thank you and good morning it’s great to
be with you all and that what has
actually become my adopted hometown of
El Paso I first visited El Paso in the
January of 2012
I’d never been here before and all I
knew at the time is what I’ve read and
been told so West Texas town it’s in the
desert on the border and it can be
really windy that was it that was the
totality of my knowledge what my
perception was of El Paso at that point
it was a negative per se but it wasn’t
positive either it was kind of unknown
frankly leaning more to the negative
side now I will tell you that I believe
that’s the perception that those outside
of this community often have but what I
found and what I definitely felt was
what I’m gonna call the reality of El
Paso and that is the tremendous
potential that this region has and that
potential is the subject of my talk
today now little background
I’m the Californian born and raised in a
small town two hours north of the bay
area where I grew up on a ranch than my
family owned and operated for two
generations have you ever heard of Ukiah
most people have it oh here’s one that
has one of the reasons I really love
this community is because I can actually
spell El Paso I settled in the Bay Area
for college met my wife and that’s where
we decided we were going to live and
raise our family now this is despite but
I’ll call an addiction to the sports and
entertainment business that developed
over the course of time and it’s a
business that often requires frequent
relocation now at this point you may be
asking yourself what qualifications does
this guy this California the worst kind
the California have to tell me about my
city well it’s a good question the
answer is I think I can share a unique
perspective after visiting and working
here in this community for basically six
years about what I fought in 2012
and what I see in 2017 in the future now
after working here for almost six years
what my experiences tell me is that this
is a city on a spectacular rise now it’s
my perspective is a little bit like that
of the distant uncle who shows up after
five years walks in a house and says wow
the kids have sure grown it’s a it’s a
unique perspective but the perspective
of an outsider that those of you on the
inside may be a little bit too close to
recognize and may in fact take for
granted
well El Paso has grown and it’s grown in
many ways to the point where I believe
it can be become something very special
for the purpose of today’s this
discussion you can call it whatever fits
for you I’m going to refer to it as a
city of distinction and I’d like to
share with you why I feel this way and
how I see El Paso getting there now as
you might expect I’m going to use the
chihuahuas as sort of to draw some
analogies from and our experiences the
things we’ve learned and some of the
principles we have applied I believe can
be helpful as we look at El Paso’s
future in fact the twala’s just might
serve as a microcosm or a small scale
model for what can be on a much larger
scale in this community now when I
arrived here I found a city on the cusp
local philanthropist business and civic
leaders who had a vision and that vision
was to transform the community and
especially the downtown and in part to
do so using a sports team a new stadium
to play baseball to help build momentum
for this transformation imagine that a
sports team and the American pastime
could be part of this process
now simultaneously as many of you recall
the city was contemplating and later
approved by a margin of I believe 72%
a number of almost 500 million dollars
in bonds to support projects that would
further this transformative process it
was clearly a compelling vision from my
standpoint increase the quality of life
promote economic development and as a
result become much more competitive as a
region
well simultaneously during that time I
was knee-deep working with Mountain star
Sports Group to buy a team and do all
the things that you do to finance design
build a new ballpark and to create a new
business and we were all doing this from
scratch as you can imagine time was
flying by before we knew it it was
October 22nd 2013 day in our minds that
will live in infamy and I’ll tell you
why we were gathered with 1,500 people
in the plaza theater next door virtually
every member of the media from El Paso
and many from Juarez and we were there
to hear the answer to the most sought
after secret in decades in El Paso what
is the name of this new baseball team
well the curtains drew open the confetti
cannons went off the music blared the
balloons dropped and we announced we
were the El Paso chihuahuas well the
first 24 hours were not so good but that
might be an understatement the disdain
the disapproval and beyond was beyond
our wildest dreams as you can see here
we had some people who were clearly
embarrassed not just for the team but
for the community as at large they were
we have individuals who weren’t
returning for Thanksgiving Christmas
they weren’t even coming back for the
summer and then some who were just in
disbelief the good news is is the future
proved to be much brighter and more
about that later
well 2013 proved to be the beginning of
the beginning of a new era for El Paso
to understand
the development in the evolution of this
region it’s best to look back to the
20th the 20th century between 1900 and
1950 El Paso was truly a powerhouse it
was thought of amongst many of the great
cities in the u.s. it had great parks
and neighborhoods great transportation
systems and a vibrant downtown the
region had a big vision median family
income was 14% higher than the state
average 4% higher than even the national
