April 29, 2026 • 48 mins
What does it take to go from cold‑calling with a typewriter to leading some of the most recognizable venues in sports?
In this episode of CEOs You Should Know Dallas, iHeartMedia Dallas Market President Chris Long sits down with Mark Faber, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Texas Motor Speedway, to explore a career built on persistence, mentorship, and navigating change at the highest levels of sports and entertainment.
Mark shares his path from Kansas City to an Orange Bowl internship, a front‑row seat to the legendary Herschel Walker trade with the Dallas Cowboys, and leadership roles helping develop major venues including Kansas City’s Sprint Center and Las Vegas’s T‑Mobile Arena. Now back in North Texas, he breaks down what it takes to lead a legacy facility through transformation, grow new audiences, and build a culture grounded in respect and accountability.
Along the way, the conversation touches on musical influences, formative mentors, lessons from selling through losing seasons, and why long‑term success is built in the “cracks and gray spaces” long before the wins show up.
Guest: Mark Faber, CEO, Texas Motor Speedway
Website: www.TexasMotorSpeedway.com
CEOs You Should Know DFW features candid conversations with leaders shaping business in North Texas and beyond, hosted by Chris Long, Region President of iHeartMedia Dallas/Fort Worth. Follow, Rate, and Subscribe on the podcast platform you are listening on!
In this episode of CEOs You Should Know Dallas, iHeartMedia Dallas Market President Chris Long sits down with Mark Faber, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Texas Motor Speedway, to explore a career built on persistence, mentorship, and navigating change at the highest levels of sports and entertainment.
Mark shares his path from Kansas City to an Orange Bowl internship, a front‑row seat to the legendary Herschel Walker trade with the Dallas Cowboys, and leadership roles helping develop major venues including Kansas City’s Sprint Center and Las Vegas’s T‑Mobile Arena. Now back in North Texas, he breaks down what it takes to lead a legacy facility through transformation, grow new audiences, and build a culture grounded in respect and accountability.
Along the way, the conversation touches on musical influences, formative mentors, lessons from selling through losing seasons, and why long‑term success is built in the “cracks and gray spaces” long before the wins show up.
Guest: Mark Faber, CEO, Texas Motor Speedway
Website: www.TexasMotorSpeedway.com
CEOs You Should Know DFW features candid conversations with leaders shaping business in North Texas and beyond, hosted by Chris Long, Region President of iHeartMedia Dallas/Fort Worth. Follow, Rate, and Subscribe on the podcast platform you are listening on!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is CEOs You Should Know, with the Dallas market
president of iHeartMedia, Chris Long.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hi, everybody, I want to welcome you to another episode
of CEOs you should Know Dallas and I'm Chris Long,
market president for iHeartMedia Dallas, and I'm here with my
new friend Mark Faber from Texas Motor Speedway.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Mark. How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Great? Rock chalk Chris, So great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Okay, all right, so.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I told you that we could go far afield, and
I'm going to try and keep this between the rails.
But for those of you who know me a're listening,
I am a University of Missouri graduate. My new friend
Mark I use the friend word friend lightly went to
the University of Kansas and we both have the same
hometown of Kansas City.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
So we will try and.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Keep this focused, but it could be difficult, especially because
Mark started with the first punch.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
On the whole rock chalk thing.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
So anyway, Mark, even though you're Kansas grad, it's good
to see you.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Thank you for having me appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Chris, thanks absolutely.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
So. I told you that we like to get a
little knowledge on you know, what we call like the
soundtrack of your growing up you know with iHeartMedia in
over one hundred and sixty markets, eight hundred and sixty
radio stations, podcasting, streaming, spoken word content, audio content of
every kind and guaranteed human. I want to throw a
(01:32):
few rapid fire questions at you to get to know
you a little bit better, and then we can kind
of dive into your career a little bit. So I
got three or four questions. Just first answer, shoot it
back at me. Teenage music crush.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
That would be Stevie Nicks, Oh good, living Newton John
for me. First concert Eagles, Linda Ronstat Arrowhead Stadium. I
can't remember the year. And it was a bigger lineup
than that.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
You had me at Aarrawhead Stadium.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Yeah, Arrowhead and I saw it, which you knew. I
saw a lot of concerts there. I saw Frampton Steve Miller.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
And then I'm old enough to have seen the fortieth
three union of those two when I lived in Vegas,
so I went there. I had a lot for concerts
and Royal Stadium.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
This is going to turn into a Kansas City travel
log I feel it already. Mine was meant at work
at Starlight Oh awesome. Not really, those of the don't
know what starlight is?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Mark just being nice.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
I know what starlight is. Yeah, Doseki's pavilion.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Favorite band T shirt.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Led Zeppelin. I'm a huge led Zeppelin fan, so I've
got led Zeppelin T shirt.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
My favorite the let out all Right.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Song that makes you roll down the windows.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Lynyrd Skinnyard either free Bird or Sweet Home Alabama.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Wow, there's a lot of rankings we do on musical tastes.
You're in and out of the top five with your
crush and your musical taste which leans towards mind. So
this is really good. I think we can kind of
come back closer together from the whole Missouri Kansas thing.
So after you got out of that institution of lower learning,
(03:26):
the University of Kansas, talk about how you got started.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah, it took me six years to get through, of
course I did. I did to go to grad school though,
just to add a little caveat there, fair enough. I
always wanted to break into sports at some point. I
literally grew up in pre Village, Kansas and grew up
about five blocks from the original NCAA headquarters that was
on Yeah now it's called Sean Parkway, And I used
(03:52):
to ride my bike by there and kind of dream
about what was going on inside, and I was, you know,
back then, you played multiple sports, or at least I did.
You know, there was no select baseball, there was no
select soccer, so it was football, basketball, baseball, other sports,
you know, and you went seasonality. And so I would
just drive by there and just imagine what they were
(04:13):
talking about from a sporting standpoint and the rules. The
NCAA wasn't as sophisticated now as it then as it
is now.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
So I went to KU know that I wanted to
get into sports of some former fashion couldn't break into that.
So I took a job at Commerce Bank of Kansas
City in downtown Dallas and figured out that I could
then explore different industries that I could break into at
the same time. I then volunteered in sporting activities and
(04:46):
developed mentors. And I'm a big fan of mentors. So
Carl James back then was the big twelveth commissioner I
got introduced to Carl, talked to him at lunch. We
talked about Gary bear Hunter associated d at the University
of Kansas. Kevin Harland was one of my mentors.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
We talked about that Harland sports fans out there.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
He's a big advocate. As I told you earlier, ended
up being each other's weddings. Missy Conboy, who played basketball
at Notre Dame, went to KU law school and we
became friends. She's in the Notre Dame athletic department. Now,
these are people that I got to know, advice with,
(05:31):
counseled with on a regular basis. What do I need
to do? How do I do it? How do I
get in? I'm willing to do? And so I worked
at commerce bank for three and a half years.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Oh wow, it took you that long.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yes, it took me three and a half years. And
that's before computers an email.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
And so it's funny to think, you know, when you
think about now, I mean, generations are a little bit different.
And three years at what you don't want to do,
you know, because so much of your twenties is learning
what you don't want want to do. That was a
pretty long haul of building up mentors and figuring away
in because sports is as an industry, is not an
easy end.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
No, no persistence. If you're going to pursue, which I learned,
if you're going to pursue your dream and you're not
going to give up. You have to be persistent, you
have to be willing to put in the hours. So
I would work at the bank. I enjoyed it. I
was a commercial loan officer. Fun fact, do you remember
in Napoleon McCallum, who played for the Raiders, He.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Also was a Universe Naval Academy graduate.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Yes, his cousin, Byron was in the same commercial loan
department at Commerce Bank, Byron McCallum. Okay, so back then
we even had the chiefs and we had the Raiders' rivalry.
But I was a commercial loan officer. So everybody was
looking at the Wall Street Journal in the morning, and
I'm looking at the sports page reading that, you know
(06:54):
what I mean. So it's about selling, it's about relationships,
it's about retaining business. And so I learned that and
I got to do it.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
So what was your first job once you left Commerce
to go?
Speaker 3 (07:06):
So what I did was I applied numerous times, utilizing
a typewriter and some of your listeners may not even
know what that is, and utilized the typewriter to send letters.
And I would send letters for job applications, either reading
the NCAA News to the Kansas City chiefs of the
(07:27):
Kansas City Royals high I'm willing to do anything. My
break came when the Orange Bowl executive director Steve Hatchell
back then, you know, Steve was coming to Kansas City
for the Final Four in nineteen eighty eight, which was
the fiftieth anniversary of the Final Four.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Okay, and Kansas won it.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Kansas miraculously wanted against Oklahoma at Temper Arena. I wasn't
going there with that, but thank you for you browing
that up. So Steve called me up before coming in
town and said, I have been peppered by people saying
that you should you should hire this kid for an
intern job in the ticket office. So I was applying
(08:12):
for an intern.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Job at the old one paid.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
It was paid eight hundred a month.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
You were living large.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
I was living lords on Miami, Florida. So hees, I
want to meet with you, and so we met at
the Hyatt, you know, Crown Center. We had a nice
little breakfast and he brought me on board and I said, okay,
I'll turn in my resignation. I went to the bank,
(08:38):
turned in my resignation. So I'm going to pursue my dream,
packed up my car and drove to Miami, Florida, and
started that. In May of nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
So I was an intern at the Orange Bowl. So
that's the old Orange Bowl stadium, a lot of history,
uh huh, Orange Bowl Game, Orange Bowl Parade. It's where
the Dolphins played Dan Marino, all that, and Jimmy Johnson
was the head coach of the Miami Hurricanes back then.
(09:14):
Steve Walsh was the quarterback. When I was at the
Orange Bowl. It was just phenomenal. So my boss gets
promoted after six weeks of me being on the job
to director business Operations. I become ticket manager and I
have no idea what I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Okay, So I have a question late eighties Miami question.
I have to ask you a Crockett guy or a
Tubs guy.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Vice reference in case it's so funny, because I heard,
you know, Phil Collins got inducted into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame and his song as you Know
is in the air tonight, which is that I liked
them both.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
I can see you in the pink shirt and the
white jats. I liked them both. But Crockett went to Ku.
