Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to k MET fourteen ninety AM, ABC News Radio
and the Southern California Business Report with Evett Walker, a
show dedicated to highlighting successful Southern California businesses and the
people behind them.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Welcome and thank you for joining the Southern California Business
Report on ABC News and talks k ET fourteen ninety AM.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
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Speaker 2 (00:28):
I need be Walker live, blasting our signal from the
center of Southern California, serving a population of over twenty
five million. Get us crystal clear and on demand by
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Play and the Apple App Store.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
As always, a huge shout out to the team Mitch,
Bill and Sean I love you guys, and to our
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scbr talk dot com forward Slash Advisory Committee. Click on
the link and learn about the remarkable leaders doing the work.
And of course, I am absolutely honored to introduce mister
(01:04):
Allan Benavidas, who is the general manager of the new
Ontario California Minor League baseball team, the Class A affiliate
of the Los Angeles Dodgers, set to debut in twenty
twenty six, born in East la and a graduate of
UC Santa Cruz. He brings over twenty years of executive
leadership in minor league baseball, including a strong community engagement
(01:28):
and national recognition. Allan is experienced in stadium development, sponsorship strategy,
and large scale event planning, currently overseeing the launch of
Ontario Professional Baseball Club. A lifelong Dodgers fan and a
longtime Boys and Girls Club board member in Eugene, Oregon.
Allen has been married to Caitlin Benavidas for twenty three
(01:50):
years and is the proud father of Christian Benavids, who
is twenty two who is finishing his senior year at
Bushnell University in Oregon.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
He's also still busy raising other kids.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yes Maverick, a five year old Rottweiler and Nika, a
thirteen year old Boston Terrier. He brings a passion for baseball,
community building and creating exceptional fan experiences. Thank you for
making the time share your work with us today.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Alan, Thanks for having me stope to be here. Perfect.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
So you are coming from Oregon, tell us a little bit.
First of all, tell us a little bit about your background.
How did you land this general manager position? For the
Ontario Baseball Professional Club. Yeah, Jenny, I mean that's just
too long journey and just a little bit and just
your background sounds like full circle moment.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Yeah, it is a full circle moment. It's just the
dream come true, you know, being born in East La
Boyle Heights or in Santa Mark at the hospital. It's
not there anymore. Moved to Picicorriera Wamada as we talked
about my parents, and alive in Lahabra, which we fondly
called Guadalajabra.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Guadalajabra.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Yeah, went to so high school, did from UC Santa Cruz,
and then worked in Hollywood for a bit for a
few years, and then made my jump into professional baseball
and at the end of two thousand and four and
worked for the Lake elsinore Storm to minor league team
for the San Diego Padres right down to fifteen. I
number here and did that for five years, and in
(03:18):
twenty ten I got recruited to take over the Eugene
in Eugene, Oregon, opened a brand new stadium with the
University of Oregon the Ducks. We shared a stadium for
fifteen years. I did that and around January of this
year my name started getting floated out there to kind
(03:41):
of come down and take over this new team and
in Eugene or excuse me, in Ontario, and I wasn't
really quite sure, right they know, like is this real?
Don't want to do this. I've settled my you know,
I've kind of settled down in Eugene. But the fact
of the matter is that the opportunity to come home
be at my family. My whole family lives out here, friends,
(04:02):
grew up out here. I'm a huge Dodger fan. I
would admit that I was working for the Giants in
Eugene where we were a minor league team for the Giants,
so I know my mom my mom hated that. But
the lifelong Dodgers fan and the opportunity to come to
Ontario and open the state of the art facility that's
(04:24):
going to be the nicest minor league stadium in the country,
regardless of classification, Triple A, Double A, saking, this is
going to be the nicest stadium in the nation. Yeah,
it's amazing, and so yeah, full circle moment for me,
as you mentioned, right, move back home, get to work
(04:45):
with like the team I loved as a kid. So
many memories and also get to be a part of
a growing community that is really doing amazing exceptional things.
So very lucky.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
So let's talk about that process. When you had that
first full circle moment from a kid growing up in
Boyle Heights, Right, let's every boy's dream come true.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
As fans of the Dodgers.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
If you're born in Boyles Heights, guess what, you're an
automatic Dodger fan, automatic Dodger fan. So what was that
you know, feeling like when you did get that call
and you did have that opportunity and you did overcome.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
The realization, Wow, is this real or not?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
And now having moved here, what is your impression of
Ontario and the community that you are?
Speaker 4 (05:38):
It's funny, So you know, I moved away from the
Ilan Empire. We were living in Marietta, right, So I
was the assistant GM for Lake Elsinore. And if you
would have told me a year ago, hey, what's your
impression of Ontario? I would have had that impression I
had fifteen years ago, right, which was very far warehouses
(06:02):
drive through it Like that's right, Like that's just being honest,
Like that's what I would have thought.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Of many years ago.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Yeah, right, so now come back here and to see
all the development that's happening Ontario Ranch, the Sports Empire,
the new stadium, all the new warehouses, the takeover of
the airport, the growth of the airport. I mean, it
is dynamic. I never would have I just I didn't
(06:30):
keep up with it, right, I'm busy in Eugene, and
to see and to be able to come back here
and work with the city leadership and hearing their aggressive
I think is a good term vision of how this
community is going to grow over the next ten years.
And also having the vision to say, hey, we're going
(06:52):
to double our population right right, and we need these
families to do stuff. We need to provide them entertainment,
we need to provide them facilities. It's really smart, like
really like forward looking, right, and so to be a
part of that, it's just like it's tremendous. I'm blessed, lucky.
(07:15):
I don't know, it's great.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Well absolutely, well, you know, Ontario only has the best,
and they only look for the best, so you must
be the best if they're to do to lead and
manage this single a Dodger affiliate team.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
It's really exciting. So I know you mentioned that you
love the Dodgers.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
We had your own memories when you would go to
the games, and I think that's something that you should
share and talk about and talk about.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
You know, what you're going to do to.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Create those same memories for the families here in Ontario,
because as you mentioned, you know, the population is growing.