average but in the second half of that
century that vision changed the city
began to focus on providing low-cost
labor primarily in the garment industry
the result the vision disappeared and
along with it those great parks the
community gathering places the trains
the trolleys the bus systems all but
went away
downtown became a dilapidated area
populated by many boarded up buildings
El Paso with during that era el paso was
thinking small very small other
communities like Phoenix Austin Tucson
were passing it by during that period of
time but in 2012 you could see that
there was a turnaround going on relative
to this decline that Oh Paso had the
potential to become something much more
significant than it had been in its
recent past but once again it could
become a great city or a city of
distinction and ultimately become
competitive on both the national stage
and even potentially the global stage
now some of the fruits of the labor of
the vision that was created during that
period of time are being seen today the
business cycle index is up significantly
El Paso’s employment growth is above its
long-term average and importantly in the
leisure and hospitality service sectors
there are key indicators that have
become very positive and that’s a spell
so important because quality of life is
part of that new vision and more busier
than downtown a more vibrant area more
things to do is critical to improving
that quality of life and obviously the
leisure and hospitality sector play a
big part so what is a city of
distinction now if you ask
orbán designers city planners even
psychologists about great cities they
will tell you that some of the
attributes include communities that
others admire they look up to they look
to replicate but from a very basic
standpoint a city of distinction has
these attributes it has the great parts
and neighborhoods the community
gathering places it has effective and
varied transportation systems and of
course the thriving and vibrant
downtown’s which we’re starting to
experience here it also has high
standards in three other areas in terms
of Education a distinctive City seeks to
ensure that a high percentage of high
school graduates do in fact go on to two
and four-year postgraduate work and then
a higher than average percentage of
those students graduate it seeks to
ensure that the median family income is
once again above the national average
and that the quality of life that is the
cultural the entertainment and the
sports scene is on par with the top
twenty percent of cities of equal size
now it’s one thing to set these goals
and to set these objectives buts another
thing to actually accomplish them
interestingly we face similar daunting
challenges with the baseball team during
our startup period and one of the first
things that we did and was to establish
some very high expectations and then to
establish a road map in our case it’s
our vision and our mission statements
our mission statement what we do is to
provide the highest quality the most
memorable entertainment in a safe
first-class and family-oriented
environment every day and
regain again high standards our vision
statement that is what we aspire to be
is to be the very best organization in
our business and minor league baseball
and then underlying all of these are our
core values these are the six items that
support the vision shape the culture and
reflect our organizational values now
our mission statement vision statement
core values have worked for us we’ve
been very fortunate to have some
significant significant success over the
course of our now four-year history and
we hope we’re playing over the course of
the next couple of days we we have set
attendance records for minor league
baseball in this community we’ve been
recognized on a national stage for the
quality of El Paso’s ballpark in the
ballpark experience and then importantly
we become a part of the fabric of this
community on a grassroots level but
underlying all of this and we don’t talk
about these particular items often but I
thought it was important to talk about
it here what we call our six guiding
lights and these may be these may be in
a lot of ways more important than even
the vision mission and mission
statements and the core values and as I
go through these think about El Paso as
a city of distinction the first is to
set the bar high and everyday and
everything that we do we want to be the
best that we can be we get it it’s not
always possible but it’s the standard
and the expectation that matters
second is attitude think of this out
almost as a naive optimism or a level of
convenient obliviousness that allows you
when the inevitable obstacles and
challenges come along to eventually
overcome them
third is to ignore the naysayers every
city has them there’s a rumor that El
Paso may have more than its share of
naysayers
now think back to that October day in
2013 we obviously were getting some
significant negative feedback we stayed
the course we we understood what what
direction we were going but we also
respectfully listened because we knew
that down the road we want to do
everything we can to embrace those folks
and to make them part of the
organization it’s important to be open
to new ideas and to collaborate at the
end of the day we get it we don’t have
all the best ideas by any stretch of the
imagination why not reach out find those
that are tried-and-true perfect them in
your own environment and end up at a
better place collaboration is key as
well in the context of our organization
we find that it results in a more body
in staff because they take ownership
same thing in a community if citizens
are heard if they’re part of the process