If I recall Don Jo and went to Ku for
a short stint, if.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
I remember, that was the legend, so I would have to.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Lean that was the legend, just like Brad Pitt went
to the Zoo for a same time, same legend.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
But I would have to lean obviously the Ku guy.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
But of course you would.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
That's how it was down there. I mean, if you
think about late eighties, I mean, it was boats and
having fun and son and surf and I liked Miami.
I took French the challenge. I took French in high
school and college because I liked it and I did
well in it. Yeah, I moved down there and get
a lot of.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Before we move on, I will say, I saw you
sidestepped the pink shirt and white jacket comments.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
So well, we'll just keep going.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
I have a pink shirt at home. I want you
to know that, and I wear that for Mother's Day.
I wear that from my mom, who has since passed.
I have a daughter. Yeah, pink, okay, pink, all right.
I do not have a white linen suit though.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Sure you don't. Okay, So, as I said, far Afield,
and we're really very off course.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
So I mean Look, you did the work.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
You know, you sent the resumes and the follow ups,
you use the mentors. You got the job that you
thought you wanted. Okay, I'm in sports now. And it's
interesting because you know, I think when we talked earlier,
I had the fortune of speaking with Rick Welts about
his career path, and you know, he similar like he
(11:28):
was a ball boy for the Sonics, and so you
did tickets. You're working really on the venue side of things,
and then you kind of shifted gears. I think you
came back and you worked for the Cowboys.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Yes. Yeah, So Steve said, this is your entre ye
get in and out, which I really appreciate. It probably
didn't appreciate as much as I should have, but appreciated it.
So Steve said, get in and out. And so Jerry
Jones bought the Cowboys in February of nineteen eighty nine
(12:04):
and obviously hired Jimmy to be the head coach. And again,
you and I talked about this. It's not what you know,
it's who you know. At lunch, the lady that produced
Jimmy Johnson's Coaches show in Miami for TV WOW was
hired by Jerry and Jimmy to run Dallas Cowboy Television Productions.
(12:27):
Tex Shram had been the team had farmed everything out,
so they had farmed out the TV productions, the TV sales,
all that farmed that out. Jerry says, I'm going to
bring that in house, and Jimmy says, I've got somebody,
so they hired her. I applied for a job with
the Cowboys. So growing up in Kansas City, the Kansas
(12:50):
City Chiefs former Dallas Texans and the Dallas Cowboys were
my two favorite teams growing up. And obviously they were
in two different leagues, so I could get away with
that at the time, but now they're still AFC NFC. Sure,
So I applied for a job and I knew her,
and I said, Brenda, you know you have any openings
and she said yeah. So I applied, and again she says,
(13:15):
I know you know nothing about television, but I know
that you'll work hard and I can trust you. And
those are really some key pillars as you think about.
Of course, I mean you and I and everybody else,
but you and I hire people, yep, So what do
you want? You want people with integrity and people that'll
work hard and smart and efficient. So I said, okay,
(13:36):
she offered me the job on the phone, and you
weren't here. You weren't here at that time, but there
was a lot of media around Jerry Jones and the
Cowboys at that time.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
If you're mad, right, did you watch this documentary?
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Yes? Phenomenal. Yeah, and it's fun because I live that,
of course it was great. So she offered me the
job on the phone. I go, I know, this is
a stupid question. I'm ninety five percent the way there.
Can I come see it in person? Because I see
a lot of things on the media. I trust you.
She says, yeah, we'll fly out. I go that. Most
of the time people would say no, take it or
(14:12):
we'll move on.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Commerce Bank wasn't flying your No, they.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Weren't flying me around. So I fly in. I fly in.
Ironically the Sunday she picks me up at the airport.
The Cowboys are on the road at Arrowhead, State nine
October of year those one in fifteen and the Cowboys
are at Arrowhead the day that I land in DFW
(14:40):
losing to the Kansas City Chiefs. Right, So that's Sunday Monday.
I go in. Jerry's there, everybody else we get to
meet Marklickford to haven you come? I saw Jerry three
times that day Mark Loikford, haven't you come? Yep, look
you know I mean, he's the quintessential salesper sure. So anyway,
(15:01):
at the end of the afternoon, we're talking about with
I'm talking with brend Okay, So she says, let's work
out the details. Sure, perfect. Knock on the door. One
of the TV people come in, sorry to bother you,
shuts the door. I need to give your heads up.
I apologize for the introduction, Brenda. I need to give
your heads up. We're in the process of making a
trade and we're going to trade herschel Walker No to
(15:23):
the Minnesota Vikings for players and draft picks. I had
to give you the heads up. This is going to
be a big deal.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Okay, wait, yes, stop, yes.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Anybody who follows sports at any level over the age
of thirty five forty under knows how important that day was.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
So like you were the fly on the wall.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
That was the fly, literally the fly on the wall.
I mean, it's just like, oh my gosh, are you
kidding me? And so she says, Okay, you're ready to go.
I say I'm ready to go. Let's sign it and
I'll give my notice and I'll be done in two weeks.
So I went back. I told Steve Steve News and
I told him and I'm moving to Dallas. And so, yeah,
I came in. It was one in fifteen, and so
(16:07):
I learned a lot about TV. Back then, the Cowboys
had a five state region. You can't do that nowadays
because of new restrictions in the NFL. We had twenty
five markets of programming. So my role was to place
programming in twenty five markets with Jerry Jones Cowboys Special
Edition thirty minute show, Jimmy Johnson's Coaches Show, and then
(16:30):
pre season games affiliate sales. Yes exactly, yeah, so right, so.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
How about me?
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Right?
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Syndication I think my title was syndication.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Coordinator though fancy whatever that, but.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Anyway, so I would call people up. You got to
understand the temperature back then. Though, I would call general
managers of stations New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas. Some of
them tell me to go pound sand. I don't want
to talk to you. We don't want to carry Cowboys programming. Sure,
you know, basically because of you know, Jerry, Jimmy firing
(17:06):
Tom Landry, the whole thing, right, So you've got to
push through that adversity. We placed the programming and then
I did ros sales as well. Yep, and so one
of those years was a political envite.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
I feel like you're bringing up media related things so
we can talk about a job after we're done.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Right, Well, I do want to talk to you about
a job, because I mentioned that to Kevin.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Leave Kevin alone.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
I think you ought to have guest hosts in the
morning and I could pick the music. You and I
could do the show together. We could pick the music
and then we could talk about the history of the
music that we do.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
I think we might get five or six listeners and.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
They would all be related by blood. Probably that tuned in.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
You never know.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
You don't never know. But so what's so interesting here?
A couple of things are lots very interesting, and I'm
trying to stay on course, so I'm highly tempted. So
sports sales is interesting because, like legit, something can happen
that you as the salesperson has nothing to do with,
i e. Trade firing of a legendary leader that drives
(18:19):
you know, fans away much like what happened here in
Dallas a year ago. You trade Luca Away in one
of the craziest trades in the history of sports. And
you're a salesperson trying to sell excitement of the team
and all that, and people look at you and to
use your phrase, go pounds hand and you've got to
figure out a way right right, and then you, I mean,
look when what do they say winning is the greatest,
(18:39):
the ownerant of whatever. So then a couple of years later,
now you're selling world championships, right, A lot easier then,
didn't it?
Speaker 3 (18:46):
It did get easier. But the it eases a lot
of problems. It eases a lot of wounds. It shows
that the process works. The Netflix, you know, special covered that. Yeah,
so we had to work through that adversity. Jerry moved
the training camp to Austin, Texas from California, right, so
(19:07):
I was. They went down, they tried to sell things,
they came back up to Dallas. I went down kind
of loaned to go work on training camp. Sales came
back up here to do my real job. We opened
up training camp at Saint Edward's University and the Belly
of the Beast as I like to say Longhorned Country,
(19:27):
Tom Landry, everybody's Longhorns. Nobody wants to talk about the Cowboys.
Forget that. Jerry Jones, Jimmy Johnson, Arkansas. You know Renegades.
First practice as Saint Edwards is eight thousand people, and
you go, holy cow, maybe there is something. We were
(19:49):
one in fifteen before Texas Stadium had Baby thirty eight
forty thousand a game. Not a great look, not a
great look. One in fifteen and you go to Austin.
You've got eight thousand in the first practice. So I
went back down to help with that because it was
bigger than we had anticipated, and we brought the Raiders
(20:10):
in for joint practices. I mean, so think about Al Davis.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
And you couldn't have asked for anybody better.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Unbelievable. There's a lot of a lot of fights. Houston
Oilers came in for scrimmage. So you build it.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Bum Phillips.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
It was Jack Party.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
I'm trying to think, was that party this would happen?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
No, it was bum Phillips, then Jack Party, then Jack Party,
and so then you say okay, and then you're then
all of a sudden, your draft picks are really really good.
So you have Michael Irvin before then you have Troy
and then you have Emmett and then all of a
sudden you have something to sell. You have the triplets
(20:51):
to sell. Back then was plan beef, free agency, you
could turn your roster, was quicker. And then all of
a sudden, you're right, we started winning. We go not
seven and nine back when a sixteen games, then eleven
and five playoffs and then all of a sudden, you're
now competing for the Super Bowls. And I was blessed
to be selected to be one of the four person
(21:13):
Advanced Team. And so we would go meet with the
league and be you know, the forty nine ers and
the Cowboys, and it would be the Bills and the
Chiefs one year. And then you would lay out what's
going to happen and what's going to be as far
as what's the league to do, what are your responsibilities?
How many tickets? And then you go set up Super
(21:34):
Bowl sites and you'd have four hotels and twelve hundred
people to worry about.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
So a couple of things. It had to be a
heady moment being on the Super Bowl Advance Team thinking
back less than ten years prior. Yeah, Mark from Commerce Bank,
you wouldn't wunt alone with you. I mean seriously, I
mean that's amazing stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
And then I jumped forward.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
And you know, because your career is so fascinating me,
and I want to talk about some of the leadership
things that you, you know, adopted from some of the
mentors that you mentioned, I mean, even working for Jerry Jones.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
And seeing Jimmy Johnson.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
I mean, I'm sure there's some things, but your your
sports career. You know, we talked about a little bit earlier,
but then you go back to Kansas City to be
in you know, arena construction for the Sprint Center. Talk
a little bit about how all of that translated, you know,
because we're jumping ahead. What about ten years?
