it's gonna be a good time, or I don't know if he even specifies if it's a girl or not, but I think it's gonna be a good time. I would say, you know,
00:48:56
Speaker
You don't have to feel like you have to get dressed up, but you could totally get dressed up. I mean, it's an evening out at hails Palladium. You know, you're going to have a star studded star studded event. You're going to have trophies. You're going to have a photo booth. I mean, I don't know what else you could ask for, frankly, in a perfect date. Yeah. So bring your date. Absolutely. You'll probably come. She'll probably come away very impressed.
00:49:25
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's, I think it's gonna be a good time. I'm all joking aside. I think we're, I'm excited about this one. This is the first time that we've ever had Yacht-Con at like a dedicated event space as opposed to like making room inside of a bar or a restaurant and or a warehouse as it was the first year.
00:49:44
Speaker
So I think it's going to be a lot of fun. You know, it's, you know, we'll see what we can really do with the space, but you know, like there's going to be like proper lighting and stage. So you can see everything. Yeah. I mean, it's, I think it's going to be great.
00:50:01
Speaker
sound system exactly if you're gonna be able to hear us I mean it's gonna be crazy it's gonna like and and if this goes well who knows this might be like the two main things that hails Palladium hosts moisture fest and yacht con yeah
00:50:18
Speaker
Uh, but yeah, so you can get tickets if you haven't bought tickets yet. Uh, all we have left. Yeah. When, when is this, when is this event that you speak of? Good. Very good question. February 25th, uh, at Hales Palladium in Fremont. That's a Tuesday. I know there is some grumbling about it being on a Tuesday, but
00:50:40
Speaker
You know, we don't have the unfortunate, we don't, aren't so great about planning too far ahead. But the other thing is about having it on weekends is like the sounders have a lot of stuff going on weekends and it definitely creates challenges. So like if we had tried to have it on the preceding weekend, that would have just been two days after the sounders had played in Honduras. And I think that would have probably created some challenges.
00:51:08
Speaker
for logistical reasons. So anyway, it's a Tuesday. It's at Hales Palladium. You can get tickets at yachtconv.b as in boy, p as in Paul, t as in Tom, .m as in man, e as in Edward.
00:51:28
Speaker
And like, if you're listening to this podcast, are you actually sitting there writing down the web address? I don't know. But there you go. They're 20 bucks. We've already sold out of the reserve tables, which we're selling for 160 bucks a table. So 40 got four tickets, 160 bucks a table, those sold out like
00:51:46
Speaker
in the first two days. And then we had this VIP experience that we also sold that was 400 bucks. And it was so basically for four tickets, you got it was like 100 bucks a piece that sold out in that first weekend. We are considering having a we're trying to figure out how to do a live auction, we want to we're launching a Twitch channel. And
00:52:09
Speaker
It actually exists now, there's nothing on it. But if you want to go to, I think it's just twitch.com slash nosadantis, is that right? I don't know. But that's how we're also gonna broadcast Yacht-Con if you can't make it. And if you can't make it, I would urge you to at least donate to our charity partner, which is Seattle Children's Autism Center, which is a great,
00:52:37
Speaker
a great great charity they do some amazing work and the money that we donate to them is actually i think they're gonna use it all again we're setting a very bold and i don't frankly know if we're gonna be able to do it but we decided to set us a real goal for the first time we've never done this before but
00:52:55
Speaker
We've set a $10,000 goal, which is helped by Sounder at Heart and Espination donating some money to us to help cover our costs. So that is a huge help in terms of getting to that number. And so we thought,
00:53:12
Speaker
why not just like go for it, right? And I talked to some people at Seattle Children's and they were kind of contemplating whether or not they wanted to change what we're putting this money towards. But the reality is they have this virtually endless need to buy these things they call red boxes and they have the supplies that they're able to give to families with kids with autism. And it has all these different supplies that kind of help with emergency situations.
00:53:37
Speaker
And they have this... The money that we raise essentially pays for these boxes, and they're able to just hand them out to families as they need them at no charge. And they have, like I said, they have this kind of endless need. So there's no reason to not just put all the money that we're giving them into that. So that's pretty cool. But yeah, so
00:53:59
Speaker
We have some merchandise that also the proceeds go to the charity as well. I would urge you to go to our threadless page. If you have ever bought anything from Lickit, that's where he does most of his stuff. And yeah, there's lots of fun things. We're gonna have stickers, we'll have a poster.