they’re going to embrace the end result
fifth is a fanatical attention to
details now most of you I’m sure have
been to Disneyland have you ever
wondered why Main Street and Disneyland
is spotless well the answer is Main
Street in Disneyland is spotless because
Main Street in Disneyland is spotless
right it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy we
endeavor never to have a piece of paper
on our concourse or in our bathrooms
clearly an impossible expectation
however it’s that standard that matters
and it translates into every aspect of
our business and then finally
communicate the vision it’s one thing to
have a vision but it’s another thing to
communicate it it’s critical to that in
the case of a community that civic and
business leadership communicate that
vision again and again and again and
again people don’t hear it at first
they’re busy they have their own lives
but eventually they’ll start to listen
repetition leads to awareness which
leads to acceptance which ultimately
results in in our case people embracing
the team becoming fanatical fans and
hopefully in the case of the community
becoming fanatical citizens well let’s
hard come back to that marvelous 24
hours in 2013 we were being lambasted
far and wide regarding our our choice
people were were prepared to leave the
city but with we stayed the course we
believed in our vision we told the story
behind the name in the logo the
backstory and we told it again and again
and again and what happened that I began
to turn over the course of the next day
or two the comments turned to be come
much more positive and ultimately we
were having people who were seeking us
out to wear Chihuahuas gear within a
week people in all 50 states and ten
foreign countries had purchased
Chihuahuas merchandise within a month we
had more people following the Chihuahuas
on Facebook than any other team and
there’s a hundred and fifty nine of them
and minor league baseball not the
ultimate metric but it demonstrated the
level of interest and then over the long
term in our first three seasons we have
sold more merchandise than any other
team in the history of minor league
baseball during a similar period of time
ever and the the reason is that we had a
vision
we believed in that vision we had a
staff in a community that took ownership
of that vision and with that vision we
strive to be the very best in the
business now I believe El Paso is on a
path to becoming a city of distinction
as long as it has a vision those that
communicate that vision vision again and
again and again and the willingness to
do the little things that create results
El Paso can become a city of distinction
when I arrived here in 2014 I saw the
potential and standing here today
in 2017 I have no doubt that Oh Paso
will accomplish that distinction thank
you
[Applause]
be with you all and that what has
actually become my adopted hometown of
El Paso I first visited El Paso in the
January of 2012
I’d never been here before and all I
knew at the time is what I’ve read and
been told so West Texas town it’s in the
desert on the border and it can be
really windy that was it that was the
totality of my knowledge what my
perception was of El Paso at that point
it was a negative per se but it wasn’t
positive either it was kind of unknown
frankly leaning more to the negative
side now I will tell you that I believe
that’s the perception that those outside
of this community often have but what I
found and what I definitely felt was
what I’m gonna call the reality of El
Paso and that is the tremendous
potential that this region has and that
potential is the subject of my talk
today now little background
I’m the Californian born and raised in a
small town two hours north of the bay
area where I grew up on a ranch than my
family owned and operated for two
generations have you ever heard of Ukiah
most people have it oh here’s one that
has one of the reasons I really love
this community is because I can actually
spell El Paso I settled in the Bay Area
for college met my wife and that’s where
we decided we were going to live and
raise our family now this is despite but
I’ll call an addiction to the sports and
entertainment business that developed
over the course of time and it’s a
business that often requires frequent
relocation now at this point you may be
asking yourself what qualifications does
this guy this California the worst kind
the California have to tell me about my
city well it’s a good question the
answer is I think I can share a unique
perspective after visiting and working
here in this community for basically six
years about what I fought in 2012
and what I see in 2017 in the future now
after working here for almost six years
what my experiences tell me is that this
is a city on a spectacular rise now it’s
my perspective is a little bit like that
of the distant uncle who shows up after
five years walks in a house and says wow
the kids have sure grown it’s a it’s a
unique perspective but the perspective
of an outsider that those of you on the
inside may be a little bit too close to
recognize and may in fact take for
granted
well El Paso has grown and it’s grown in
many ways to the point where I believe
it can be become something very special
for the purpose of today’s this
discussion you can call it whatever fits
for you I’m going to refer to it as a
city of distinction and I’d like to
share with you why I feel this way and
how I see El Paso getting there now as
you might expect I’m going to use the
chihuahuas as sort of to draw some
analogies from and our experiences the
things we’ve learned and some of the
principles we have applied I believe can
be helpful as we look at El Paso’s