Speaker 3 (22:28):
About ten years? Yeah, yeah, ten years.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
So all of a sudden, the call to go home, right,
call to go home, and you have this new project
in Kansas City, which I will try not to make
any Kansas City comments, just talk in general and a
little bit about because it was a big deal to
the city. It really was an important project, it.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Was, and I had a great run with the Cowboys,
but I wanted to try other things, and so college
sports and other things and publishing. And so I got
a call from somebody that I went to KU with
and I'd mentioned his dad was one of my mentors,
Bear Hunter, and Sean Hunter called me. He was president
of AEG Sports in Los Angeles. AEG is a global
(23:08):
five continent sports and entertainment company. Phil Anshoots, the owner
is from the University of Kansas. He went there and
I know that that upsets you, but I did.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Since we're not on video, I'm yawning right now as
he's talking about.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
But I did have a brief stint just for the
listeners with lear Field Sports based in Jefferson City, Missouri.
Clyde lear and Missouri was their first property that they
had back in ninety seventy five seventy six, so you
know that. So anyway, I had that, I did have
that piece there, but it wasn't all Jayhawk love. But
(23:46):
Sean called me and says, you want to build an
rena hometown of Kansas City, and I said, well, let's
talk about it and fast forward and I was hired
to be the first boots on the ground for AEG
in our joint public private partnership with the city. The
city floated two hundred and fifty two million dollars worth
of bonds. The voters had to prove it, which they
did yep, fifty seven percent to forty three. By recall,
(24:10):
AG contributed twenty percent of the arena construction cost. It
was two hundred and seventy six million downtown Kansas City,
and then we hired staff and brought staff on. And
to your point, it was to bring the Big twelve
men's basketball tournament back home. So we were able to
get that back home. Plus the women's tournament came back
to Kansas City played at municipal and so that was
(24:33):
a development project for Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
So this is interesting. So so often in business, you know,
you work for a business, their shareholders and all of
those responsibilities, or if you're a founder, you know was
your idea, your concept are bringing to life. I think
this is interesting. Being from Kansas City, you held a
community trust in a way like they voted to do this.
(24:56):
Fifty seven forty three is a pretty strong mandate that
they wanted this. How did you being a hometown kid,
you'd been gone, you came back, and now you've been
you ever trust here to get this done and create
something special, which for our listeners who don't know, Sprint
Center is a pretty special place in Kansas City, and
there's a lot that goes on down around there, and
we talked about how it revitalized that part of the city,
(25:19):
But like, how did you feel, how did you think
about that? How did you lead with that in mind?
With that responsibility, it.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Was pretty cool going back home. As we talked about
it earlier, I love Dallas Fort Worth when I returned.
Now it's Fort Worth, Dallas, Yeah, because we're over on
that side a metroplex and we're based in Fort Worth.
But it is a big responsibility. And I'm not puffing
any sales here, but try to remember his name with
(25:48):
the Kansas City Star, Randy, I'm black cut it. Yes,
Randy interviewed me coming back home, right That article was
on the front page of the Kansas City Star. And
so at that point you go, okay, woe to your point,
I'm just a kid coming back home. And then all
(26:08):
of a sudden, that and so you're right that that
responsibility of representing Kansas City and shoots the city of
Kansas City in a two hundred and seventy six million
dollar project. You know, it's pretty humbling, and it's also
the pressure's on to do some really great things right
(26:29):
because you're right, the citizens voted for it, and then
you've got people calling you, you know, wanting to know
more about it, what's going on or do we really
need a new arena. The mayor at that time was
Mayor Kay Barnes. You might remember who her favorite school was,
so there's a thread there, University of Kansas. But anyway,
(26:49):
we had strong government support, you know, so the city
manager was in favor, the mayor, the council were in favor.
You have to have that, and then the public voting
for it because you see what happens when they don't,
of course, and the chiefs move across the state line
and build a new place set'll open in six years
in Kansas. So that was critical for us. The arena
(27:12):
is a great design, and then it helped spur downtown development.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
So I mean, in reality, without going through it, I mean,
this is your fir.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I mean, it's pretty heavy stuff. This is the first time.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
You'd ever done in arena. Hey, Mark, go figure it out.
Oh it's no big deal. Let's write a big article
about you and put you.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
On the front of the hometown paper.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Right, how did that How did you talk about that
responsibility to your team as you were building a team
out to get it done, Like, how did you remind
them of what the purpose every day was or did
they just feel it like interesting leadership perspective?
Speaker 3 (27:46):
I think, yeah, it is, it's really it's really good.
So I was by myself for about ten to twelve.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Months, Okay, probably a good thing.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Which was a good thing. So representing the city, I
mean representing ag with the city, pr, comms, marketing, finance, etc.
Then another hometown resident came from LA from Staples Center,
Brenda Tinnen, and she came and managed the operations of
the building as general manager, so we were co partners there.
(28:17):
So she had great operational design. So then we slowly
build a staff from there, and so some Kansas City ties,
some weren't Kansas City ties. But you find out to
your point, who do you think in an interview is
telling you the truth? Who can you trust? Who do
you think will be a hard worker, and who's going
to add to the PCT project? And then you get
(28:40):
to design the project, be a part of the design team,
and then you get to see it rise from the
ground and so that's great stuff, and it's pretty cool stuff.
And especially yeah, I wasn't a designer. I didn't have design,
but I had to do revenue generation, naming rights, had
to sell, suites, had to sell PSLs, had to work
(29:00):
on press releases, had to make sure that I could
talk in public. Things like that, and you have to
really improve yourself in areas that maybe you don't know
much about.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Yeah, you were doing everything right. So that was a success.
So I want to get to I want to get
to today. You go and do it again.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
In Las Vegas right T Mobile Arena joint venture AGMGYM Resorts,
steam Mobile became one of the top YEP arenas in
the world. We buyd MGM Grand Garden Arena, two arenas,
two to two hundred and fifty events a year. iHeart
Radio Festival. iHeart Music Radio Festival. Out there, great stuff.
(29:41):
Not paid endorsement, right there, not a paid endorsement. Loved it.
Mayweather McGregor fight, which was phenomenal, Just big UFC boxing concerts,
PAC twelve Men's Basketball Championship, just a ton of events.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
So I mean, by that point, you've done two arenas
and I would imagine there's a lot of people that
have built, you know, ground up two arenas. You know,
different sizes, different success levels, but both successful. I got
to think at that point you're probably viewed as an
expert in that world.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
And you came back here, came back to Dallas.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Right, Yep? I was. I was trying to get back
here because we were from here.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
I know. I grew up in Kansas City, but my
mom's born in Dallas. My wife's from West Texas. Yeah,
graduated from Texas Tech, went to Baylor Nursing School. After that,
our kids were born here. Yeah, this is home. So
I got a I got a call to your point
from a friend who happened to be with Speedway Motorsports. Yep,
(30:43):
and he knew I was trying to get back to town.
And so I got a call and you know, the
senior position at Texamotor Speedways available. Are you interested?
Speaker 2 (30:51):
So how I mean, obviously, creating a facility far different
from operating a facility.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
And to the interesting thing was is when we talked
to Well, he had talked about being at the NBA
and he made a comment along while I asked him
why he went team side. He goes, well, you know,
when you work at the home office every night of
the week, half the team's win, half the teams lose.
There's really no emotion in being and he wanted to
be tied to the ups and downs of the team.
Now he jokes, He's like, yeah, when you lose in
(31:21):
the final, the playoff finals, not great emotion, right, But he's.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Like, then the upside.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
He had the success with the Warriors, but so in
this case you got to see something start to finish.
There was a team involved, I guess in Vegas, not
necessarily in case. So now you come and you're in NASCAR,
which is a whole different, bigger animal with lots of
moving pieces. Like talk about what that transition was like.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Yeah, that was a major transition for me, no doubt.
We did launch the Vegas Golden Night Hockey team. The
franchise launched a year after we opened the building.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
Right.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
They went to the Stanley Cup final their first season,
which is unheard of, and they've been strong. I've always
been a Dallas Stars fan, Number one, Night's number two.
When we lived here. The Stars won the Cup in
nineteen ninety nine, so it's a long time ago. We
hope the Stars will get back to the Cup. But
it's different designing building a new arena versus coming to
(32:17):
an existing facility that's twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Old, correct, and that has a streat heritage.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Too, great heritage which you can build off of. You know,
we're building t Mobile arena. People say, why do you
need a new arena? In Las Vegas got MGM Grand
Garden Arena UNLV. There were already four other arenas in
Vegas that had basketball tournaments and other events. Why do
you need another arenas? He had to sell through that.
But you come back here to a facility that's twenty
(32:44):
five years old. And I left sixteen acre campus for
TEA Mobile Arena, and I come to a fifteen hundred
acre campus at Texas Motor Speedway. That's a lot. That's
a lot. And so when you have a seventy we
have seventy full time peep, I was just gonna ask
probably thirty percent of that or landscaping operations, et cetera.
(33:06):
And so it's a day to day project and the
weather is what's really going to impact you on your
day to day. You could have rain, We had Garth Brooks.
Garth Brooks helped open up TEA Mobile Arena, much like
he did Sprint Center. Kind of history repeats itself. It
rained outside, but people came inside and they could watch
(33:29):
Garth Brooks. It rains outside of Texas Motor Speedway. To
cancel on the you canceled the concert of Garth's playing there,
especially if you have lightning, so you have to deal
with that. The second part of that is that races
had been peeled away from Texas Motor Speedway by the
time I got there. Two NASCAR Cup races. Those are
(33:50):
the super Bowls of the daytime five hundreds. That's where
I like to say we make a That's where we
make a lot of our revenue per year. One of
those was pulled and moved down to Austin, so we're
involved in the Austin race. And then the one up here,
the All Star Race was up here that replaced the
one that had been pulled that left before I got
back here, so I come here. I'm general manager. Eddie
(34:13):
Gossage was there twenty five years, talked to you about
Rob Rammage for a year. Then I'm the third general manager.