They have an aggressive plan to double in size with
the Ontario Ranch and various other facilities. Really create a
destination here in Ontario with the sports complex and entertainment
complex and plaza really bringing a lot of quality resources, infrastructure, services, amenities,
(08:09):
everything here to the center of Ontario.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Talk about some of your favorite memories at the Dodger
game and how you intend to create those memories for
families here.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
You know, I think about, Look, the Dodgers for me
were to some of my earliest memories of spending time
my family and going to the ball games. My mom,
who's probably the biggest Dodger fan I know to this day,
was the same way. When I was a kid, I
remember going to Dodger Stadium and sitting at the upper deck.
I mean in the late seventies, early eighties, I was
(08:41):
a little kid, you know, eight ten years old, but
I remember. I think the biggest memory for me is
Fernando veln Zuela. You know what he meant. I mean,
as a brown kid growing up in Los Angeles, he
changed the face of baseball, Like you know, I mean,
I I think I can speak for a lot of
(09:01):
people that probably my age, that remember seeing him pitch
and look to the heavens before he threw the ball
and somehow threw a strike. I would try doing that
in Little League, right, I would try to like pitch,
look up to the heavens and throwing the ball and
be like all over the place, right, like I don't
know how I did it, I mean, but he changed it,
and he was my favorite player. I mean when he
(09:21):
passed away last year, it was like a it was
a pretty sad feeling. We're gonna have a really nice
memorial to him at the stadium. We knew a really
big mural for Brounzuela, So I'm really excited about That's personal.
That's not well, I'm not doing the city's doing it.
But I think he meant a lot of fans. I think,
you know, that experience of being able to go to
a ball game with my parents and my sister having
(09:44):
it being an affordable price. Grand we sat at the
top level Dodgers steading. I mean, you've never sat there.
They're terrifying seats. I mean like they're right.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
They are they are.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
You don't want to miss a step there because you
are holding onto everything for dear life, and the moment
you miss a step, you're going to be going to
and not in a good way.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yea, they are scared, but they.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Were affordable and they allowed me and my family at
the time. You know, my parents are on first generation
Nicaraguan American. Both my parents from Nicaragua, but mom came
here in the mid sixties, my dad in the early seventies,
and they weren't making you know, they were were working family,
working two jobs, and they would take us a ball
games and those were the seats we get at the
(10:23):
new stadium. I want to be able to make sure
that we have access for everybody. If you want an
elevated experience, you can have suits and club seats, but
if you want to sit down the left field line,
you want to sit in the grass. You want to
be able to come with your family and friends and
enjoy the playground. And we're gonna have something for everybody.
So my goal really isn't like I don't want to
make sure I want to make sure that everybody has
a seat, has an opportunity to come enjoy minor league baseball.
(10:46):
And the great thing about minor league baseball is that
it's a form, right you look, you go to a Dog.
I've gotten a number of Dodger games and I've been
back for just over two months and I've been on
a number of games. It is expensive, it is it
is exciting part dog. Yeah, you know, like you know
we're gonna have elements, sir, when you know we'll have
(11:07):
our Thursday and Thursday nights, our family Wednesdays. You know
we're gonna have you know, cheap hot dog night and
all these things. You know. So like there're gonna be
ways for families to really enjoy an affordable night at
the ballpark and watch the future stars of the li
Dodgers play right here in Ontario. So the experience for
me and making sure that families have access to this
(11:30):
is very right.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Well, so not only seeing the future stars, but cheering
them on right and making sure that they make it
to the next level and hopefully seeing them at Dodger Stadium,
but having it so close right the proximity that you're
cutting down on the drive, on the cost of you know,
on the time and the cost, and it's just so
exciting to hear about these plans for the stadium.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
You mentioned this stadium is going to be one of
the if not the best.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Question.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
So paint the sure what does this new stadium look like?
How many will it see?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
What are some of the amenities that are going to
be unique to it that you know fans will be
able to enjoy.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Yeah, you know, in our market, we've got three other
minor league teams. We got the Lake Elser Storm, it's
a nice stadium, the Diamond out Lake Elsinore. We got
Salmonol Stadium for the Inland Fire sixty six ers, another
nice stadium built in the nineties, and also Ranch bookamonga
the Quicks, another nice stadium. What's unique about this stadium
is that it's obviously a modern, recently built ballpark. It's
(12:31):
got a three sixty design to it, which I think
is very unique. None of the other ballparks have it.
And what I mean by that is that when you
come into the ballpark, you can walk around the whole stadium,
and there's activations, meaning that there's points of sale for
food and beverage throughout the whole stadium. So you're gonna
have to walk behind the home plate to go sit
in the grass and get you know, like you can.
(12:52):
There will be a F and B out in left
center field or be left food beverage out down left field.
We're gonna have this really cool airplane on a pedestal
that's gonna light up and the propeller is gonna go
off when the home runs go off. We're gonna have
a splash pad with water. It's not gonna be Blagio,
but we're gonna have like a splash pad with water
(13:13):
features out in left field that kids can go run around.
And we're gonna have a fixed playground set out in
left field. We're gonna have a We're gonna have a
stadium within the stadium, so we have a small wiffoo
ball stadium inside the stadium where kids can go play
woof football. We we'll have players out there and are
soon to be unveiled the mascot. We'll be out there
taking VP with the kids playing woofletball. So I think
(13:36):
the idea behind the stadium is Look, there's something for everybody.
Like I said, right, if you want to sit out
there to be other kids down the left field line,
sit in the grass, that's great. But if you want
an elevated experience, we're gonna have something that a lot
of stadiums don't have. We're gonna have dugout suites. So
we have two suites on the ground level next to
the dugout where you can bring your business, you can
(13:57):
run out for your family and bridal party, whatever you want.
I got twenty four guests in each suite and you're
right next to the players in the dugout. It's fantastic.
We've got a club level with seats that of two
hundred and fifty people. We had ten suites down the
left field line, and then we have an open air
party deck that you can host them to sixty people.
