Peter Tomozawa: World Cup Baller Elevates Seattle, ep. 1

[00:00:00] Jonathan Sposato: I think it was Mark Twain who said, We are born twice. We are born on the day that we are given birth, and we’re born once more when we discover why we were born. And if that’s true, then the day Peter Tamazawa and I had a conversation about our mutual birthplace of London was the second day I was born.

[00:00:17] Jonathan Sposato: Peter is currently the CEO of Seattle World Cup Organizing Committee, responsible for readying our city for the World Cup. He was the prior president of the Seattle Sounders business operations, and also has had one of the most fascinating business careers I’ve had the honor of witnessing. Having first worked in technology in IBM during the heyday was a managing director and partner of Goldman Sachs, then served in the public sector in the state of Hawaii.

[00:00:42] Jonathan Sposato: His career spans working in Tokyo, New York, and London, and some of those several times. Please welcome my friend, Peter Tomazawa. Hey, Peter, how are you? Really good. Yeah. Thanks, John. That was quite an introduction. I appreciate that. You’re too kind. You know, I understand that you got here via [00:01:00] scooter. Is that a common mode of transportation for you around the city?

[00:01:02] Peter Tomozawa: Walking and scooting. Yes. I just do enjoy getting around the city and you see so much more when you walk. 

[00:01:09] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. So, uh, you have worked in so many different places and I was delighted the other night when we ran into each other at another event that you and I were actually both.

[00:01:21] Jonathan Sposato: Born in London and I always thought I was such an odd duck being an Asian guy being born in London. And then you asked me where in London and I said Hendon and you asked me why, uh, I, do I know why I was born there and I didn’t, uh, uh, yeah, why, why did you ask me that? 

[00:01:39] Peter Tomozawa: Well, you know, um, I was born in London.

[00:01:42] Peter Tomozawa: Uh, 1961, I was born in Hendon hospital where you were actually born in hospital. And we’re not too far off in age. So our parents had to be there right around the same time, obviously. Um, and my dad moved from Tokyo, Japan [00:02:00] to, uh, Cambridge and England, and then we moved to London. So that was in 1959. He moved there in 1961, uh, we moved to London.

[00:02:08] Peter Tomozawa: He was a professor of physics. Uh, so he started at Cambridge, then went to University of London. And I was subsequently born. And I had found out very late in life that the reason why you and I were born in Hennon Hospital is because at that time in England, the only place where Japanese people or Asian people of any, you know, Asian descent could actually rent from was in Golders Green.

[00:02:31] Peter Tomozawa: And Golder’s Green is right next to Hendon. Mm-Hmm. . Uh, and Golder’s Green is in Northwest London, and it is also known as JJ Town with the highest concentration of Jewish delis and synagogues. Mm. As well as Japanese and Asian grocery stores in London to this day.

[00:02:53] Peter Tomozawa: And so many people don’t know this story. Uh, but it was all based on race at the time. And, uh, my father, I asked my [00:03:00] father, why did we live in Northwest London? Cause later on in life, I moved to London and actually, ironically, rented a Place not far from where I was born and he’s like, Oh, is it still the case that it’s, that’s the only place you could, I’m like, what are you talking about?

[00:03:14] Peter Tomozawa: And he said, no, this is JJ town. And that’s why you were there. Wow. Wow. That’s like, I guess if 

[00:03:19] Jonathan Sposato: you were, I, I, so I mean, despite the fact that it’s, it’s, um, I guess you could say it’s a, it’s a form of redlining, although probably there, they didn’t call it that or, or some way of sort of restricting where immigrants or non whites could live, despite the fact that that’s, that’s, you know, not a good thing for, for inclusivity and diversity in a city, I am actually really touched that you, I appreciate it.

[00:03:42] Jonathan Sposato: Share that story with me because, uh, now I sort of get it now. I get why we were there. Um, and I look back and you know, my mother’s now 87 and sadly she has, um, pretty advanced dementia. And so, oh, it’s it’s um, and I think it’s. [00:04:00] It’s an honor to be able to take care of your elders. I think that’s what we’re here, uh, to do.

[00:04:04] Jonathan Sposato: They took care of us when we were young. And, and, um, so I, I don’t, uh, no longer have the ability to go back and ask her questions. So this is, this is just amazing. And as an Asian American, I love to, to sort of understand more, some of these stories of, of immigration patterns, how we ended up. Yeah. Yeah. And, and so then, uh, how did your family end up in the States?