To some people in eighteen months. Who's this guy knows
nothing about motorsports, knows nothing about NASCAR, What's he going
to do? And so you have to be pretty nimble
and you have to be able to deal with adversity
through that, and there are some challenges. But at the
(34:33):
same time, I tell people we are a global sports
and entertainment destination YEP. That has motorsports and NASCAR and
it's core, but we have a host of other events
as well.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Yeah, so I bet that was interesting from the leadership
perspective in terms of you probably have some very tenured
folks with institutional knowledge that were there day one.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Yes, and you come in.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
You're not, I'm racing and you're you know, you talked
about the two races going away, so you're in a
transition phase of the speedway. So talk about you know,
you'd spend what three years, I think three and a
half day years that we've talked about. Talk about what
that's been like and the most important thing you think
about as a leader, you've had to do with those people,
(35:21):
you know, the tenured folks, the institutional knowledge, and trying
to inject new energy and all of that whole cocktail
that happens every day. When you walk in the office.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Right, you deal with leadership as well. So I had
to work hard to retain people yep, that were probably
ready to try something else. Being the third GM and
eighteen months yep, second had to focus on culture. Third,
I had to build a relationship that I had to
show them who I was, and I was pretty candid
(35:53):
with them. I always say, I'm just a kid from
Kansas in the Midwest. So but I got up and
I just said, look, I know this has been challenging times. Yeah,
I said, you don't have to like me, but I
just ask you treat me and others with respect, dignity,
(36:16):
and grace. Those are the three pillars I came up with.
You don't have to like me. I want to work
together with you. I want to turn the ship around.
I want to grow what we're doing out here. We
can do this collectively. If you want to try that
and be a part of it, great. If we're not
for you, that's fine. You know, we'll help you on
the next part of your journey. And that's what we've
(36:36):
been doing the past three and a half years.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Yeah, it's funny I learned early on. I was my
first leadership role, and I think we went through a
commission change or something like that, and I had a
very veteran team and basically they were like unionizing on
me in the sales pit, and I was convinced I
just get rid of all of them, and a very
wise leader of mine some when I looked up to
(37:01):
a gentleman named Don Belucas, and er Don said to me,
he started laughing, He goes, what do you do?
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Fire everybody?
Speaker 2 (37:07):
And you can't, And so it really becomes all right,
let's just take it a day at a time. And
the things you talked about are so important foundationally to
like figuring out a culture, like what do we stand for?
I think that's awesome that you threw out the three
pillars and not everyone's gonna make it, and that's okay.
I mean, you hope that they go on to other things, obviously,
but I think then you find out, okay, who's committed,
(37:28):
and then you can, you know, insert the new thoughts
ideas so that you can start moving forward. What's something
when you think about the three and a half years
that you're like, you know that that was a key
turning point to better things.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
I think our race weekend last year because we moved
our race weekend from September in the heart of football.
NASCAR said we want to get off of football. We
had triple header weekend, so you're up against Friday night
lights on Friday night race college football, and said Cowboys
on Sun. So we moved it to April the next
year and it was the middle of April kind of
(38:05):
you know, kind of near this time. And then we
lobbied hard for Senco de Myle weekend the first weekend
of May. So we have a aging core fan base.
NASCAR has been around seventy seven years, but in Texas
we need to grow younger fans, and we also need
(38:25):
to reach out to different demographics. And Hispanics are very
important to us, especially in the state, so it's multicultural.
So we have to grow from Hispanic, African American younger.
And as you see NASCAR and you see drivers, right,
so I've gotten to know Daniel Suarez very well, Monterey, Mexico.
(38:48):
Can you help promote you know, we work with a
lot of other drivers in the sport. Bubba Wallace, the
key thing for you talked about NBA key thing for
our sport. Tyler Redick has won five races he drives
for Michael Jordan twenty three to eleven. Michael Jordan is
a team owner, So all of a sudden, you go
(39:10):
from the typical NASCAR model to MJ. And we're celebrating that.
And MJ brings a global of audience into your sport,
and he filed a lawsuit against NASCAR last year that
was settled to try to better the sport, and then
all of a sudden, his team wins five races to
start the season. So I'm excited about that, But the
(39:32):
excitement came from last year, a year ago this time
when we moved the race to that weekend, try to
diversify our crowd and our programming, and you all are
a big part of that. And then we had the
largest crowd since twenty thirteen at the track and because
we celebrated all that, and we think that we're on
(39:52):
pace to even exceed that this year, and that goes
to us being very intentional about our partnerships and what
we want to try to do in the community.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
That's great, and I know, you know, Mark, we spent
a lot of time talking about your career and it's
you know, we could sit in here for another two
hours and go around about it. But I do want
to talk about the upcoming weekend.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
I want to talk about what are you excited about
that's new?
Speaker 2 (40:17):
What What should I be thinking about as a fan
coming out? And if I'm a fan who hasn't thought
about coming out, why should I?
Speaker 3 (40:27):
There are long standing perceptions of Texas Motor Speedway, okay
that I ask people about and they haven't been there
in a number of years. And if you're at the
first race, like I was as a fan, it took
seven hours to get out.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
I remember that because I was.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
Or I was at the Rolling Stones concert at Texas
Motor Speedway. You know, one hundred and twenty five thousand people.
They just think, oh my gosh, it's horrible to get
in and out. And so one of the messaging we
do is Highway one fourteen has been expanded. There's an
expressway from downtown Fort Worth to get out there. You
can get here in no time. We have great work
(41:07):
with tex Dot. We talk about ingress and egress. It's
really important to us getting fans on the property and
getting them off the property. So we want fans to
know they can get there. The second thing is is
that we're family affordable fun. So we're currently still running
a two for ninety nine dollars adult package for Sunday.
(41:30):
I think we're almost out sold out of that. But
if you have two children twelve and under on Sunday,
they're ten dollars. So a family of four currently can
get out there for about one hundred and fifty bucks.
You can, Wow, you can bring your own cooler fourteen
by fourteen any other sports team speaking of Rick Welts,
can you bring a cooler.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Into generally generally frowned upon.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Generally frowned upon, Bring on cooler. We have free parking.
We have a fan zone outside that is a mile
long scale and scope. We were told talking earlier we
can fit for AT and T stadiums in the center
of Texas Motor Speedway for AT and T stadiums. So
people don't understand. It's like in Vegas you say, oh,
(42:12):
there's MGM right over there, I can get to that,
and then you know, half hour, forty five minutes later
you get there. It's the same thing here, a mile
long fan zone. So we have everything for the family, right.
We have kids, we have sea lions, we have magicians.
Speaker 4 (42:27):
Wait, did you say Sea Lions, Sea Lions, Okay, they
put on a great show.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
We had a.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Podcast first mention of Seed Lions, Sea Markets, who I.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
Win the prize? So we had Sea Lions at Austin
at the race that we programmed down there first weekend
of March. They're going to be up here again. They're
great stilt walkers, magicians, the mirror men. These are the
guys I love that are red, white and blue. They
just wear mirrors. You just reflect and we have great
family fun. We have drivers that are interviewed and so
(43:00):
racing is the core. Are three hours of racing is
going to be the fun. It's loud, it's exciting. There's
always going to be something that's going to be energetic
about the racing. But we also want people to come
out and we call it the Smoke and the Sizzle.
Come out and enjoy the smoke in the sizzle. We
have a barbecue contest in the infield that we have
fifty percent more entrants this year than last year, where
(43:22):
people just be barbecuing and then they get prizes. So
we have a lot of fun. The big thing is
we also have Big Hoss TV. So I don't know
if you remember if you've been out there Big Hoss.
It's twenty two thousand square feet single led board. It's
the largest in North America single led board, and it's
crystal clear, so you can watch the racing there and
(43:44):
up there. It's just a great entertainment package for fans.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
So we encourage people to.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
Come out Texas Motorspeedway dot Com. If you're listening, go
to that site, and that's an easy way to get tickets.
I also encourage people to get track passes so you
can plus up and you can you get track passes.
We have Chris Jansen Country Artists plays a pre race
concert and then you can be down there for driver intros. Yeah,
and our sport is unique that you can get this
(44:10):
close to drivers as they walk up to the stage.
You don't see that in a lot of.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
Sports and and you know other sports, it's almost how
do we create a barrier?
Speaker 3 (44:20):
Right?
Speaker 1 (44:21):
You know?
Speaker 3 (44:21):
Right?
Speaker 2 (44:22):
And this is it's interesting all the different levels, even
without mentioning the sea lions that you know you can
have in that experience. I do want to ask one
last question because I try and ask this of all
of our guests. You've done so many interesting things in
your career. You know, the whole Sprint Center thing is
(44:45):
just interesting from a public trust perspective. I'm sure it
was viewed differently in Vegas as you know, come here
the Motor Speedway has a different trust of you know,
you're really trying to create a new, you know, new
fan base, you know, because of the time with all
of those experiences that you've.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
Had big lead up.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
I talk a lot with our teams and on the podcast.
One of the things I find interesting is, you know,
when you're trying to get towards a goal, you know
a lot of times sometimes there's a big seismic event,
but you know, every day is not built on these
big seismic events. It's built on winning in the cracks
and the gray spaces and continuing to push forward.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
Like, what's that.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Cracks and gray spasis thing?
Speaker 1 (45:26):
You think about it?
Speaker 2 (45:27):
That's driven towards your team's success in different venues and
Texas Motter Speedway right now.
Speaker 3 (45:36):
That's a great question I've got. I've been blessed to
work for a lot of different day you have owners
if you think about it, yep, so Marcus Smith is great,
Phil Anschutz is great, Clyde Lear a host of them.
You know, I've worked for a lot of predominant families.
I go back to the Cowboys days, yep, and if
(45:57):
you see that Netflix special, I was blessed to be
in those meetings when Jerry would have us in meetings
and say, look, we're going to do things differently around here. Yep.
And one of the things we encourage our people to
do is inspect what you expect. And so Brudent Smith
had many maxims. We work for the fans and inspect
what you expect. But back then, you know, people would
(46:21):
say we don't do things like that in the National
Football League, and Jerry would say why not? And so
we took that why not approach, and we also is
you're not measured by your success, You're measured by how
you handle adversity. And there was a lot of adversity,
and there's a lot of adversity in the day to
day job that we all have now, right, So how
do you handle that? How do you push through that?
(46:42):
How do you take that and create that challenge that
you're dealing with into a new opportunity. So the Cowboys
are really formative for me because I'm sure a lot
of new things, a lot of why not. It's a
lot of adversity. How do you push through? How do
you get from one in fifteen people hating you, people
saying names to you, your own family doesn't call you
in public, to Super Bowls and World championships and you
(47:05):
just got to push through. And that's some of the
stuff I learned. And that's what we do when we
have our race weekends and other weekends that we have
out at Texas Motor Speedway.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (47:15):
Yeah, you know, we talk a lot in sales and
all of our guests, much like yourself. Everybody faces adversity,
you know, and are you going to be.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
A victim to it?