future in fact the twala’s just might
serve as a microcosm or a small scale
model for what can be on a much larger
scale in this community now when I
arrived here I found a city on the cusp
local philanthropist business and civic
leaders who had a vision and that vision
was to transform the community and
especially the downtown and in part to
do so using a sports team a new stadium
to play baseball to help build momentum
for this transformation imagine that a
sports team and the American pastime
could be part of this process
now simultaneously as many of you recall
the city was contemplating and later
approved by a margin of I believe 72%
a number of almost 500 million dollars
in bonds to support projects that would
further this transformative process it
was clearly a compelling vision from my
standpoint increase the quality of life
promote economic development and as a
result become much more competitive as a
region
well simultaneously during that time I
was knee-deep working with Mountain star
Sports Group to buy a team and do all
the things that you do to finance design
build a new ballpark and to create a new
business and we were all doing this from
scratch as you can imagine time was
flying by before we knew it it was
October 22nd 2013 day in our minds that
will live in infamy and I’ll tell you
why we were gathered with 1,500 people
in the plaza theater next door virtually
every member of the media from El Paso
and many from Juarez and we were there
to hear the answer to the most sought
after secret in decades in El Paso what
is the name of this new baseball team
well the curtains drew open the confetti
cannons went off the music blared the
balloons dropped and we announced we
were the El Paso chihuahuas well the
first 24 hours were not so good but that
might be an understatement the disdain
the disapproval and beyond was beyond
our wildest dreams as you can see here
we had some people who were clearly
embarrassed not just for the team but
for the community as at large they were
we have individuals who weren’t
returning for Thanksgiving Christmas
they weren’t even coming back for the
summer and then some who were just in
disbelief the good news is is the future
proved to be much brighter and more
about that later
well 2013 proved to be the beginning of
the beginning of a new era for El Paso
to understand
the development in the evolution of this
region it’s best to look back to the
20th the 20th century between 1900 and
1950 El Paso was truly a powerhouse it
was thought of amongst many of the great
cities in the u.s. it had great parks
and neighborhoods great transportation
systems and a vibrant downtown the
region had a big vision median family
income was 14% higher than the state
average 4% higher than even the national
average but in the second half of that
century that vision changed the city
began to focus on providing low-cost
labor primarily in the garment industry
the result the vision disappeared and
along with it those great parks the
community gathering places the trains
the trolleys the bus systems all but
went away
downtown became a dilapidated area
populated by many boarded up buildings
El Paso with during that era el paso was
thinking small very small other
communities like Phoenix Austin Tucson
were passing it by during that period of
time but in 2012 you could see that
there was a turnaround going on relative
to this decline that Oh Paso had the
potential to become something much more
significant than it had been in its
recent past but once again it could
become a great city or a city of
distinction and ultimately become
competitive on both the national stage
and even potentially the global stage
now some of the fruits of the labor of
the vision that was created during that
period of time are being seen today the
business cycle index is up significantly
El Paso’s employment growth is above its
long-term average and importantly in the
leisure and hospitality service sectors
there are key indicators that have
become very positive and that’s a spell
so important because quality of life is
part of that new vision and more busier
than downtown a more vibrant area more
things to do is critical to improving
that quality of life and obviously the
leisure and hospitality sector play a
big part so what is a city of
distinction now if you ask
orbán designers city planners even
psychologists about great cities they
will tell you that some of the
attributes include communities that
others admire they look up to they look
to replicate but from a very basic
standpoint a city of distinction has
these attributes it has the great parts
and neighborhoods the community
gathering places it has effective and
varied transportation systems and of
course the thriving and vibrant
downtown’s which we’re starting to
experience here it also has high
standards in three other areas in terms
of Education a distinctive City seeks to
ensure that a high percentage of high
school graduates do in fact go on to two
and four-year postgraduate work and then
a higher than average percentage of
those students graduate it seeks to
ensure that the median family income is
once again above the national average
and that the quality of life that is the
cultural the entertainment and the
sports scene is on par with the top
twenty percent of cities of equal size
now it’s one thing to set these goals
and to set these objectives buts another
thing to actually accomplish them
interestingly we face similar daunting
challenges with the baseball team during
our startup period and one of the first
things that we did and was to establish
some very high expectations and then to
establish a road map in our case it’s