(14:18):
So again, very unique, a lot of different options, a
lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
That's so exciting And what I find inspiring about your
leadership also is your commitment to really.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Being a part of the community.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
And I know one of the ways that you did
that when you were with Eugene Oregon was to establish
the Monarchus talk a little bit about the Monarchicas.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Yeah, so thanks for bringing that up. The monoticas is
probably one of my favorite things that I did in Eugene.
We've done a lot of fun things. Monodica's Baseball was
major league based minor league baseball endeavor to attract more
Latin fans, and so instead of telling the team, hey,
(14:58):
we want you to go like be lit Emeralds, right,
like you know, like a lot of teams do, right,
they were like, look, come up with a new brand
for your Latin market. And so I went to our
I got a community of you know, elders, activists, students, teachers,
business owners of the Latin market and said, hey, you
(15:20):
know what, We're going to create this new brand for
our Latin fans families in Eugene, and I want you
guys to come up with the name. I don't want
to tell you what the name is, Like I'm Latino,
but I didn't grow up Latino. In this community, like
what is it? What's important for you? And we went
round and round and they all talked about it, and
they came up with Los Monatica's the Eugene and the
(15:42):
reason why they came up with Moonatica's was the monarch
butterfly exists in every Latin country in South and Central America.
There's there's thirty three countries in Latin America. And on
the butterfly there's uh, actually, this is the Monarca's glove
on the on the logo of the hat, there's thirty
(16:04):
three dots representing thirty three countries. Oregon was the thirty
third state in the Union. The monern butterfly represents migration,
and so the idea was, look, we migrate as as people,
we want to create bridges and community. You know. It's
this really nice, beautiful message of like unity amongst like Latin,
(16:26):
the Latin community, and they loved it and like they
clamored to it, and it was in a community were
only six percent of the populations Latin, but growing. It
is the fastest growing demographic in Oregon. Was just an
interesting thing to do and be being Latin. I thought
I wanted to give it like presents and wanted to
give it some I didn't want to just be like
(16:48):
little smart vitas or something, you know what I mean,
Like I wanted I wanted it to be meaningful.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
And this did right.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
The Monoka that migrates across thirty three countries in Latin
America and Oregon the thirty third country, you know, and
so many things that had overlapping meeting. Do you anticipate
sam on not GA's part two in Ontario, although Ontario's Latin.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Population, We're definitely gonna do something, probably not the first year,
probably not Monotica. It's probably some probably something a little
more fun. I just think, you know, we have a
dynamic culture out here. We'll see, we'll come up with something.
I think I got to get this brand off the
ground first and then we'll figure out. Hopefully near two,
(17:33):
we'll come up with something. And we work toying with
some ideas right now, but we'll definitely come up with
something that's exciting.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
And the reason why I bring that up is because
it's so important to have an organization that really cares
and is focused on integrating into the community and bringing
the community closer right and serving it and identifying with it, right,
creating messages and moments that really resonate with the community.
And in our conversation, you mentioned that you wanted the
(18:01):
Ontario Professional Professional Baseball Club to be involved in the community.
Even with schools, talk about how you foresee being involved
with schools as you know, this new club evolves in Ontario.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
I think education in schools and our youth is wildly
like the most important thing. And we certainly we've done
a great job in Eugene and carry that same project
out here. Is we want to integrate with the school
districts out here, meet with the superintendents and the development
and with the teachers, I should say, and and introduce
our you know, you know, we have a literacy program
(18:38):
or reading program where we just kind of you know,
go out to the schools and encourage reading through a
variety of different methods rather depend on our age group,
you know, whether it's chapters or pages, whatever it is.
And then you know, we reward the kids with like
two tickets to a game, you know, and we'll go
to the school do an assembly with our mascot. That's
one thing. The thing we want to make sure that
we're doing with the kids is like whatever activation are
(19:00):
doing for the holidays or whatever, we want to make
sure that we're out there when they're doing their jogathons
or whenever they're doing their fundraising. You know, we want
to make sure that we're out there supporting the kids
and the schools as much as we can. So we
do encourage if you're watching, make sure you reach out
to us. There's a lot of schools that we'll be
reaching out to ourselves, but really want to make sure
that we're involved in those things. So and it is
(19:22):
interesting the schools, you know, it's like through the YMCA,
through Boys and Girls Club, making sure that we're reaching
and working with those groups two that are helping helping
our kids kind of succeed at life because we all
know that it's hard and a lot of parents are
working two jobs, and we want to make sure that
you know, we can help our families not just at
the ballpark, but how can our team also integrate into
(19:44):
the world of like you know, the nonprofits that are
helping our community a year round.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Right And in your bio you also mentioned that you
are a strong supporter of the Boys and Girls Club.
Talk about some of the efforts, events, just experiences that
you've been able to cultivate alongside them.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Yeah, so Boys and Girls Club is something that was
very important to me and Pinco Rivera. I went to
the Boys and Girls Club. It's actually i've said many times,
it's kind of where I learned to speak English, you know,
I spoke mostly Spanish at home apparents that speak English,
and it was like, you know, Boys and Girls Club
was kind of like the first thing, right, And so
did that for a little bit. And when I moved
(20:23):
to Eugene, I joined the Boys and Girls Club board
just wanted to help. And within a year of joining
the board twenty ten. In twenty eleven was like the
middle of the recession and we had to close our
doors because donations dried up, and you know, and it
was really bad, but decided to stick on. We reorganized
the club. We got you know, some of our board
(20:45):
members dropped off and whatnot, but the ones of us
that stayed were committed to reopening the club and finding
new donors so that we could help our youth in
our community, because we knew that it was a valuable
service for our families. And yet at the time it
was just twenty bucks a year to be a member
and you got after school care. Where do you get
after school care for twenty bucks? Unheard of a year? Agree,
(21:08):
That's what it was, right, I mean? And so we
did that through fundraising and whatnot, and so we did.
About eight months later we reopened and through the help
of the club, I mean the team, you know, volunteering
a lot of hours and doing a lot of fundraising.