[00:04:26] Peter Tomozawa: So my father, uh, was studying physics. I was at the University of Tokyo, and then he went to Cambridge, as I just mentioned, University of London, where I was subsequently born. Then we moved to, uh, Pisa, Italy. Wow. Uh, and he actually followed, I didn’t realize this until very late in life. In fact, until the movie Oppenheimer came out.

[00:04:45] Jonathan Sposato: Wow. 

[00:04:45] Peter Tomozawa: Which was like last year. No, yes. I didn’t realize why he had moved. I, he had always told me he had moved and we, I knew that we had moved, but I never knew why. And it turns out that in that high energy physics, you know, kind of quantum physics [00:05:00] world, one follows success. And so my father emulated Oppenheimer’s success because Oppenheimer started in Berkeley and then went to Cambridge.

[00:05:10] Peter Tomozawa: So my dad decided to replicate that path. He never told me this story because he was in his late age, couldn’t really repeat that story, but I just sort of placed that together. Then he went, then Oppenheimer went to Germany. My dad went to Italy. Then they both came back to Princeton, New Jersey. So when I was about six years old, I arrived here in the United States without speaking any English really.

[00:05:34] Peter Tomozawa: And uh, that’s our, that’s our, that’s my immigrant story. 

[00:05:39] Jonathan Sposato: Let’s talk about the Sounders. Okay. I have, you know, Seattle is kind of a small town, especially for those of us who were raised here. And I’ve been in Seattle since I was about age 10. Actually I’ve known Adrian Hanauer, the majority owner of the Sounders, ever since we were born.

[00:05:55] Jonathan Sposato: Young men, like practically teenagers who might have been like 19 when we first met [00:06:00] one of my best friends, uh, who’s also a really prolific technology entrepreneur was his roommate at U dub and sometimes they’d have parties and invite, you know, let’s call that Spazato guy over. Um, and it’s been amazing to witness.

[00:06:12] Jonathan Sposato: I almost see the Sounders as one of the most amazing homegrown. Startup stories, uh, because having known Adrian since that time, I knew that he had a love of the sounders, the original Sounders that were here in Seattle. I think that it was a dream and an ambition of his from early on. He was smart and.

[00:06:38] Jonathan Sposato: Did well investing and did well in business and, and got to the position. We’re all very Seattle proud of the Sounders. And so I want to know, like you have a very fascinating story in terms of how you got connected with the Sounders. Was it something about your son? 

[00:06:53] Peter Tomozawa: Sure. So I retired from the finance business, uh, in 2010, we [00:07:00] moved to Hawaii from New York city and I got involved in civic duties, as you mentioned in my introduction, uh, I became commissioner of charter schools for the state of Hawaii, uh, board of education. Uh, so I got to manage the charter school system there, 10, 000 kids, 32 schools, um, and then, uh, and on my way to the mayor of Honolulu’s office, so I worked for him for a couple of years.

[00:07:25] Peter Tomozawa: And as life would have it, one of the reasons why we moved to Hawaii was primarily because I wanted to not miss my children growing up part of working in wall street. And for 20 years is, you know, the price you pay for that is time and you can’t get time back. And so. My kids were starting to all leave high school, so we moved up and moved from New York City to Honolulu and then my youngest son of five children tried out for the Portland Timbers Youth Academy in 2015 and the Seattle Sounders Youth Academy.

[00:07:59] Peter Tomozawa: He doesn’t make [00:08:00] Portland, but he does make Seattle. He comes home and says, Hey mom, dad, I have made the Seattle Sounders Youth Academy soccer team. And we’re like, Oh, great. What does that actually mean? Because we didn’t really know. And I was thinking, Oh, this means he has to go to Seattle maybe once every few months or for a camp or something like that.

[00:08:19] Peter Tomozawa: He goes, well, it means that I have to move to Seattle. I’m like, what do you mean? You’re going to move to Seattle. You know, we have a home and a life here in Hawaii. And, uh, he goes, there’s a kid 

[00:08:32] Peter Tomozawa: you know, well, you know, and then he starts arguing about as to why he wants to, you know, follow this thing and he starts explaining what the, the program was like with what they had set up at the Sounders, you know, my wife’s listening and I’m listening and finally she says, you know, you can stop.