our vision and our mission statements
our mission statement what we do is to
provide the highest quality the most
memorable entertainment in a safe
first-class and family-oriented
environment every day and
regain again high standards our vision
statement that is what we aspire to be
is to be the very best organization in
our business and minor league baseball
and then underlying all of these are our
core values these are the six items that
support the vision shape the culture and
reflect our organizational values now
our mission statement vision statement
core values have worked for us we’ve
been very fortunate to have some
significant significant success over the
course of our now four-year history and
we hope we’re playing over the course of
the next couple of days we we have set
attendance records for minor league
baseball in this community we’ve been
recognized on a national stage for the
quality of El Paso’s ballpark in the
ballpark experience and then importantly
we become a part of the fabric of this
community on a grassroots level but
underlying all of this and we don’t talk
about these particular items often but I
thought it was important to talk about
it here what we call our six guiding
lights and these may be these may be in
a lot of ways more important than even
the vision mission and mission
statements and the core values and as I
go through these think about El Paso as
a city of distinction the first is to
set the bar high and everyday and
everything that we do we want to be the
best that we can be we get it it’s not
always possible but it’s the standard
and the expectation that matters
second is attitude think of this out
almost as a naive optimism or a level of
convenient obliviousness that allows you
when the inevitable obstacles and
challenges come along to eventually
overcome them
third is to ignore the naysayers every
city has them there’s a rumor that El
Paso may have more than its share of
naysayers
now think back to that October day in
2013 we obviously were getting some
significant negative feedback we stayed
the course we we understood what what
direction we were going but we also
respectfully listened because we knew
that down the road we want to do
everything we can to embrace those folks
and to make them part of the
organization it’s important to be open
to new ideas and to collaborate at the
end of the day we get it we don’t have
all the best ideas by any stretch of the
imagination why not reach out find those
that are tried-and-true perfect them in
your own environment and end up at a
better place collaboration is key as
well in the context of our organization
we find that it results in a more body
in staff because they take ownership
same thing in a community if citizens
are heard if they’re part of the process
they’re going to embrace the end result
fifth is a fanatical attention to
details now most of you I’m sure have
been to Disneyland have you ever
wondered why Main Street and Disneyland
is spotless well the answer is Main
Street in Disneyland is spotless because
Main Street in Disneyland is spotless
right it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy we
endeavor never to have a piece of paper
on our concourse or in our bathrooms
clearly an impossible expectation
however it’s that standard that matters
and it translates into every aspect of
our business and then finally
communicate the vision it’s one thing to
have a vision but it’s another thing to
communicate it it’s critical to that in
the case of a community that civic and
business leadership communicate that
vision again and again and again and
again people don’t hear it at first
they’re busy they have their own lives
but eventually they’ll start to listen
repetition leads to awareness which
leads to acceptance which ultimately
results in in our case people embracing
the team becoming fanatical fans and
hopefully in the case of the community
becoming fanatical citizens well let’s
hard come back to that marvelous 24
hours in 2013 we were being lambasted
far and wide regarding our our choice
people were were prepared to leave the
city but with we stayed the course we
believed in our vision we told the story
behind the name in the logo the
backstory and we told it again and again
and again and what happened that I began
to turn over the course of the next day
or two the comments turned to be come
much more positive and ultimately we
were having people who were seeking us
out to wear Chihuahuas gear within a
week people in all 50 states and ten
foreign countries had purchased
Chihuahuas merchandise within a month we
had more people following the Chihuahuas
on Facebook than any other team and
there’s a hundred and fifty nine of them
and minor league baseball not the
ultimate metric but it demonstrated the
level of interest and then over the long
term in our first three seasons we have
sold more merchandise than any other
team in the history of minor league
baseball during a similar period of time
ever and the the reason is that we had a
vision
we believed in that vision we had a
staff in a community that took ownership
of that vision and with that vision we
strive to be the very best in the
business now I believe El Paso is on a
path to becoming a city of distinction
as long as it has a vision those that
communicate that vision vision again and
again and again and the willingness to
do the little things that create results
El Paso can become a city of distinction
when I arrived here in 2014 I saw the
potential and standing here today
in 2017 I have no doubt that Oh Paso
will accomplish that distinction thank
you
[Applause]
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