Speaker 2 (47:26):
Or are you going to push through? And you know
there's so many sayings, but you know, one of the things,
no one's coming to save.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
You, so like what are you going to do about it?
Speaker 2 (47:33):
And it's so often is the next step and the
next and the next, and sometimes you are going to
have the big moment. But if you commit to that
moving forward, you're going to get where you want to go.
Because I mean, legit, I'm looking at you thinking this
guy was in when they were making the decision on
the Herschel Walker trade and probably going what are we doing?
And then you get to go on the Super Bowl
Advanced Team. I think that's amazing. Mark, thanks for joining.
(47:55):
This is a lot of fun and I'm sure we're
probably gonna talk for about an hour after we turn
off the tape, but thanks for joining us. Everybody out
to the speedway first weekend in May. It sounds like
it's gound be a great weekend and look forward to
talking to you again soon.
Speaker 3 (48:07):
Thanks for having me, Chris, appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (48:09):
Thank you Alrighty
This is CEOs You Should Know, with the Dallas market
president of iHeartMedia, Chris Long.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hi, everybody, I want to welcome you to another episode
of CEOs you should Know Dallas and I'm Chris Long,
market president for iHeartMedia Dallas, and I'm here with my
new friend Mark Faber from Texas Motor Speedway.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Mark. How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Great? Rock chalk Chris, So great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Okay, all right, so.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I told you that we could go far afield, and
I'm going to try and keep this between the rails.
But for those of you who know me a're listening,
I am a University of Missouri graduate. My new friend
Mark I use the friend word friend lightly went to
the University of Kansas and we both have the same
hometown of Kansas City.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
So we will try and.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Keep this focused, but it could be difficult, especially because
Mark started with the first punch.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
On the whole rock chalk thing.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
So anyway, Mark, even though you're Kansas grad, it's good
to see you.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Thank you for having me appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Chris, thanks absolutely.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
So. I told you that we like to get a
little knowledge on you know, what we call like the
soundtrack of your growing up you know with iHeartMedia in
over one hundred and sixty markets, eight hundred and sixty
radio stations, podcasting, streaming, spoken word content, audio content of
every kind and guaranteed human. I want to throw a
(01:32):
few rapid fire questions at you to get to know
you a little bit better, and then we can kind
of dive into your career a little bit. So I
got three or four questions. Just first answer, shoot it
back at me. Teenage music crush.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
That would be Stevie Nicks, Oh good, living Newton John
for me. First concert Eagles, Linda Ronstat Arrowhead Stadium. I
can't remember the year. And it was a bigger lineup
than that.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
You had me at Aarrawhead Stadium.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Yeah, Arrowhead and I saw it, which you knew. I
saw a lot of concerts there. I saw Frampton Steve Miller.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
And then I'm old enough to have seen the fortieth
three union of those two when I lived in Vegas,
so I went there. I had a lot for concerts
and Royal Stadium.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
This is going to turn into a Kansas City travel
log I feel it already. Mine was meant at work
at Starlight Oh awesome. Not really, those of the don't
know what starlight is?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Mark just being nice.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
I know what starlight is. Yeah, Doseki's pavilion.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Favorite band T shirt.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Led Zeppelin. I'm a huge led Zeppelin fan, so I've
got led Zeppelin T shirt.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
My favorite the let out all Right.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Song that makes you roll down the windows.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Lynyrd Skinnyard either free Bird or Sweet Home Alabama.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Wow, there's a lot of rankings we do on musical tastes.
You're in and out of the top five with your
crush and your musical taste which leans towards mind. So
this is really good. I think we can kind of
come back closer together from the whole Missouri Kansas thing.
So after you got out of that institution of lower learning,
(03:26):
the University of Kansas, talk about how you got started.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah, it took me six years to get through, of
course I did. I did to go to grad school though,
just to add a little caveat there, fair enough. I
always wanted to break into sports at some point. I
literally grew up in pre Village, Kansas and grew up
about five blocks from the original NCAA headquarters that was
on Yeah now it's called Sean Parkway, And I used
(03:52):
to ride my bike by there and kind of dream
about what was going on inside, and I was, you know,
back then, you played multiple sports, or at least I did.
You know, there was no select baseball, there was no
select soccer, so it was football, basketball, baseball, other sports,
you know, and you went seasonality. And so I would
just drive by there and just imagine what they were
(04:13):
talking about from a sporting standpoint and the rules. The
NCAA wasn't as sophisticated now as it then as it
is now.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
So I went to KU know that I wanted to
get into sports of some former fashion couldn't break into that.
So I took a job at Commerce Bank of Kansas
City in downtown Dallas and figured out that I could
then explore different industries that I could break into at
the same time. I then volunteered in sporting activities and
(04:46):
developed mentors. And I'm a big fan of mentors. So
Carl James back then was the big twelveth commissioner I
got introduced to Carl, talked to him at lunch. We
talked about Gary bear Hunter associated d at the University
of Kansas. Kevin Harland was one of my mentors.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
We talked about that Harland sports fans out there.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
He's a big advocate. As I told you earlier, ended
up being each other's weddings. Missy Conboy, who played basketball
at Notre Dame, went to KU law school and we
became friends. She's in the Notre Dame athletic department. Now,
these are people that I got to know, advice with,
(05:31):
counseled with on a regular basis. What do I need
to do? How do I do it? How do I
get in? I'm willing to do? And so I worked
at commerce bank for three and a half years.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Oh wow, it took you that long.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yes, it took me three and a half years. And
that's before computers an email.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
And so it's funny to think, you know, when you
think about now, I mean, generations are a little bit different.
And three years at what you don't want to do,
you know, because so much of your twenties is learning
what you don't want want to do. That was a
pretty long haul of building up mentors and figuring away
in because sports is as an industry, is not an
easy end.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
No, no persistence. If you're going to pursue, which I learned,
if you're going to pursue your dream and you're not
going to give up. You have to be persistent, you
have to be willing to put in the hours. So
I would work at the bank. I enjoyed it. I
was a commercial loan officer. Fun fact, do you remember
in Napoleon McCallum, who played for the Raiders, He.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Also was a Universe Naval Academy graduate.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Yes, his cousin, Byron was in the same commercial loan
department at Commerce Bank, Byron McCallum. Okay, so back then
we even had the chiefs and we had the Raiders' rivalry.
But I was a commercial loan officer. So everybody was
looking at the Wall Street Journal in the morning, and
I'm looking at the sports page reading that, you know
(06:54):
what I mean. So it's about selling, it's about relationships,
it's about retaining business. And so I learned that and
I got to do it.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
So what was your first job once you left Commerce
to go?
Speaker 3 (07:06):
So what I did was I applied numerous times, utilizing
a typewriter and some of your listeners may not even
know what that is, and utilized the typewriter to send letters.
And I would send letters for job applications, either reading
the NCAA News to the Kansas City chiefs of the
(07:27):
Kansas City Royals high I'm willing to do anything. My
break came when the Orange Bowl executive director Steve Hatchell
back then, you know, Steve was coming to Kansas City
for the Final Four in nineteen eighty eight, which was
the fiftieth anniversary of the Final Four.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Okay, and Kansas won it.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Kansas miraculously wanted against Oklahoma at Temper Arena. I wasn't
going there with that, but thank you for you browing
that up. So Steve called me up before coming in
town and said, I have been peppered by people saying
that you should you should hire this kid for an
intern job in the ticket office. So I was applying
(08:12):
for an intern.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Job at the old one paid.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
It was paid eight hundred a month.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
You were living large.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
I was living lords on Miami, Florida. So hees, I
want to meet with you, and so we met at
the Hyatt, you know, Crown Center. We had a nice
little breakfast and he brought me on board and I said, okay,
I'll turn in my resignation. I went to the bank,
(08:38):
turned in my resignation. So I'm going to pursue my dream,
packed up my car and drove to Miami, Florida, and
started that. In May of nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
So I was an intern at the Orange Bowl. So
that's the old Orange Bowl stadium, a lot of history,
uh huh, Orange Bowl Game, Orange Bowl Parade. It's where
the Dolphins played Dan Marino, all that, and Jimmy Johnson
was the head coach of the Miami Hurricanes back then.
(09:14):
Steve Walsh was the quarterback. When I was at the
Orange Bowl. It was just phenomenal. So my boss gets
promoted after six weeks of me being on the job
to director business Operations. I become ticket manager and I
have no idea what I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Okay, So I have a question late eighties Miami question.
I have to ask you a Crockett guy or a
Tubs guy.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Vice reference in case it's so funny, because I heard,
you know, Phil Collins got inducted into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame and his song as you Know
is in the air tonight, which is that I liked
them both.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
I can see you in the pink shirt and the
white jats. I liked them both. But Crockett went to Ku.
If I recall Don Jo and went to Ku for
a short stint, if.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
I remember, that was the legend, so I would have to.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Lean that was the legend, just like Brad Pitt went
to the Zoo for a same time, same legend.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
But I would have to lean obviously the Ku guy.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
But of course you would.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
That's how it was down there. I mean, if you
think about late eighties, I mean, it was boats and
having fun and son and surf and I liked Miami.
I took French the challenge. I took French in high
school and college because I liked it and I did
well in it. Yeah, I moved down there and get
a lot of.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Before we move on, I will say, I saw you
sidestepped the pink shirt and white jacket comments.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
So well, we'll just keep going.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
I have a pink shirt at home. I want you
to know that, and I wear that for Mother's Day.
I wear that from my mom, who has since passed.
I have a daughter. Yeah, pink, okay, pink, all right.
I do not have a white linen suit though.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Sure you don't. Okay, So, as I said, far Afield,
and we're really very off course.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
So I mean Look, you did the work.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
You know, you sent the resumes and the follow ups,
you use the mentors. You got the job that you
thought you wanted. Okay, I'm in sports now. And it's
interesting because you know, I think when we talked earlier,
I had the fortune of speaking with Rick Welts about
his career path, and you know, he similar like he
(11:28):
was a ball boy for the Sonics, and so you
did tickets. You're working really on the venue side of things,
and then you kind of shifted gears. I think you
came back and you worked for the Cowboys.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Yes. Yeah, So Steve said, this is your entre ye
get in and out, which I really appreciate. It probably
didn't appreciate as much as I should have, but appreciated it.