[00:08:49] Peter Tomozawa: And she says to my son, you’re not moving to Seattle and he’s looking all disappointed and hurt and everything. And she looks at me and she says. We [00:09:00] are moving to Seattle, we are going to support our son, and we were facing premature empty nesting, 

[00:09:06] Peter Tomozawa: and, uh, and not knowing a soul in this area.

[00:09:09] Peter Tomozawa: Wow. We moved to, in 2015 to help support, um, our son’s dream. 

[00:09:15] Jonathan Sposato: Okay. Wait, let’s pause there because then we’re gonna get, uh, connect that to the Sounders. I had assumed, Peter, that with your, uh, impact on the community, your success in your career, that, that you had a network of amazing friends and, and supporters, uh, and colleagues in the Seattle area.

[00:09:35] Jonathan Sposato: You, you really, you had nobody when you moved here? 

[00:09:38] Peter Tomozawa: I think there was one person, two people from my high school. I grew up in Michigan for the most part. That’s where my dad was a physics professor at the University of Michigan. Michigan Technological University I think there were two people from my high school that I had lost touch with that were here, but that was it.

[00:09:54] Peter Tomozawa: There was no family, no connection, really no business, nothing. So we moved [00:10:00] here in 2015 and I started my association with the Seattle Sounders as a dad of an academy kid. 

[00:10:07] Jonathan Sposato: Wow, that’s amazing. There’s so much we can, uh, sort of talk about here because, because as a, as a son of, uh, my wife and I have a 14 year old and he’s turning, actually he’s turning 15 in a few weeks.

[00:10:19] Jonathan Sposato: I am putting myself in your guys’ shoes. What, what an amazing commitment. I actually could, if we, if I could ask, and this is the stuff that I like to geek out on, there’s the real substance of how people make decisions and, you know, Balance family with career with, um, maybe philanthropic things or what attributes do you think have to be in place for any family for the parents to make that kind of commitment?

[00:10:46] Jonathan Sposato: What do you think tipped your wife over you to move up here? 

[00:10:50] Peter Tomozawa: Well, you know, I think. I had spent a career kind of moving around, pivoted from technology to finance to government, uh, we had [00:11:00] moved all around the world and, you know, there’s so much the world has to offer. And, you know, I think, and kind of like looking at that family decision we were about to make to move from Hawaii to Seattle, we were like, well, we’ve never lived in the Pacific Northwest and we’ve heard so many great things about Seattle.

[00:11:17] Peter Tomozawa: Um, and it was really a desire to keep the family together. 

[00:11:20] Peter Tomozawa: hmm. And this became a family effort. I am really blessed that I could be able to do something like this. Uh, he was our youngest of five, so we were like feeling that the emptiness of the house growing and all our kids are very tight in age every two years.

[00:11:38] Peter Tomozawa: And so, you know, he was going to be, Um, our last one in the house. And so we weren’t ready to have that empty nesting put upon us. And we knew that was coming, but we didn’t want it to be then. And so we’ve had that sense of exploration, you know, having lived and worked. And as you mentioned earlier, I started my career in Goldman Sachs in New York.

[00:11:59] Peter Tomozawa: [00:12:00] We’ve got to go to Tokyo, then they, then they moved me to London, then they moved me back to Tokyo and I finished my career in New York. So, you know, we’ve kind of been moving around and every place we go, we love every place we go, we learn and every place we go, it’s just so rich and, uh, it’s, it’s the variety and the spice of life actually that I think was easy.

[00:12:20] Peter Tomozawa: And so even my kids today are all over the place. You know, I’ve got a son in Australia, I’ve got a daughter in San Francisco, I’ve got a son in New York city, uh, I have. I have another son in San Francisco. I have a daughter who is now in Michigan, but she’s going to be moving to the Bay Area. So, you know, they’re all moving around.

[00:12:39] Peter Tomozawa: And at one time we had four of our five kids living in New York City. Wow. You know, working professionally. So like I was, you know, I think that’s been a big part of their life. It’s been a big part of our life. 

[00:12:52] Jonathan Sposato: That’s amazing. What were your first impressions? You’ve heard great things about Seattle. I would assume you’ve, you had visited before.

[00:13:00] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah, we had visited, we’d seen pikes. Um, my wife, uh, had come here right when the rail opened from the airport and took it into the city. The impressions are just sort of like, this is a beautiful place. Um, I have to say. I don’t mind the weather. I think the weather actually is fabulous here, you know, but that’s because I grew up in Michigan where winters are six months long and awful and the summers are super hot.