Right now, if you go to the club, we're at
two locations looking open. The third side in Eugene, we're
(21:29):
at capacity. You know, we're running events and doing a
lot of fundraising, and the club's doing really well. I
would argue that the team in Eugene was very crucial
to ensuring that that team succeeded. I think you can
call any board member there and asked them that how
important was the club, And the club was important because
(21:50):
we did a lot of fundraising, We did a lot
of a lot of marketing for the team, we did
a lot of volunteering, and those things are really important
to organizations like the Boys and Girls Club. So for
me personally, the Boys and Girls Club was very wildly
important to me. But it was also more than anything,
like incredibly rewarding, right, incredibly rewarding to see these kids
(22:15):
and maybe they didn't know us all. We would come
in and you know, the kids move in and out,
but knowing that those kids had a safe place to
go after school and get a meal and get some
tutoring and maybe get some mentoring. Right, It's really important,
you know. I believe we'd certainly helped a lot of
kids stay on track.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
So I agree.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
You know, I grew up as a latch key kid myself.
I did not have the Boys and Girls club, but
we made it through anyway. But it's true what you say.
You know, when an organization like a major you know,
a sporting team or in your case the Monadcus and
Eugene and here today the Ontario Professional Baseball Club, when
the kids see that their local hero which are sports
(23:01):
professionals that they look up to.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Care that they make the time to reinvest in them
and guide them and give them some mentorship, some guidance
or just a moment of their time to inspire them,
it goes a long way, and it means a lot.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
It does. It means a lot not to but it also
means a lot of the parents and also the community
capital that it builds. You know, I think one of
the most important things a team can do, any team,
is being present in the community year round. You know,
I think a lot of people ask, oh, what do
you do in the off season? You know, well, in
the off season, if you don't see us in the community,
(23:37):
but then we're not doing our job, you know, like
we need we need to be building community capital and
that pays off for us by ban people coming to
games and caring about.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
The team, right, integrating into the community, becoming part of
the fabric of the otpersity, but also giving back right
because you're investing in When you invest.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
In the community, they invest back in you.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Exactly so, exactly so we are coming up on a
break everybody. Yvett Walker with APCNIS and Talk Southern California
Business Report here today with Alan Benavidez, the new general
manager of Ontario, California's Class A Dodgers affiliate, launching in
twenty twenty six, bringing over twenty years of experience, including
a transformative tenure with the Eugene Emeralds, a dedicated Dodgers
(24:20):
fan and Boys and Girls Club board member, truly embodying
the spirit of baseball and community whatever return.
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Talks Southern California Business Report here today with Alan benavidis
the new general manager of Ontario, California's Class A Dodgers affiliate,
which is launching in twenty twenty six. Over twenty years
of experience, including a transformative tenure with the Eugene Emeralds,
He's a dedicated Dodgers fan and Boys and Girls Club
board member, truly embodying the spirit of baseball and community.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Thank you again for being with us today, Ellen.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Yeah, thanks for having me. This is great. Thank you perfect.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
So prior to the break, we talked about your involvement
with the Boys and Girls Club and the impact that
it makes.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
To have those heroes come in, spend the time and
reinvest in the community.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
I'm curious what organizations do you foresee being that recipient
of the support that you once gave to the Boys
and Girls Club and Eugene Oregon.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
Yeah. You know, We've looked around a little bit, and
I think right now I'm going to join. I've joined
the Board for Promised scholars They do a lot of
tremendous work of scholarships and getting kids to school and
the Ontario Montler School District. So the Great Board, I'm
really excited just joined. Learning a lot about it right now,
but I'm excited to help in that in that fashion
and we'll see where that goes from here. But I
(29:00):
think another big thing for us is being able to
provide scholarships for kids wanting to play you sports, and
making sure that kids have access to play maybe something
that they could do right, whether it's doesn't have to
be baseball, it can be. And we just want to
see kids active, right.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
It's important for kids to be active when they're developing,
when they are making good decisions.
Speaker 8 (29:19):
Right.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
They could be on the field.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Building team principles and character, or on the street doing
other things they shouldn't be doing.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Yeah, rights, And that's the thing, right. I mean, I
just think I think, you know, I played a lot
of sports as a kid. Didn't get very far, you know,
but I played a lot of sports as a kid.
I played a lot of baseball, played water polo, and swam.
But I think sports really provides a good base of
how you learn to fail, how you learn to succeed,
(29:49):
and work as a team. I think it provides a
lot of beneficial things for kids, absolutely, and not all
kids need to play sports. I've got met you who
hates playing sports. He's an amazing shovelist. He plays a
cello like crazies. I mean, it's it's not for everything, but.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
You know, an amazing cellist or in sports. But doing
something that cultivates and creates a better environment for growth
and a healthy mindset and just a healthy future really
what it boils down to. And in some of our
previous conversations when we talked about the stadium and the
construction of the stadium and the fact that it's going
(30:24):
to be the nicest stadium in the country, right.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
I'm telling you, so everybody.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
You have to check it because it's gonna be the
nicest stadium in the country.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Talk about how Measured Q fit into the funding, the
financing or the development for the building of the stadium.
Speaker 11 (30:44):
So you know, the citizens here in Ontario a few
years ago past Measure Q, which raised salesacks a little bit,
and they're using those funds to reinvest into this community.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
And part of that, you know, investment is the stadium.
Part of that is Grand Park that they're building down south,
and part of that is the sports empire there. You know,
I when I told you earlier about this tremendous community
and what they're doing and their vision, you know, they
have to invest in this community as they double in size,
(31:17):
as their goal is, right, and you can't just build
homes and hope for the best. Like you got to
build homes, and you gotta build parks, and you gotta
build facilities, and you gotta build things for families to do,
because you can't go to La in San Diego and
Orange County for everything, right right, right, you just can't write.