So Steve said, get in and out. And so Jerry
Jones bought the Cowboys in February of nineteen eighty nine
(12:04):
and obviously hired Jimmy to be the head coach. And again,
you and I talked about this. It's not what you know,
it's who you know. At lunch, the lady that produced
Jimmy Johnson's Coaches show in Miami for TV WOW was
hired by Jerry and Jimmy to run Dallas Cowboy Television Productions.
(12:27):
Tex Shram had been the team had farmed everything out,
so they had farmed out the TV productions, the TV sales,
all that farmed that out. Jerry says, I'm going to
bring that in house, and Jimmy says, I've got somebody,
so they hired her. I applied for a job with
the Cowboys. So growing up in Kansas City, the Kansas
(12:50):
City Chiefs former Dallas Texans and the Dallas Cowboys were
my two favorite teams growing up. And obviously they were
in two different leagues, so I could get away with
that at the time, but now they're still AFC NFC. Sure,
So I applied for a job and I knew her,
and I said, Brenda, you know you have any openings
and she said yeah. So I applied, and again she says,
(13:15):
I know you know nothing about television, but I know
that you'll work hard and I can trust you. And
those are really some key pillars as you think about.
Of course, I mean you and I and everybody else,
but you and I hire people, yep, So what do
you want? You want people with integrity and people that'll
work hard and smart and efficient. So I said, okay,
(13:36):
she offered me the job on the phone, and you
weren't here. You weren't here at that time, but there
was a lot of media around Jerry Jones and the
Cowboys at that time.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
If you're mad, right, did you watch this documentary?
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Yes? Phenomenal. Yeah, and it's fun because I live that,
of course it was great. So she offered me the
job on the phone. I go, I know, this is
a stupid question. I'm ninety five percent the way there.
Can I come see it in person? Because I see
a lot of things on the media. I trust you.
She says, yeah, we'll fly out. I go that. Most
of the time people would say no, take it or
(14:12):
we'll move on.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Commerce Bank wasn't flying your No, they.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Weren't flying me around. So I fly in. I fly in.
Ironically the Sunday she picks me up at the airport.
The Cowboys are on the road at Arrowhead, State nine
October of year those one in fifteen and the Cowboys
are at Arrowhead the day that I land in DFW
(14:40):
losing to the Kansas City Chiefs. Right, So that's Sunday Monday.
I go in. Jerry's there, everybody else we get to
meet Marklickford to haven you come? I saw Jerry three
times that day Mark Loikford, haven't you come? Yep, look
you know I mean, he's the quintessential salesper sure. So anyway,
(15:01):
at the end of the afternoon, we're talking about with
I'm talking with brend Okay, So she says, let's work
out the details. Sure, perfect. Knock on the door. One
of the TV people come in, sorry to bother you,
shuts the door. I need to give your heads up.
I apologize for the introduction, Brenda. I need to give
your heads up. We're in the process of making a
trade and we're going to trade herschel Walker No to
(15:23):
the Minnesota Vikings for players and draft picks. I had
to give you the heads up. This is going to
be a big deal.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Okay, wait, yes, stop, yes.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Anybody who follows sports at any level over the age
of thirty five forty under knows how important that day was.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
So like you were the fly on the wall.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
That was the fly, literally the fly on the wall.
I mean, it's just like, oh my gosh, are you
kidding me? And so she says, Okay, you're ready to go.
I say I'm ready to go. Let's sign it and
I'll give my notice and I'll be done in two weeks.
So I went back. I told Steve Steve News and
I told him and I'm moving to Dallas. And so, yeah,
I came in. It was one in fifteen, and so
(16:07):
I learned a lot about TV. Back then, the Cowboys
had a five state region. You can't do that nowadays
because of new restrictions in the NFL. We had twenty
five markets of programming. So my role was to place
programming in twenty five markets with Jerry Jones Cowboys Special
Edition thirty minute show, Jimmy Johnson's Coaches Show, and then
(16:30):
pre season games affiliate sales. Yes exactly, yeah, so right, so.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
How about me?
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Right?
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Syndication I think my title was syndication.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Coordinator though fancy whatever that, but.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Anyway, so I would call people up. You got to
understand the temperature back then. Though, I would call general
managers of stations New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas. Some of
them tell me to go pound sand. I don't want
to talk to you. We don't want to carry Cowboys programming. Sure,
you know, basically because of you know, Jerry, Jimmy firing
(17:06):
Tom Landry, the whole thing, right, So you've got to
push through that adversity. We placed the programming and then
I did ros sales as well. Yep, and so one
of those years was a political envite.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
I feel like you're bringing up media related things so
we can talk about a job after we're done.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Right, Well, I do want to talk to you about
a job, because I mentioned that to Kevin.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Leave Kevin alone.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
I think you ought to have guest hosts in the
morning and I could pick the music. You and I
could do the show together. We could pick the music
and then we could talk about the history of the
music that we do.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
I think we might get five or six listeners and.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
They would all be related by blood. Probably that tuned in.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
You never know.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
You don't never know. But so what's so interesting here?
A couple of things are lots very interesting, and I'm
trying to stay on course, so I'm highly tempted. So
sports sales is interesting because, like legit, something can happen
that you as the salesperson has nothing to do with,
i e. Trade firing of a legendary leader that drives
(18:19):
you know, fans away much like what happened here in
Dallas a year ago. You trade Luca Away in one
of the craziest trades in the history of sports. And
you're a salesperson trying to sell excitement of the team
and all that, and people look at you and to
use your phrase, go pounds hand and you've got to
figure out a way right right, and then you, I mean,
look when what do they say winning is the greatest,
(18:39):
the ownerant of whatever. So then a couple of years later,
now you're selling world championships, right, A lot easier then,
didn't it?
Speaker 3 (18:46):
It did get easier. But the it eases a lot
of problems. It eases a lot of wounds. It shows
that the process works. The Netflix, you know, special covered that. Yeah,
so we had to work through that adversity. Jerry moved
the training camp to Austin, Texas from California, right, so
(19:07):
I was. They went down, they tried to sell things,
they came back up to Dallas. I went down kind
of loaned to go work on training camp. Sales came
back up here to do my real job. We opened
up training camp at Saint Edward's University and the Belly
of the Beast as I like to say Longhorned Country,
(19:27):
Tom Landry, everybody's Longhorns. Nobody wants to talk about the Cowboys.
Forget that. Jerry Jones, Jimmy Johnson, Arkansas. You know Renegades.
First practice as Saint Edwards is eight thousand people, and
you go, holy cow, maybe there is something. We were
(19:49):
one in fifteen before Texas Stadium had Baby thirty eight
forty thousand a game. Not a great look, not a
great look. One in fifteen and you go to Austin.
You've got eight thousand in the first practice. So I
went back down to help with that because it was
bigger than we had anticipated, and we brought the Raiders
(20:10):
in for joint practices. I mean, so think about Al Davis.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
And you couldn't have asked for anybody better.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Unbelievable. There's a lot of a lot of fights. Houston
Oilers came in for scrimmage. So you build it.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Bum Phillips.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
It was Jack Party.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
I'm trying to think, was that party this would happen?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
No, it was bum Phillips, then Jack Party, then Jack Party,
and so then you say okay, and then you're then
all of a sudden, your draft picks are really really good.
So you have Michael Irvin before then you have Troy
and then you have Emmett and then all of a
sudden you have something to sell. You have the triplets
(20:51):
to sell. Back then was plan beef, free agency, you
could turn your roster, was quicker. And then all of
a sudden, you're right, we started winning. We go not
seven and nine back when a sixteen games, then eleven
and five playoffs and then all of a sudden, you're
now competing for the Super Bowls. And I was blessed
to be selected to be one of the four person
(21:13):
Advanced Team. And so we would go meet with the
league and be you know, the forty nine ers and
the Cowboys, and it would be the Bills and the
Chiefs one year. And then you would lay out what's
going to happen and what's going to be as far
as what's the league to do, what are your responsibilities?
How many tickets? And then you go set up Super
(21:34):
Bowl sites and you'd have four hotels and twelve hundred
people to worry about.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
So a couple of things. It had to be a
heady moment being on the Super Bowl Advance Team thinking
back less than ten years prior. Yeah, Mark from Commerce Bank,
you wouldn't wunt alone with you. I mean seriously, I
mean that's amazing stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
And then I jumped forward.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
And you know, because your career is so fascinating me,
and I want to talk about some of the leadership
things that you, you know, adopted from some of the
mentors that you mentioned, I mean, even working for Jerry Jones.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
And seeing Jimmy Johnson.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
I mean, I'm sure there's some things, but your your
sports career. You know, we talked about a little bit earlier,
but then you go back to Kansas City to be
in you know, arena construction for the Sprint Center. Talk
a little bit about how all of that translated, you know,
because we're jumping ahead. What about ten years?
Speaker 3 (22:28):
About ten years? Yeah, yeah, ten years.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
So all of a sudden, the call to go home, right,
call to go home, and you have this new project
in Kansas City, which I will try not to make
any Kansas City comments, just talk in general and a
little bit about because it was a big deal to
the city. It really was an important project, it.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Was, and I had a great run with the Cowboys,
but I wanted to try other things, and so college
sports and other things and publishing. And so I got
a call from somebody that I went to KU with
and I'd mentioned his dad was one of my mentors,
Bear Hunter, and Sean Hunter called me. He was president
of AEG Sports in Los Angeles. AEG is a global
(23:08):
five continent sports and entertainment company. Phil Anshoots, the owner
is from the University of Kansas. He went there and
I know that that upsets you, but I did.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Since we're not on video, I'm yawning right now as
he's talking about.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
But I did have a brief stint just for the
listeners with lear Field Sports based in Jefferson City, Missouri.