[00:13:30] Peter Tomozawa: And so to me, this weather is fabulous. Yeah. 

[00:13:33] Jonathan Sposato: And you were born in London, lived in London. Yeah. And there’s some science behind that, by the way, where and the time of year that you were born can affect things like whether you get or are resilient to things like seasonal affective disorder. 

[00:13:46] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah, that’s interesting.

[00:13:47] Peter Tomozawa: I never thought about that. That, but at the end, you know, to me, I think a lot of what people’s perception of weather and, particularly in Seattle, I think is perpetuated by locals that don’t want to be overrun [00:14:00] by. That’s right. Yeah. You’re not supposed to tell where, let’s edit that part out, but it’s a fabulous place.

[00:14:08] Peter Tomozawa: Um, it’s, it’s a, it’s a gritty town, um, and has a bit of a, uh, I identify with it because it has a bit of a chip on its shoulder. We probably are the best in technology in the world. Yet everybody talks, if you’re from outside this country, everybody wants to talk about Silicon Valley, you know? And, and so, and it’s always been kind of a town that thrives on that little chippiness and grittiness.

[00:14:35] Peter Tomozawa: And, you know, even from the timber days, if you look at the history of this town, it’s a bit of a, it’s a bit of a, you know, And the kind of people that settled here and, and even the native American Indians here are all kind of like, just amazing, you know, I’m fist bumping you, 

[00:14:51] Jonathan Sposato: Peter. Yeah, right here. Uh, uh, you know, that that’s, I, I so relate to that in, in that, to be honest, the very reason [00:15:00] why I started GeekWire with my two other colleagues was precisely because as a tech entrepreneur, as a tech CEO, I was sick and tired of people talking about the Bay area.

[00:15:10] Jonathan Sposato: I’m like, Hey, wait a minute. Yeah. There are these amazing companies like Microsoft and Amazon up here. And I think, uh, um, uh, the Google offices where the second biggest Google offices, you know, they obviously have their main headquarters in Mountain View, but the, but the Seattle offices were ginormous by branch office standards, um, other companies, you know, obviously Expedia, you know, with our friend, Rich Barton and, and, and, and Zillow, which came a little bit later.

[00:15:37] Jonathan Sposato: And I. I have always felt like Seattle was a town that was punching way above its weight or could be given a lot more credit for its contribution to an impact to the world. And as I say, all the time, what happens here in Seattle matters. It impacts the rest of the world. 

[00:15:57] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah, I think I really share [00:16:00] your enthusiasm and your viewpoint on that.

[00:16:02] Peter Tomozawa: In fact, it is the basis of what we’re doing with the world cup. 

[00:16:04] Jonathan Sposato: That’s right. 

[00:16:05] Peter Tomozawa: Um, in fact, uh, we like in the impact, uh, of the world cup, or we’re hoping that the impact of the world cup is very much similar to what happened to Seattle post the world’s fair, 1962, the world’s fair came here. It left us amazing, physical skyline oriented.

[00:16:24] Peter Tomozawa: Legacy, but what it really did, in my opinion, and look, studying the history of the area kind of left the emperor of the city of the future. That’s what it was called. Yeah. Let’s imagine what the city of your future looks like. That’s why the monorail rail was built. That’s why the Pacific science center exists.

[00:16:42] Peter Tomozawa: And it laid the seed and the groundwork and the mindset for a technology basin. And look what happened. That is like what amazing things happen when you, when you work on people and a people based legacy. That’s right. So, I like [00:17:00] the 2026 World Cup as an opportunity to try to extend the 1962 World’s Fair legacy.

[00:17:09] Peter Tomozawa: And I love that little sort of flip between 62 and 26. That’s sort of a marketing thing. I love that. Yeah. But you know, that’s the, that’s what we’re working for with this World Cup. We’re not so worried about it. Putting the event on, we’re more focused on what we leave behind. What is that opportunity to take, not just having the world cup come here in 2026, but how we bring and showcase Washington to the world, how we leave the image of what I really think of the world cup, I think of unification.