(31:38):
And so you've got to be able to give something
for your local families to enjoy, right. And like I
said earlier, like not everybody's a baseball fan, right, And
that's why I want to make sure that the experience
in our ballpark is more than baseball. And you're gonna
have that with our mascot. You're gonna have that with
the design of the stadium. You know, I jokingly say
my goal for the stadium is for us to lose
(32:02):
a game eleven to zero, okay, And when people are
leaving and I'm giving them high fives, I want to
see them smiling and laughing and being like hey, and
we'll see you tomorrow. Because it's about the experience. It's
not about the wins and losses. And so if we win,
it's gravy. I'm always choked a way I work at sports,
But it's not about that. It's about the experience, right.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
It's about the work. It's about the experience that goes
into like you said that the end of the day
and enjoying that.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
And I know you mentioned in addition to hosting these
games and other sports, you're also looking at doing ASM concerts.
Speaker 4 (32:37):
Yes, yeah, so ASM, who's the stadium the venue manager
of the state. They also operate Toyo Arena. They do
a ton of stuff throughout the state. They're also going
to be the venue manager for the stadium and we're
working in partnership with them. They'll be helping us manageball park,
FMB and Browns Crew, and they'll be bringing in more
events at the stadium. As the stadium next year, we'll
be focused on baseball. The Sports Empire opens in October
(33:01):
of next year, but I'm really believed coming in the
next few years, you're gonna see some big stadium concerts
happening at the ballpark that ASM will be bringing in
and you'll be and it'll be a tremendous menu to
come see an outdoor concert at the stadium. And so
we're looking forward to working with our partners at ASM
to bring large scale, you know, twelve fourteen thousand person
events to an outdoor venue right here in Ontario.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Wow, will fireworks be involved?
Speaker 4 (33:27):
I hope so right, No fireworks, drune shows, all that stuff.
You know, I think I love fireworks, but you know,
we're you know, fire season and whatever.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
They have great drones.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
The drone shows. It's gonna be amazing and we're gonna
have a huge drone show. We're gonna talk about this
before we get off at our launch party.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
On September eighteenth. Yes, Yes, Thursday, September eighteenth is the
launch party. We're gonna be talking about that as well.
So it's very exciting. You don't want to miss it.
That's when they're going to.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
Unveil We're gonna unveil the team name, the sky Mules.
I'm joking. Everybody thinks it's the sky Mules. It's not. Okay,
everybody needs a calm bas sky News not the sky Mules.
People think it is, but it's not, or it is no.
But yeah, so we'll be in beigeling the team, name
the colors, the mascot, and that's me on the eighteen
(34:14):
and we can talk about that now or later.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Yeah, well we'll talk about it. We'll pick up on
that because that's that's just.
Speaker 6 (34:20):
That.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
There's so much more that goes into this, and I'm excited.
Who are some of the concert names the talent that
ASM works with that we can anticipate seeing at the stadium, Guys.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
I think I think they run the Gamut. I mean
they run some of the biggest events in concerts on
the West Coast and throughout the country actually, so I
wouldn't be surprised to see some of the bigger names
that you can think of. Like I don't work directly
for ASM, but if you see what's going on in
the Greek Theater, you see what's going on in the
Toyota Arena. I mean Tote Arena is probably fourteen thousand
(34:53):
people large sold out right, They're bringing Morris, They're bringing
big acts I mean would I would adventure that the
actually are going to see at the ballpark will be
those a level, ten thousand seat arenas, which are big names.
I'll on Taylor Swift, Is it okay? Tho?
Speaker 2 (35:12):
They still out so fast?
Speaker 4 (35:16):
I'm ringing them for a baseball game. I went good.
I love that. Yeah, yeah, they're great. But yeah, it
would be stuff like that, I mean, and it's gonna
be a lot of that very nice. Wow.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
So let's talk about the location of this stadium because
a lot of people may not be familiar with it.
They may see a lot of dust, a lot of conjunction,
but not know what's happening.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Please tell us about that.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
You know, it's funny and I feel like they live
bit every day and I feel like everybody knows about
the ballpark. But you know, we live in a very
busy environment. People are driving a lot to work, and
a lot of people don't know that this is happening.
I would say, but half the people I know know
about the project. There's half of the people that have
no idea, right, So it's a brain new stadium getting
(35:58):
built on Riverside Drive between Archibald and Vineyard. So whispering
Lake Skulf Course directly across the street, and you will
notice the stadium because there is a gigantic Dodgers video
board that is part of the stadium. You won't miss it.
The giant parking lot parking structure right next to the stadium.
(36:22):
And it's gonna sit in the middle of a two
hundred acre sports complex known as the Sports Empire. So
that is happening on riverside between Archibald and Vinyar, so
just south of the sixty freeway.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Okay, so it's it's very very close, super accessive, super accessible,
great access.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
I won't lie right now. The traffic isn't ideal. It's
cut down to one, you know, one lane each way
because of the construction. But they're widening the streets, like
the street access. Once this is done, like you're gonna
don't speed, but you'll be able to fly down the
road and there'll be great access to the ballpark.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Very nice, very nice.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
And you know you mentioned that you're looking forward to
having mascot themed knights and different themed nights to.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
Entertain the community. What would some of these things look like?
Speaker 4 (37:12):
For this is my favorite part of the gig My
favorite part of the job is the promotion. It's the
stuff that we get to create. So you know, some
of my your things that I've done over the years
in my time has been you know, obviously those are
the easy ones. These ones are like Star Wars Night,
you know, Lel and Stitch, you know, SpongeBob Knights. We're
gonna do a ton of those Blue Knights, you know.
(37:34):
But I think some of the really fun ones that
we can do are like, how do we do a
softball game between the fire department and the police department?
You know, call it guns and hoses? Then you know,
you know, how do you how do you do? How
do you how do you do a tribute to our
military and wear camelo jerseys for our military and honor
veterans that are coming are going to you know foreign
(37:57):
you know, uh uh, you know war or whatever. Right,
how do we do our fun school nights? Where's our
cheap hot dog night? And do we call it wild
Oueni Wednesday like we do in Eugene, where every do
wear's a hot dog outfit? You know, we do great
souff Dead nights. You know, I would love to do
a night where we honor you know, the Fontana just
honored Travis Parker the drummer. I was Linklin two. Like
(38:21):
I want to get Travis Parker out of here, you know,
I want to get c J. Stroud out here. I
want to do like's, how do we honor our community
with some fun promotions every year? So, like, I want
to make sure that when you come to the ball
when you come to the ballpark, I want you to
have a fun time, whether it's a Tuesday night or
whether it's a Friday night. Right, it should be the
(38:42):
same experience. And that's what we start to do.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
That's remarkable because you know sometimes when you go to
certain venues, it's they save some of the better, the
more bigger fun things for the weekends versus the weekday.