Clyde lear and Missouri was their first property that they
had back in ninety seventy five seventy six, so you
know that. So anyway, I had that, I did have
that piece there, but it wasn't all Jayhawk love. But
(23:46):
Sean called me and says, you want to build an
rena hometown of Kansas City, and I said, well, let's
talk about it and fast forward and I was hired
to be the first boots on the ground for AEG
in our joint public private partnership with the city. The
city floated two hundred and fifty two million dollars worth
of bonds. The voters had to prove it, which they
did yep, fifty seven percent to forty three. By recall,
(24:10):
AG contributed twenty percent of the arena construction cost. It
was two hundred and seventy six million downtown Kansas City,
and then we hired staff and brought staff on. And
to your point, it was to bring the Big twelve
men's basketball tournament back home. So we were able to
get that back home. Plus the women's tournament came back
to Kansas City played at municipal and so that was
(24:33):
a development project for Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
So this is interesting. So so often in business, you know,
you work for a business, their shareholders and all of
those responsibilities, or if you're a founder, you know was
your idea, your concept are bringing to life. I think
this is interesting. Being from Kansas City, you held a
community trust in a way like they voted to do this.
(24:56):
Fifty seven forty three is a pretty strong mandate that
they wanted this. How did you being a hometown kid,
you'd been gone, you came back, and now you've been
you ever trust here to get this done and create
something special, which for our listeners who don't know, Sprint
Center is a pretty special place in Kansas City, and
there's a lot that goes on down around there, and
we talked about how it revitalized that part of the city,
(25:19):
But like, how did you feel, how did you think
about that? How did you lead with that in mind?
With that responsibility, it.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Was pretty cool going back home. As we talked about
it earlier, I love Dallas Fort Worth when I returned.
Now it's Fort Worth, Dallas, Yeah, because we're over on
that side a metroplex and we're based in Fort Worth.
But it is a big responsibility. And I'm not puffing
any sales here, but try to remember his name with
(25:48):
the Kansas City Star, Randy, I'm black cut it. Yes,
Randy interviewed me coming back home, right That article was
on the front page of the Kansas City Star. And
so at that point you go, okay, woe to your point,
I'm just a kid coming back home. And then all
(26:08):
of a sudden, that and so you're right that that
responsibility of representing Kansas City and shoots the city of
Kansas City in a two hundred and seventy six million
dollar project. You know, it's pretty humbling, and it's also
the pressure's on to do some really great things right
(26:29):
because you're right, the citizens voted for it, and then
you've got people calling you, you know, wanting to know
more about it, what's going on or do we really
need a new arena. The mayor at that time was
Mayor Kay Barnes. You might remember who her favorite school was,
so there's a thread there, University of Kansas. But anyway,
(26:49):
we had strong government support, you know, so the city
manager was in favor, the mayor, the council were in favor.
You have to have that, and then the public voting
for it because you see what happens when they don't,
of course, and the chiefs move across the state line
and build a new place set'll open in six years
in Kansas. So that was critical for us. The arena
(27:12):
is a great design, and then it helped spur downtown development.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
So I mean, in reality, without going through it, I mean,
this is your fir.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I mean, it's pretty heavy stuff. This is the first time.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
You'd ever done in arena. Hey, Mark, go figure it out.
Oh it's no big deal. Let's write a big article
about you and put you.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
On the front of the hometown paper.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Right, how did that How did you talk about that
responsibility to your team as you were building a team
out to get it done, Like, how did you remind
them of what the purpose every day was or did
they just feel it like interesting leadership perspective?
Speaker 3 (27:46):
I think, yeah, it is, it's really it's really good.
So I was by myself for about ten to twelve.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Months, Okay, probably a good thing.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Which was a good thing. So representing the city, I
mean representing ag with the city, pr, comms, marketing, finance, etc.
Then another hometown resident came from LA from Staples Center,
Brenda Tinnen, and she came and managed the operations of
the building as general manager, so we were co partners there.
(28:17):
So she had great operational design. So then we slowly
build a staff from there, and so some Kansas City ties,
some weren't Kansas City ties. But you find out to
your point, who do you think in an interview is
telling you the truth? Who can you trust? Who do
you think will be a hard worker, and who's going
to add to the PCT project? And then you get
(28:40):
to design the project, be a part of the design team,
and then you get to see it rise from the
ground and so that's great stuff, and it's pretty cool stuff.
And especially yeah, I wasn't a designer. I didn't have design,
but I had to do revenue generation, naming rights, had
to sell, suites, had to sell PSLs, had to work
(29:00):
on press releases, had to make sure that I could
talk in public. Things like that, and you have to
really improve yourself in areas that maybe you don't know
much about.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Yeah, you were doing everything right. So that was a success.
So I want to get to I want to get
to today. You go and do it again.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
In Las Vegas right T Mobile Arena joint venture AGMGYM Resorts,
steam Mobile became one of the top YEP arenas in
the world. We buyd MGM Grand Garden Arena, two arenas,
two to two hundred and fifty events a year. iHeart
Radio Festival. iHeart Music Radio Festival. Out there, great stuff.
(29:41):
Not paid endorsement, right there, not a paid endorsement. Loved it.
Mayweather McGregor fight, which was phenomenal, Just big UFC boxing concerts,
PAC twelve Men's Basketball Championship, just a ton of events.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
So I mean, by that point, you've done two arenas
and I would imagine there's a lot of people that
have built, you know, ground up two arenas. You know,
different sizes, different success levels, but both successful. I got
to think at that point you're probably viewed as an
expert in that world.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
And you came back here, came back to Dallas.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Right, Yep? I was. I was trying to get back
here because we were from here.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
I know. I grew up in Kansas City, but my
mom's born in Dallas. My wife's from West Texas. Yeah,
graduated from Texas Tech, went to Baylor Nursing School. After that,
our kids were born here. Yeah, this is home. So
I got a I got a call to your point
from a friend who happened to be with Speedway Motorsports. Yep,
(30:43):
and he knew I was trying to get back to town.
And so I got a call and you know, the
senior position at Texamotor Speedways available. Are you interested?
Speaker 2 (30:51):
So how I mean, obviously, creating a facility far different
from operating a facility.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
And to the interesting thing was is when we talked
to Well, he had talked about being at the NBA
and he made a comment along while I asked him
why he went team side. He goes, well, you know,
when you work at the home office every night of
the week, half the team's win, half the teams lose.
There's really no emotion in being and he wanted to
be tied to the ups and downs of the team.
Now he jokes, He's like, yeah, when you lose in
(31:21):
the final, the playoff finals, not great emotion, right, But he's.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Like, then the upside.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
He had the success with the Warriors, but so in
this case you got to see something start to finish.
There was a team involved, I guess in Vegas, not
necessarily in case. So now you come and you're in NASCAR,
which is a whole different, bigger animal with lots of
moving pieces. Like talk about what that transition was like.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Yeah, that was a major transition for me, no doubt.
We did launch the Vegas Golden Night Hockey team. The
franchise launched a year after we opened the building.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
Right.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
They went to the Stanley Cup final their first season,
which is unheard of, and they've been strong. I've always
been a Dallas Stars fan, Number one, Night's number two.
When we lived here. The Stars won the Cup in
nineteen ninety nine, so it's a long time ago. We
hope the Stars will get back to the Cup. But
it's different designing building a new arena versus coming to
(32:17):
an existing facility that's twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Old, correct, and that has a streat heritage.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Too, great heritage which you can build off of. You know,
we're building t Mobile arena. People say, why do you
need a new arena? In Las Vegas got MGM Grand
Garden Arena UNLV. There were already four other arenas in
Vegas that had basketball tournaments and other events. Why do
you need another arenas? He had to sell through that.
But you come back here to a facility that's twenty
(32:44):
five years old. And I left sixteen acre campus for
TEA Mobile Arena, and I come to a fifteen hundred
acre campus at Texas Motor Speedway. That's a lot. That's
a lot. And so when you have a seventy we
have seventy full time peep, I was just gonna ask
probably thirty percent of that or landscaping operations, et cetera.
(33:06):
And so it's a day to day project and the
weather is what's really going to impact you on your
day to day. You could have rain, We had Garth Brooks.
Garth Brooks helped open up TEA Mobile Arena, much like
he did Sprint Center. Kind of history repeats itself. It
rained outside, but people came inside and they could watch
(33:29):
Garth Brooks. It rains outside of Texas Motor Speedway. To
cancel on the you canceled the concert of Garth's playing there,
especially if you have lightning, so you have to deal
with that. The second part of that is that races
had been peeled away from Texas Motor Speedway by the
time I got there. Two NASCAR Cup races. Those are
(33:50):
the super Bowls of the daytime five hundreds. That's where
I like to say we make a That's where we
make a lot of our revenue per year. One of
those was pulled and moved down to Austin, so we're
involved in the Austin race. And then the one up here,
the All Star Race was up here that replaced the
one that had been pulled that left before I got
back here, so I come here. I'm general manager. Eddie
(34:13):
Gossage was there twenty five years, talked to you about
Rob Rammage for a year. Then I'm the third general manager.
To some people in eighteen months. Who's this guy knows
nothing about motorsports, knows nothing about NASCAR, What's he going
to do? And so you have to be pretty nimble
and you have to be able to deal with adversity
through that, and there are some challenges. But at the
(34:33):
same time, I tell people we are a global sports
and entertainment destination YEP. That has motorsports and NASCAR and
it's core, but we have a host of other events
as well.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Yeah, so I bet that was interesting from the leadership
perspective in terms of you probably have some very tenured
folks with institutional knowledge that were there day one.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Yes, and you come in.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
You're not, I'm racing and you're you know, you talked
about the two races going away, so you're in a
transition phase of the speedway. So talk about you know,
you'd spend what three years, I think three and a
half day years that we've talked about. Talk about what
that's been like and the most important thing you think
about as a leader, you've had to do with those people,
(35:21):
you know, the tenured folks, the institutional knowledge, and trying
to inject new energy and all of that whole cocktail
that happens every day. When you walk in the office.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Right, you deal with leadership as well. So I had
to work hard to retain people yep, that were probably
ready to try something else. Being the third GM and
eighteen months yep, second had to focus on culture. Third,
I had to build a relationship that I had to
show them who I was, and I was pretty candid
(35:53):
with them. I always say, I'm just a kid from
Kansas in the Midwest. So but I got up and
I just said, look, I know this has been challenging times. Yeah,
I said, you don't have to like me, but I
just ask you treat me and others with respect, dignity,
(36:16):
and grace. Those are the three pillars I came up with.
You don't have to like me. I want to work
together with you. I want to turn the ship around.