[00:17:42] Peter Tomozawa: It’s unifying, it’s an event that I’m so excited to share with Washingtonians because it really is an event that brings the world together. It’s a unifying event. Yeah. It brings people from all over the world, all excited and happy to be together. And I had this [00:18:00] image in my head about being in Qatar 

[00:18:02] Peter Tomozawa: And I was at the Qatar world cup in December of 2022 and I went to the fan festival and it was a concavity of people from all walks of life, all different races, religions, and political beliefs.

[00:18:19] Peter Tomozawa: Orientation, uh, religious beliefs all there in one place, happy. I mean, that is an amazing opportunity for our youth are the eight year old, the 10 year old or whatever that sees this because

[00:18:35] Peter Tomozawa: right now all they see is divisiveness. You know, in our society, this is an opportunity to show what the world can be and how great humanity actually can be by being together and happy.

[00:18:46] Jonathan Sposato: I love it. That is so awesome.

[00:18:49] Jonathan Sposato: I think, um, that stuff really matters. And I think now then of the, whether it’s the Sounders and their amazing run over the last many years or the world cup that you’re [00:19:00] about to bring to Seattle, how many amazing things it’s going to enable for those young people?

[00:19:05] Peter Tomozawa: Well, thanks. We’re actually. Putting together what I call a unity loop. The unity loop is, um, think of Boston’s freedom trail. 

[00:19:17] Jonathan Sposato: It’s a pathway 

[00:19:18] Peter Tomozawa: through the city to experience all that’s great about the city. You need a loop is going to connect the stadium to the waterfront, the waterfront to Myrtle Edwards, Myrtle Edwards up to the science center and then a pathway back through the city.

[00:19:32] Peter Tomozawa: Wow. Through Westlake, through CID, through Occidental Square, um, and that’ll be a walking path connected by breadcrumbs of culture. 

[00:19:43] Jonathan Sposato: Neat. 

[00:19:44] Peter Tomozawa: And it’ll be giving our visitors to our city, our citizens, an opportunity to experience our city in an organized way, a fun way to, you know, kind of do this. And this was sort of an inspiration, um, and I have to [00:20:00] You know, Mayor Harrell and I spoke in January of last year, and we said, what can, what can the world cup do for the city?

[00:20:08] Peter Tomozawa: And I said, well, and then we, we kind of iterated around several ideas. What did I say? What if we use the theme of unification? To bring, uh, and lean in on his one Seattle concept and created a loop that allowed us to revitalize. And because his big thing is about creating activations, giving people reasons to move around our city and experience it and all its glory and beauty.

[00:20:31] Peter Tomozawa: And I’m hoping that 30 years from now that this loop still exists and that we’ll have little spikes off of it, like up to Capitol Hill, to Lake South Lake Union, you know, just all around Queen Anne. Her. You know, there’s so many different things that can happen on this thing, but I, I just think that our city is so beautiful and it’s very manageable, less than one hour walk to get around this loop.

[00:20:56] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah, I love this idea of the unity loop. This is [00:21:00] an amazing idea. And by the way, I, I, again, we could talk about so many different things, but, but I will bookmark and, and actually publicly acknowledge that Peter, you are someone. With amazing vision. Typically, this is ascribed to someone in the marketing department or brand department, but from talking with you and also prior conversations about brand colors and logos and things like that, you have an amazing sort of branding and marketing acumen, which seems like it would not be typical of someone who used to work in finance or you know what I mean?

[00:21:35] Jonathan Sposato: So, so, uh, kudos to you. Thank you. My question is, is that now I’m Going to be geeky about, um, business y things or initiative project things. How do you prioritize something like that? Like, is that one of three key lasting impactful things that you hope that in a broad sense that World Cup will help to create, or is that [00:22:00] one of a hundred things?

[00:22:01] Jonathan Sposato: Like, and then, and if, and depending on the answer, how, how then do you prioritize those initiatives? 

[00:22:06] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah. So we set off initially, and I have had some experience in this area. So it’s not like, you know, this is not, this is a very learned action, actually. When I moved here first to Seattle in 2015, I knew I needed to find something to do.

[00:22:22] Peter Tomozawa: Uh huh. And, uh, it just so happened that, and it’s a long story, so I won’t bore your listeners with the story, but I made my way to work on the Los Angeles Olympic bid. Uh huh. And we, we, we bid for and won the right to host the Olympic games in Los Angeles in 2028, the third time in history that the Olympic games will be there and the first time in history, the Paralympic games will be there.