So what you're saying about keeping it consistent across the
board is it's great.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
You should not the difference.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
You should know the difference, right, and like you know,
typically like your giveaways will be on a Friday night
or fireworks are a Saturday night, whatever it is, right.
But my point is that like every game has the
energy or has the theme promotion that captures everybody's attention.
Whether you love baseball you don't, And that's that's the goal.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
And so in addition to being able to watch these
games live in a stadium, they're also going to be
broadcast for the community to listen to if they don't
if they miss a game, if you're gonna go to
the next one, what does that look like?
Speaker 4 (39:30):
So you can stream the audio on our website and
listen to on your phone, or you can watch it
on MLBtv dot com or MLB dot tv. So Major
League Baseball's at you know, if you want to watch
the Dodgers, and a lot of people, if you're a
baseball fan, have major have a Major League Baseball teav account.
And one of the benefits of having MLB TV account
is that you get to watch the minor league game.
(39:52):
So we broadcast all our games a professional quality Ford
camera system. Where you're watching a Dodger game, the Dodgers
play at one o'clock and the Ontario Baseball teams playing
at six thirty five, you can watch it live on
MLB TV.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
Very nice, very nice.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
And so we'll go back to the launch party because
that's super exciting and it's coming down the road here
in September eighteenth. Tell us what do we need to
know about the launch party and what is going to
be unveiled again and how can the community participate.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
So look, we haven't announced everything yet, so you're getting
like you're getting exclusive back.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
It's super exclusive. Are you listening?
Speaker 4 (40:28):
I love it? Thank you. So our launch party is
September eighteenth. It's a Thursday, asking people to get throw
about five o'clock because at five thirty precisely, we are
launching the brand. With the special video, we'll announce the
team name, the sky Meiles I'm joking. We'll announce the
team names, the uniforms, the colors, the mascot. We're gonna
(40:52):
have Dodger Legends in house to help us with the launch.
We're gonna have Bill Russell, Kelly gang Ye, Steve Sacks
and Green. You might have a special Internet personality show up.
We have a celebrity MC and Mario Lopez who's gonna
(41:15):
be our m C. We have Mariachi from Disneyland and
potentially Ozo Monthley is gonna close out the night. It's
gonna be a huge event. It will be the first
time you get to buy any merchandise so like art.
So we'll announce the team name and the team store
will open the meeting, So we'll have hats, jerseys, shirts, flags, cousies,
(41:41):
whatever you can think of. Like it's gonna it's gonna
be at town Square, right next to the mule car
between It's on Nuclid between B and C Street. The
streets will be closed. Our team store will be on
the medium, and all the talent and everything will be
on the stage age at town Square. It's gonna be
(42:03):
really exciting. To close out the night, We're gonna have
a special drone show over town Square that will highlight
the team sponsors and it's gonna be tremendous. It'll be
the biggest launch we've ever done.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
That is so exciting.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
And I can already visualize it on Euclid Avenue, which
is a historic route and just in history period and
having that blocked off to make this major announcement. Talk
about the work and the effort that goes into not
only preparing this new team to move into the stadium
and create this whole new brand, but also preparing for
(42:41):
this grand unveiling on September eighteenth in downtown Ontario.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
Please tell us about the team that it makes.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
It's a small team. Right now, we're about you know
a dozen employees, but it's the City of Ontario has
been tremendous in trying to help us. They are the
permits and everything we need to get done to make
sure this happens go. Cow and ASM have also been
tremendous partners of ours. Michael Krause and his team have
been very great and helping us make sure that this
(43:12):
is an event that the city can be very proud of.
And you know it's a free event, right, so there's
a lot of costs going into this and the team's
investing a lot to make sure that everybody has a
good time. So yeah, I would say them, And you
know our partners at O and T and at Yamaua
and all these folks, but otherwise are like these folks,
(43:33):
our sponsors are huge partners for us and making sure
that this all kind of comes through.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
That's very exciting. And so what are you most excited
about as you approach this?
Speaker 2 (43:47):
You know, time in April? Yeah, tell us when is
the date that?
Speaker 4 (43:51):
So every days? April second? Okay, it's a Thursday, April second,
twenty twenty six. You know what, I'm excited to get
the game. You want to be very honest, I'm excited
to get the game over with, right, the first game. Yeah,
Like I think, you know, I just want to get
that off of my back. You know. I know that
it's gonna be great. We're gonna work, We're gonna have
(44:13):
a lot of you know, we're gonna we're gonna do
some really special things that we're already starting to plan
on that I don't want to like, let you know,
a couple of surprises.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
April. Talk again in April. I'm gonna market April.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
So it's that's, you know, I'm excited that it's finally
gonna happen, right, It's I think the reality of being
able to see my mom there and family seeing I
think seeing the city manager and city council who have
really taken a risk and and uh, I want to
make them proud that they that they took a risk
(44:51):
on building a facility for the community, and I want
to make sure that they enjoy it. And I want
to you know, I have a lot of I feel
a great sense of responsibility and making sure that our
leadership is happy, our fans aren't happy, our sponsors are happy,
and my mom is happy, you know, Like, I I
want I want to make all four of them super proud.
(45:12):
And I think that with the right staff and we've
got them right now, I can't see how we're gonna fail.
Like it's it's it's it's a dynamic partnership that we've
been able to create with the city. Really really, I
mean I genuinely mean, like really lucky to call them
partners honestly. And uh, I'm I'm so excited that they
(45:35):
elected to bring me in DBH the owner of our
baseball team, that they sought me to come take this team,
you know, as a as you mentioned earlier, as a
kid for me, still a first generation working with my
dream team. I mean, it's a dream come true.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Doesn't get better than that.