I want to grow what we're doing out here. We
can do this collectively. If you want to try that
and be a part of it, great. If we're not
for you, that's fine. You know, we'll help you on
the next part of your journey. And that's what we've
(36:36):
been doing the past three and a half years.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Yeah, it's funny I learned early on. I was my
first leadership role, and I think we went through a
commission change or something like that, and I had a
very veteran team and basically they were like unionizing on
me in the sales pit, and I was convinced I
just get rid of all of them, and a very
wise leader of mine some when I looked up to
(37:01):
a gentleman named Don Belucas, and er Don said to me,
he started laughing, He goes, what do you do?
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Fire everybody?
Speaker 2 (37:07):
And you can't, And so it really becomes all right,
let's just take it a day at a time. And
the things you talked about are so important foundationally to
like figuring out a culture, like what do we stand for?
I think that's awesome that you threw out the three
pillars and not everyone's gonna make it, and that's okay.
I mean, you hope that they go on to other things, obviously,
but I think then you find out, okay, who's committed,
(37:28):
and then you can, you know, insert the new thoughts
ideas so that you can start moving forward. What's something
when you think about the three and a half years
that you're like, you know that that was a key
turning point to better things.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
I think our race weekend last year because we moved
our race weekend from September in the heart of football.
NASCAR said we want to get off of football. We
had triple header weekend, so you're up against Friday night
lights on Friday night race college football, and said Cowboys
on Sun. So we moved it to April the next
year and it was the middle of April kind of
(38:05):
you know, kind of near this time. And then we
lobbied hard for Senco de Myle weekend the first weekend
of May. So we have a aging core fan base.
NASCAR has been around seventy seven years, but in Texas
we need to grow younger fans, and we also need
(38:25):
to reach out to different demographics. And Hispanics are very
important to us, especially in the state, so it's multicultural.
So we have to grow from Hispanic, African American younger.
And as you see NASCAR and you see drivers, right,
so I've gotten to know Daniel Suarez very well, Monterey, Mexico.
(38:48):
Can you help promote you know, we work with a
lot of other drivers in the sport. Bubba Wallace, the
key thing for you talked about NBA key thing for
our sport. Tyler Redick has won five races he drives
for Michael Jordan twenty three to eleven. Michael Jordan is
a team owner, So all of a sudden, you go
(39:10):
from the typical NASCAR model to MJ. And we're celebrating that.
And MJ brings a global of audience into your sport,
and he filed a lawsuit against NASCAR last year that
was settled to try to better the sport, and then
all of a sudden, his team wins five races to
start the season. So I'm excited about that, But the
(39:32):
excitement came from last year, a year ago this time
when we moved the race to that weekend, try to
diversify our crowd and our programming, and you all are
a big part of that. And then we had the
largest crowd since twenty thirteen at the track and because
we celebrated all that, and we think that we're on
(39:52):
pace to even exceed that this year, and that goes
to us being very intentional about our partnerships and what
we want to try to do in the community.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
That's great, and I know, you know, Mark, we spent
a lot of time talking about your career and it's
you know, we could sit in here for another two
hours and go around about it. But I do want
to talk about the upcoming weekend.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
I want to talk about what are you excited about
that's new?
Speaker 2 (40:17):
What What should I be thinking about as a fan
coming out? And if I'm a fan who hasn't thought
about coming out, why should I?
Speaker 3 (40:27):
There are long standing perceptions of Texas Motor Speedway, okay
that I ask people about and they haven't been there
in a number of years. And if you're at the
first race, like I was as a fan, it took
seven hours to get out.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
I remember that because I was.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
Or I was at the Rolling Stones concert at Texas
Motor Speedway. You know, one hundred and twenty five thousand people.
They just think, oh my gosh, it's horrible to get
in and out. And so one of the messaging we
do is Highway one fourteen has been expanded. There's an
expressway from downtown Fort Worth to get out there. You
can get here in no time. We have great work
(41:07):
with tex Dot. We talk about ingress and egress. It's
really important to us getting fans on the property and
getting them off the property. So we want fans to
know they can get there. The second thing is is
that we're family affordable fun. So we're currently still running
a two for ninety nine dollars adult package for Sunday.
(41:30):
I think we're almost out sold out of that. But
if you have two children twelve and under on Sunday,
they're ten dollars. So a family of four currently can
get out there for about one hundred and fifty bucks.
You can, Wow, you can bring your own cooler fourteen
by fourteen any other sports team speaking of Rick Welts,
can you bring a cooler.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Into generally generally frowned upon.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Generally frowned upon, Bring on cooler. We have free parking.
We have a fan zone outside that is a mile
long scale and scope. We were told talking earlier we
can fit for AT and T stadiums in the center
of Texas Motor Speedway for AT and T stadiums. So
people don't understand. It's like in Vegas you say, oh,
(42:12):
there's MGM right over there, I can get to that,
and then you know, half hour, forty five minutes later
you get there. It's the same thing here, a mile
long fan zone. So we have everything for the family, right.
We have kids, we have sea lions, we have magicians.
Speaker 4 (42:27):
Wait, did you say Sea Lions, Sea Lions, Okay, they
put on a great show.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
We had a.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Podcast first mention of Seed Lions, Sea Markets, who I.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
Win the prize? So we had Sea Lions at Austin
at the race that we programmed down there first weekend
of March. They're going to be up here again. They're
great stilt walkers, magicians, the mirror men. These are the
guys I love that are red, white and blue. They
just wear mirrors. You just reflect and we have great
family fun. We have drivers that are interviewed and so
(43:00):
racing is the core. Are three hours of racing is
going to be the fun. It's loud, it's exciting. There's
always going to be something that's going to be energetic
about the racing. But we also want people to come
out and we call it the Smoke and the Sizzle.
Come out and enjoy the smoke in the sizzle. We
have a barbecue contest in the infield that we have
fifty percent more entrants this year than last year, where
(43:22):
people just be barbecuing and then they get prizes. So
we have a lot of fun. The big thing is
we also have Big Hoss TV. So I don't know
if you remember if you've been out there Big Hoss.
It's twenty two thousand square feet single led board. It's
the largest in North America single led board, and it's
crystal clear, so you can watch the racing there and
(43:44):
up there. It's just a great entertainment package for fans.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
So we encourage people to.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
Come out Texas Motorspeedway dot Com. If you're listening, go
to that site, and that's an easy way to get tickets.
I also encourage people to get track passes so you
can plus up and you can you get track passes.
We have Chris Jansen Country Artists plays a pre race
concert and then you can be down there for driver intros. Yeah,
and our sport is unique that you can get this
(44:10):
close to drivers as they walk up to the stage.
You don't see that in a lot of.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
Sports and and you know other sports, it's almost how
do we create a barrier?
Speaker 3 (44:20):
Right?
Speaker 1 (44:21):
You know?
Speaker 3 (44:21):
Right?
Speaker 2 (44:22):
And this is it's interesting all the different levels, even
without mentioning the sea lions that you know you can
have in that experience. I do want to ask one
last question because I try and ask this of all
of our guests. You've done so many interesting things in
your career. You know, the whole Sprint Center thing is
(44:45):
just interesting from a public trust perspective. I'm sure it
was viewed differently in Vegas as you know, come here
the Motor Speedway has a different trust of you know,
you're really trying to create a new, you know, new
fan base, you know, because of the time with all
of those experiences that you've.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
Had big lead up.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
I talk a lot with our teams and on the podcast.
One of the things I find interesting is, you know,
when you're trying to get towards a goal, you know
a lot of times sometimes there's a big seismic event,
but you know, every day is not built on these
big seismic events. It's built on winning in the cracks
and the gray spaces and continuing to push forward.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
Like, what's that.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Cracks and gray spasis thing?
Speaker 1 (45:26):
You think about it?
Speaker 2 (45:27):
That's driven towards your team's success in different venues and
Texas Motter Speedway right now.
Speaker 3 (45:36):
That's a great question I've got. I've been blessed to
work for a lot of different day you have owners
if you think about it, yep, so Marcus Smith is great,
Phil Anschutz is great, Clyde Lear a host of them.
You know, I've worked for a lot of predominant families.
I go back to the Cowboys days, yep, and if
(45:57):
you see that Netflix special, I was blessed to be
in those meetings when Jerry would have us in meetings
and say, look, we're going to do things differently around here. Yep.
And one of the things we encourage our people to
do is inspect what you expect. And so Brudent Smith
had many maxims. We work for the fans and inspect
what you expect. But back then, you know, people would
(46:21):
say we don't do things like that in the National
Football League, and Jerry would say why not? And so
we took that why not approach, and we also is
you're not measured by your success, You're measured by how
you handle adversity. And there was a lot of adversity,
and there's a lot of adversity in the day to
day job that we all have now, right, So how
do you handle that? How do you push through that?
(46:42):
How do you take that and create that challenge that
you're dealing with into a new opportunity. So the Cowboys
are really formative for me because I'm sure a lot
of new things, a lot of why not. It's a
lot of adversity. How do you push through? How do
you get from one in fifteen people hating you, people
saying names to you, your own family doesn't call you
in public, to Super Bowls and World championships and you
(47:05):
just got to push through. And that's some of the
stuff I learned. And that's what we do when we
have our race weekends and other weekends that we have
out at Texas Motor Speedway.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (47:15):
Yeah, you know, we talk a lot in sales and
all of our guests, much like yourself. Everybody faces adversity,
you know, and are you going to be.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
A victim to it?
Speaker 2 (47:26):
Or are you going to push through? And you know
there's so many sayings, but you know, one of the things,
no one's coming to save.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
You, so like what are you going to do about it?
Speaker 2 (47:33):
And it's so often is the next step and the
next and the next, and sometimes you are going to
have the big moment. But if you commit to that
moving forward, you're going to get where you want to go.
Because I mean, legit, I'm looking at you thinking this
guy was in when they were making the decision on
the Herschel Walker trade and probably going what are we doing?
And then you get to go on the Super Bowl
Advanced Team. I think that's amazing. Mark, thanks for joining.
(47:55):
This is a lot of fun and I'm sure we're
probably gonna talk for about an hour after we turn
off the tape, but thanks for joining us. Everybody out
to the speedway first weekend in May. It sounds like
it's gound be a great weekend and look forward to
talking to you again soon.
Speaker 3 (48:07):
Thanks for having me, Chris, appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (48:09):
Thank you Alrighty
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