00:54:23
Speaker
It'll be a good time. What do you think? Like, have I sold it well enough? How about you did? I think you've done a good job. Okay. Good. Cause, um, yeah, we're a little bit ahead of where we were last year in terms of ticket sales. And we'd like to stay that way. We have capacity for about 250 people and it would be great to pack that place. It's a, it's like, I honestly have the first time I went into this space.
00:54:50
Speaker
I was, I got nervous because it's like seeing it feels legit. Yeah, it feels legit. It feels legit and it's big and it's, and it's like kind of daunting to think like, Oh man, if only a hundred people show up, this is going to be really lonely, but we've sold more than a hundred tickets, luckily, but, uh, it's a, it's a great venue. Hales Ales, uh, will be pouring beer. Uh,
00:55:16
Speaker
El Camion, one of my favorite Mexican places in Seattle is right around the corner and you can bring food into the space. So it should be lots of, lots of things that love about this space, I think, and this event. You never know when this is when, and there's going to be two MLS cups there. We were able to, and we're working on trying to get Sammy.
00:55:39
Speaker
Sami, that would be the peace de resistance. It would be. It would. What do you think? What do you think we're gonna try the live auction a couple weeks? Yeah, I don't know. Like, yeah, let's try it in. We don't want to go to create like, when can we put this together a couple weeks?
00:55:56
Speaker
Yeah, we have like almost a month before the thing. So if we do it a couple of weeks from now, we will, if you are following us on Twitter, we will make sure you know about it. But it
Conclusion and Charity Promotions
00:56:07
Speaker
would be nice to be able to raise some money selling things like that. And just in case it wasn't clear, the access that you get with doing the VIP experience is that,
00:56:24
Speaker
you get you're going to get fed. We actually have a real caterer this time. You're going to get to meet people in the green room. Lots of special guests who I can't really share. But you know, you can probably figure out who some of them would be based on previous shows. Brian has come in the past. Garth has come in the past. Garth and Brian have actually been
00:56:51
Speaker
at every one, except for the first one. So Adrian was at the first one, though. Adrian was at the first one, right? Exactly. And we have usually we're usually able to get a player or two. One of those players does a podcast with us that, you know, we can probably twist his arm if we try hard enough. There's a few former players in the area who like to who have said they will come hang out with us.
00:57:20
Speaker
Uh, so, you know, it should be. I think we'll be good time. I think we'll be good time. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And it's just, it's just a social event, you know, you get together. Yeah, exactly. Have a few drinks, have a few laughs.
00:57:32
Speaker
Yeah. Look at what Jeremiah is going to be wearing that kind of stuff. I know I need to, I actually need to get on. I need to get on that. Uh, there's a place in Everett, apparently that rents like old school tuxedos. And I, I really want to, I don't want to, I don't want to over promise and under deliver here, but I'm going to see what I can, I can actually put something together. I've, I've, I've kind of like half-assed a bunch of.
00:57:59
Speaker
like outfits the last few years. In fact, the shirt I'm wearing right now, I wore at one of the yacht cons and I felt like it didn't, I don't know if it went off in my head. It was like playing like surfer dude. And I don't know that it really played that way. Um, that was the point break year. Yeah. It was an effort. It was an effort. It was an effort. Last year I wore a tuxedo shirt. Uh,
00:58:30
Speaker
I think that one actually got appreciated a little bit. Maybe, maybe. Garth at least commented on it. Sure. Sure. We'll go with that. He was being kind. He was being kind. But yeah, so that's that. That's the, that's my pitch. That's like my hour long pitch for Yacht-Con 5 Homecoming.
00:58:53
Speaker
We had a lot of debate about the name more than I had expected, but I like that name. Hope people do. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's works. It works. You have a theme, right? Yeah. We had like an existential crisis when Aaron was asking you, why do we need a theme? And I was like, I don't know. Why not? Pulls it all together. But, uh, anyway, so yeah.
00:59:22
Speaker
Come to Yacht-Con, and I guess I'll sign off. Thanks to our sponsor, Fullpool Wines. I'm sure they'll be donating some stuff. Fullpool Wines, great. I love Fullpool Wines. So anyway, I'm Jeremiah Shan, signing off for Lick It. This is No Sadietes. And remember, you will never get alone.
00:59:44
Speaker
Green Douglas spur where the water's cut through. Mountain wild mountains and tangents you flew. Canadian northwest to the ocean so blue. It's Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll On, Columbia Roll On.
01:00:25
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!