[00:22:48] Peter Tomozawa: But, uh, nonetheless, I learned the business of sports, but I also learned the meaning of sports. Like I’m a lifelong sports fan. Many of us are. But what, what sports really is, is it’s a [00:23:00] community based. Asset and activity, uh, it brings, uh, communities together and it brings great joy and pride. Uh, and I started thinking a lot about civic stuff by working in the mayor’s office in Honolulu and, you know, working with kids and, you know, as, as charter school governor in Hawaii as well.

[00:23:21] Peter Tomozawa: But I have to say that learning the business of sports is kind of how I started thinking about all these things. Different things and, and what it impacts it has in the community. Now this relates to actually your introduction and your earlier conversation as to Adrian Hanauer. After we won the Olympics, my wife and I still wanted to live here.

[00:23:38] Peter Tomozawa: So I commuted every week to Los Angeles for two years. Wow. And I would go to Los Angeles to work. I didn’t think it was work cause it was more about learning. And then I would come back on the weekends to watch our son play soccer. That was kind of a two year thing. 

[00:23:54] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah. I had a similar commute by the way, but we won’t get into that.

[00:23:57] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s, it can be tough. I, and once you, what [00:24:00] I found is once you sort of pause and skip a couple of weeks, it’s hard to get going again. Yeah, you’re, you’re, you’re, you’re so right about that. 

[00:24:06] Peter Tomozawa: We have so much in common. Um, and so, uh, uh, moving back here. We got involved with the opportunity to become part owner of the Sounders.

[00:24:16] Peter Tomozawa: Um, Joe Roth was one of the original founders of the Sounders with Adrian, uh, was doing some estate planning and was, it’s time for him to sell approximately a third of the Sounders. And so, uh, there was a guy named Terry Meyerson. I know Terry. Yeah. Terry’s a great guy. Uh, our old Microsoft days. Yes.

[00:24:32] Jonathan Sposato: Yes. 

[00:24:33] Peter Tomozawa: Uh, the guy that developed Windows. Uh huh. Right. Yeah. Right. Um. He was interested in putting a local group together to buy that’s right sounders.

[00:24:51] Peter Tomozawa: Um, but, uh, we got together and we started talking about what it takes to buy, uh, sounders.

[00:24:57] Peter Tomozawa: This, you know, a sports franchise. And I had some experience with that [00:25:00] because I’m one of the part owners of the, um, Las Vegas Golden Knights ice hockey team. So, you know, that was, that was kind of my introduction to professional sports. I’m a hockey guy actually. Um, but I’ll get to why soccer was important, but, uh, at any rate, uh, one of the key things about getting involved in any sports franchise is to really understand the majority owner.

[00:25:22] Peter Tomozawa: Mm hmm. So Terry and I, and we’re talking about this and we, we went set out to really meet Adrian because he was the majority owner. That guy calls all the shots. I got to meet Adrian and similar to you, I’m like, this is an extraordinary human being. He built this. Club, the soccer team from the community grassworks.

[00:25:43] Peter Tomozawa: Uh, he was telling me a story about how he used to go to the soccer bars and around Occidental square to hope that they might get a few thousand fans to show up. Yeah. And he built this thing in a way that it meant something to the community. And if you look at professional sports, the most successful [00:26:00] franchises are all about the community.

[00:26:04] Peter Tomozawa: They’re all about an identity. And I saw this firsthand with the Vegas Golden Knights, the majority owner, a guy named Bill Foley, super successful business guy, but he has kind of stuck to his principles about what it takes to build a successful business. So he set off to build a successful culture. That is exactly what Adrian Hanauer has done with the Sounders.

[00:26:26] Peter Tomozawa: If you look at that organization, they have an incredible culture. 

[00:26:31] Peter Tomozawa: And the mindset that has allowed the organization to become winners. And I think if you look at John, you probably get a better chance than me to speak to many, many successful business people, but I’ll tell you, it comes down to culture.

[00:26:45] Peter Tomozawa: Absolutely. Right. Yeah. What’s that saying at edge? Uh, bad people make great products, bad, great people make average products. 

[00:26:53] Jonathan Sposato: Good. Right. That’s right. To me, it’s very fascinating. And I love what you said about it. It’s always the successful [00:27:00] ones that apply the same winning culture that they have had in other businesses to the team.

[00:27:05] Jonathan Sposato: Can you elucidate a little bit more on that and enumerate some of the other things that matter? 