Speaker 4 (45:55):
True, And it's and I'm excited to share with the community.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
D And so for the community that is listening, where
can they find more information and follow the Ontario Professional
Baseball So.
Speaker 4 (46:06):
All you have to do is search Ontario Professional Baseball
Club on the on Google. It'll like hyperlink you to
our site. That'll change on September eighteenth, fat five thirty precisely,
our new website will drop, but it'll automatically link you.
You can go to on Pro Baseball, ont Pro Baseball, Instagram,
all our social media channels. You can find us on Facebook.
(46:29):
We're very very active on social media. Some pretty funny
stuff on social media, so please follow us. And we're
doing a lot of fun contests. We just we have
a season ticket holder who just won four ticket to
go to a Dodger game and got to go on
the field and watch BP with the Dodgers. So we're
doing you know, we're gonna be starting to do a
lot more engagement on social media and activations and so
(46:52):
follow us and for an opportunity to win some stuff.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Absolutely right now and following you. And I'm watching the
construction of the stadium. It's so excited.
Speaker 4 (47:00):
It's crazy.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
Everything happening right for your eyes.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
So if you're a collector, if you're a fan, you
definitely want to be there September eighteen to get the
first of the line merge coming off the line and
be a part of following the stadium.
Speaker 3 (47:14):
Building in the progression.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
And of course the team so exciting and as you mentioned,
the team at Ontario, if you're a part of it,
you're going to be successful.
Speaker 4 (47:23):
It's I just don't see how we're going to fail,
but you know, look, we'll have some we'll have some
challenges like any business, but we'll get through it and
we're gonna have some fun. And I'm excited to this
communities embrace us so far, and I'm excited to growth
in it and have my wife and my family be
a part of it. Super excited.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Thank you so much for sharing your work, for your
time and for your heart to deliver entertainment, sports and
healthy activities for our youth.
Speaker 4 (47:52):
Thank you, No, I appreciate you giving us the time
and a platform to speak going.
Speaker 3 (47:56):
Thank you all right for everybody listening.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
Don't forget to find us on face, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn,
and Instagram. Don't miss my conversation with Winds Spiller, a
dedicated memory of the Rotary Club of Grass Valley, California,
with a remarkable commitment to service since nineteen ninety four.
Next week we will have Jesse armanderaz San Bernandino County
Supervisor of District two, who is a dedicated public servant,
(48:19):
successful entrepreneur, and lifelong resident of San Bardino County who
has spent his career working to improve the lives of
local families. Elected to San Bernanzino County Board of Supervisors
in November twenty twenty two. Jesse has built a reputation
as a results driven leader who puts his community first.
With an update on San Bernandino County's District two, we
(48:40):
will see you all next week.
Welcome to k MET fourteen ninety AM, ABC News Radio
and the Southern California Business Report with Evett Walker, a
show dedicated to highlighting successful Southern California businesses and the
people behind them.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Welcome and thank you for joining the Southern California Business
Report on ABC News and talks k ET fourteen ninety AM.
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Speaker 3 (00:40):
Play and the Apple App Store.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
As always, a huge shout out to the team Mitch,
Bill and Sean I love you guys, and to our
special advisory committee that can be found at www dot
scbr talk dot com forward Slash Advisory Committee. Click on
the link and learn about the remarkable leaders doing the work.
And of course, I am absolutely honored to introduce mister
(01:04):
Allan Benavidas, who is the general manager of the new
Ontario California Minor League baseball team, the Class A affiliate
of the Los Angeles Dodgers, set to debut in twenty
twenty six, born in East la and a graduate of
UC Santa Cruz. He brings over twenty years of executive
leadership in minor league baseball, including a strong community engagement
(01:28):
and national recognition. Allan is experienced in stadium development, sponsorship strategy,
and large scale event planning, currently overseeing the launch of
Ontario Professional Baseball Club. A lifelong Dodgers fan and a
longtime Boys and Girls Club board member in Eugene, Oregon.
Allen has been married to Caitlin Benavidas for twenty three
(01:50):
years and is the proud father of Christian Benavids, who
is twenty two who is finishing his senior year at
Bushnell University in Oregon.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
He's also still busy raising other kids.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yes Maverick, a five year old Rottweiler and Nika, a
thirteen year old Boston Terrier. He brings a passion for baseball,
community building and creating exceptional fan experiences. Thank you for
making the time share your work with us today.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Alan, Thanks for having me stope to be here. Perfect.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
So you are coming from Oregon, tell us a little bit.
First of all, tell us a little bit about your background.
How did you land this general manager position? For the
Ontario Baseball Professional Club. Yeah, Jenny, I mean that's just
too long journey and just a little bit and just
your background sounds like full circle moment.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Yeah, it is a full circle moment. It's just the
dream come true, you know, being born in East La
Boyle Heights or in Santa Mark at the hospital. It's
not there anymore. Moved to Picicorriera Wamada as we talked
about my parents, and alive in Lahabra, which we fondly
called Guadalajabra.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Guadalajabra.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Yeah, went to so high school, did from UC Santa Cruz,
and then worked in Hollywood for a bit for a
few years, and then made my jump into professional baseball
and at the end of two thousand and four and
worked for the Lake elsinore Storm to minor league team
for the San Diego Padres right down to fifteen. I
number here and did that for five years, and in
(03:18):
twenty ten I got recruited to take over the Eugene
in Eugene, Oregon, opened a brand new stadium with the
University of Oregon the Ducks. We shared a stadium for
fifteen years. I did that and around January of this
year my name started getting floated out there to kind
(03:41):
of come down and take over this new team and
in Eugene or excuse me, in Ontario, and I wasn't
really quite sure, right they know, like is this real?