[00:27:10] Peter Tomozawa: So, so when we had these, uh, we sat down to really understand Adrian Hanauer 

[00:27:16] Peter Tomozawa: and he had built an organization and a culture that reflected the values of its community. What are those values? And I think this is the reason why people love the Seahawks so much, because Todd built that.

[00:27:31] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah, that’s right. Um, and, uh, and Todd helped build the Sounders, Todd Leiweke. But it was all about being reflective. And if you’re reflective of the community. The community will adopt you. So what are those trademark principles of Seattle? We talked about this. Sort of that chip on the shoulder, the grit, the grassroots, the never give up.

[00:27:56] Peter Tomozawa: This is why I love Brian Schmetzer, our Sounders coach. [00:28:00] He is a man that teaches young people about never giving up. We’re going to fight to the end. And I think that that is really symbolic of our community. And when I first moved here, we saw all these people wearing the Jersey 12 and the name fan.

[00:28:22] Peter Tomozawa: I’m like, and so my wife and I were like, who’s this fan guy? Because he’s pretty popular. He’s an Asian guy on the Seahawks. Yeah, man. He’s a pretty popular person. But, um, the whole idea of like. The 12th person and the 12th man and the 12th, you know, individual that is part and parcel to the team, uh, and their success on the field rests on the activity level of the people in the stadium is just phenomenal.

[00:28:47] Peter Tomozawa: Um, where that manifests itself was, um, as I relate it now back to the World Cup, one of the great things that we did, not only in securing the World Cup, but then there was another activity on terms of like, what was [00:29:00] going to be our game assignments. So we were kind of lobbying FIFA for different, you know, I was hoping to get, I’ll be quite honest here.

[00:29:08] Peter Tomozawa: I was hoping to get seven games. We ended up with six. I wanted a quarterfinal. I wanted four group matches, two knockout stage and a quarterfinal. We didn’t qualify for a semifinal or a final because our stadium size isn’t large enough, you know, the attendance. So we knew we couldn’t get that, but you know, on the day that it was announced, they kept it really under wraps.

[00:29:32] Peter Tomozawa: I have to give FIFA a lot of credit. They kept it under wraps and they announced that Seattle got six matches, but what they did was they gave us the, the second match, a U. S. men’s national team. So there’s only two cities that you can go and be assured of seeing the U. S. men’s national team in the world cup in 2026, where you’ll see the U.

[00:29:53] Peter Tomozawa: S. men’s national team, only two cities, Los Angeles and here. And what’s really cool about this story is that Los Angeles was [00:30:00] picked by U S soccer and FIFA. So the U S men’s national team had no choice. They were going to open on June 12th in Los Angeles. That’s where the opening match is going to be. The men’s national team coach got to pick where he goes next.

[00:30:16] Peter Tomozawa: And he picked Seattle. Awesome. Is awesome. Cause it was everything that we were pitching for. And if you told me this, and, and the reason why I picked Seattle was because Uh, he mentioned the march to the match, sort of the intensity. And then he also mentioned the fact that they are eight wins, one loss, and one tie at Lumen field, massively successful.

[00:30:39] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah. And so, um, but it was, and it was all the reasons, you know, that we had been pitching about that. And if you told me that morning, Peter, you have a choice, seven matches, including a quarterfinal or six matches, but you’re guaranteed a U S men’s national team game. I’d take the six pack all day long.

[00:30:58] Peter Tomozawa: And so we are so thrilled [00:31:00] over the moon about our schedule. It’s going to be a focal point for that. And that’s, that’s relative to the tournament, but I’m really more excited about all the programs we’re being in. I think you asked the question about what is the difference. Yeah. And so, you know, like any good organization, we have a mission statement, right?

[00:31:20] Peter Tomozawa: And ours is to build a lasting legacy built on the principles of soccer, uh, innovation and inclusion. 

[00:31:27] Jonathan Sposato: Mm hmm. 

[00:31:28] Peter Tomozawa: And that’s our mission statement, our vision statement. And this lasting legacy is built on the principles of soccer, which I interpret. And what I mean by the principle of soccer is that it’s a unifying event.

[00:31:40] Peter Tomozawa: It’s a sport that brings people together, hence the unity loop and all this kind of so good. And then we built six pillars around this. And those pillars are built around what I call the three C’s children, community and culture. And then the principles around the three other pillars [00:32:00] are human rights, environmental sustainability.

[00:32:03] Peter Tomozawa: And accessibility. Awesome. And we’re building six, six programs around those six elements. And we’re looking for partners to help us build those things. That’s why the children, we have that work with the Pacific Science Center I mentioned. 

[00:32:16] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah. 

[00:32:17] Peter Tomozawa: We’re also helping the Rave Foundation, which is the Sounders organization, build fields for kids.

[00:32:22] Peter Tomozawa: Mm hmm. 26 fields by 26. In areas of un, for underserved children. Yeah. It’s a fantastic program, a fantastic mission. Yeah. What we serve to do, quite honestly, John, is that, you know, I talk about programs, but we’re actually not the deliverer of the programs. Uh huh. I’m kind of a big mouth. Ha ha. Think about the megaphone.

[00:32:44] Peter Tomozawa: So, programs that can benefit by having a megaphone. That it has a global audience. We haven’t even talked about that yet, but, uh, the global audience is so large. That’s where we’re going with all of this. So if you look at the sort of audience [00:33:00] sizes in 2022, there were 5 billion unique viewers of the world cup.

[00:33:08] Peter Tomozawa: That’s 55 percent of the world. 

[00:33:10] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah. 

[00:33:12] Peter Tomozawa: That’s amazing. It’s mind boggling. Yeah. There was 1. 4 billion viewers. Of the World Cup final to give you scale, the Super Bowl gets 175 million viewers globally, and to give you further scale, the minimum audience for a World Cup match. Is 200 million. So the smallest, least important match.

[00:33:41] Peter Tomozawa: That’s how, that’s how big this thing is. Yeah. The other, other factoid. The second most watched sporting event in the United States in 2022 was the World Cup final. Nice. That’s amazing. Yeah. We beat Major League baseball, you know? 

[00:33:56] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah the fundamentals are amazing. [00:34:00] It’s incredible.

[00:34:02] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah. The total adjustable market is incredible. I mean, and that was played at 7:00 AM Sunday morning, PSD. Mm-Hmm. . Mm-Hmm. . Wow. You know, that’s hardly prime. Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. 

[00:34:10] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah. Right. 

[00:34:11] Peter Tomozawa: So, you know, you think about this thing and what we’re estimating for Seattle alone, the eyeballs on Seattle for the World Cup.

[00:34:19] Peter Tomozawa: Will be, if I said 250 million for each of the four group stage matches, that’ll be light. So that’s a billion. We have a knockout stage match of the round of 32. That’ll be a minimum of 400 million. We have a round of 16 knockout stage match. That’ll be 600 million. So you add up all those, that’s the minimum 2 billion viewers just in Seattle.

[00:34:43] Jonathan Sposato: That’s amazing. We have never seen something this big. That you have, that those data points have me convinced that this is, uh, not just obviously a big thing, but a ginormous thing. It is ginormous. And, uh, yeah, yeah. But you know what’s funny, what’s funny is I was making a presentation [00:35:00] to the Chamber of Commerce.

[00:35:02] Peter Tomozawa: And they’re not all sports people and all that. Right, that’s right. These numbers, but these numbers. I’ve been there, yeah. Yeah, these numbers, but they’re lovely people. Yeah, they are. Um, and they care about our community and, and all that. And I’m, I’m sitting there on stage talking about our numbers and I’m looking at this audience and they’re like retail people.

[00:35:17] Peter Tomozawa: There are people that may not even be interested in sports at all. Um, and kind of like people lose a little bit when you start talking about billions, because that’s not even imaginable, right? So I said, you know, maybe I need to relate this to something that’s really more relevant. And then I started thinking, and this is, I’m thinking on stage, right.

[00:35:34] Peter Tomozawa: And I’m thinking, you know. We keep talking about Super Bowls, but we actually never in Seattle have hosted the Super Bowl. We’ve won the Superbowl, we’ve never hosted the Super Bowl. And so I said, you know, let’s put in something that’s relatable to these people. So I said, what we’re going to do in the summer of 2026 is we’re going to have like 34 to 6 weeks.

[00:35:56] Peter Tomozawa: Of Taylor Swift concerts, [00:36:00] that’s how big this is. And the people, and the eyes go like, I could see like, if you could have like a cartoon thing or whatever, overlay light bulbs are popping all over the place. They’re like, yeah, I get it. Now we get it. That’s awesome. That’s great.