Don't want to do this. I've settled my you know,
I've kind of settled down in Eugene. But the fact
of the matter is that the opportunity to come home
be at my family. My whole family lives out here, friends,
(04:02):
grew up out here. I'm a huge Dodger fan. I
would admit that I was working for the Giants in
Eugene where we were a minor league team for the Giants,
so I know my mom my mom hated that. But
the lifelong Dodgers fan and the opportunity to come to
Ontario and open the state of the art facility that's
(04:24):
going to be the nicest minor league stadium in the country,
regardless of classification, Triple A, Double A, saking, this is
going to be the nicest stadium in the nation. Yeah,
it's amazing, and so yeah, full circle moment for me,
as you mentioned, right, move back home, get to work
(04:45):
with like the team I loved as a kid. So
many memories and also get to be a part of
a growing community that is really doing amazing exceptional things.
So very lucky.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
So let's talk about that process. When you had that
first full circle moment from a kid growing up in
Boyle Heights, Right, let's every boy's dream come true.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
As fans of the Dodgers.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
If you're born in Boyles Heights, guess what, you're an
automatic Dodger fan, automatic Dodger fan. So what was that
you know, feeling like when you did get that call
and you did have that opportunity and you did overcome.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
The realization, Wow, is this real or not?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
And now having moved here, what is your impression of
Ontario and the community that you are?
Speaker 4 (05:38):
It's funny, So you know, I moved away from the
Ilan Empire. We were living in Marietta, right, So I
was the assistant GM for Lake Elsinore. And if you
would have told me a year ago, hey, what's your
impression of Ontario? I would have had that impression I
had fifteen years ago, right, which was very far warehouses
(06:02):
drive through it Like that's right, Like that's just being honest,
Like that's what I would have thought.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Of many years ago.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Yeah, right, so now come back here and to see
all the development that's happening Ontario Ranch, the Sports Empire,
the new stadium, all the new warehouses, the takeover of
the airport, the growth of the airport. I mean, it
is dynamic. I never would have I just I didn't
(06:30):
keep up with it, right, I'm busy in Eugene, and
to see and to be able to come back here
and work with the city leadership and hearing their aggressive
I think is a good term vision of how this
community is going to grow over the next ten years.
And also having the vision to say, hey, we're going
(06:52):
to double our population right right, and we need these
families to do stuff. We need to provide them entertainment,
we need to provide them facilities. It's really smart, like
really like forward looking, right, and so to be a
part of that, it's just like it's tremendous. I'm blessed, lucky.
(07:15):
I don't know, it's great.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Well absolutely, well, you know, Ontario only has the best,
and they only look for the best, so you must
be the best if they're to do to lead and
manage this single a Dodger affiliate team.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
It's really exciting. So I know you mentioned that you
love the Dodgers.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
We had your own memories when you would go to
the games, and I think that's something that you should
share and talk about and talk about.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
You know, what you're going to do to.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Create those same memories for the families here in Ontario,
because as you mentioned, you know, the population is growing.
They have an aggressive plan to double in size with
the Ontario Ranch and various other facilities. Really create a
destination here in Ontario with the sports complex and entertainment
complex and plaza really bringing a lot of quality resources, infrastructure, services, amenities,
(08:09):
everything here to the center of Ontario.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Talk about some of your favorite memories at the Dodger
game and how you intend to create those memories for
families here.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
You know, I think about, Look, the Dodgers for me
were to some of my earliest memories of spending time
my family and going to the ball games. My mom,
who's probably the biggest Dodger fan I know to this day,
was the same way. When I was a kid, I
remember going to Dodger Stadium and sitting at the upper deck.
I mean in the late seventies, early eighties, I was
(08:41):
a little kid, you know, eight ten years old, but
I remember. I think the biggest memory for me is
Fernando veln Zuela. You know what he meant. I mean,
as a brown kid growing up in Los Angeles, he
changed the face of baseball, Like you know, I mean,
I I think I can speak for a lot of
(09:01):
people that probably my age, that remember seeing him pitch
and look to the heavens before he threw the ball
and somehow threw a strike. I would try doing that
in Little League, right, I would try to like pitch,
look up to the heavens and throwing the ball and
be like all over the place, right, like I don't
know how I did it, I mean, but he changed it,
and he was my favorite player. I mean when he
(09:21):
passed away last year, it was like a it was
a pretty sad feeling. We're gonna have a really nice
memorial to him at the stadium. We knew a really
big mural for Brounzuela, So I'm really excited about That's personal.
That's not well, I'm not doing the city's doing it.
But I think he meant a lot of fans. I think,
you know, that experience of being able to go to
a ball game with my parents and my sister having
(09:44):
it being an affordable price. Grand we sat at the
top level Dodgers steading. I mean, you've never sat there.
They're terrifying seats. I mean like they're right.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
They are they are.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
You don't want to miss a step there because you
are holding onto everything for dear life, and the moment
you miss a step, you're going to be going to
and not in a good way.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yea, they are scared, but they.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Were affordable and they allowed me and my family at
the time. You know, my parents are on first generation
Nicaraguan American. Both my parents from Nicaragua, but mom came
here in the mid sixties, my dad in the early seventies,
and they weren't making you know, they were were working family,
working two jobs, and they would take us a ball
games and those were the seats we get at the
(10:23):
new stadium. I want to be able to make sure
that we have access for everybody. If you want an
elevated experience, you can have suits and club seats, but
if you want to sit down the left field line,
you want to sit in the grass. You want to
be able to come with your family and friends and
enjoy the playground. And we're gonna have something for everybody.
So my goal really isn't like I don't want to
make sure I want to make sure that everybody has
a seat, has an opportunity to come enjoy minor league baseball.
(10:46):
And the great thing about minor league baseball is that
it's a form, right you look, you go to a Dog.
I've gotten a number of Dodger games and I've been
back for just over two months and I've been on
a number of games. It is expensive, it is it
is exciting part dog. Yeah, you know, like you know
we're gonna have elements, sir, when you know we'll have
(11:07):
our Thursday and Thursday nights, our family Wednesdays. You know
we're gonna have you know, cheap hot dog night and
all these things. You know. So like there're gonna be
ways for families to really enjoy an affordable night at
the ballpark and watch the future stars of the li
Dodgers play right here in Ontario. So the experience for
me and making sure that families have access to this
(11:30):
is very right.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Well, so not only seeing the future stars, but cheering
them on right and making sure that they make it
to the next level and hopefully seeing them at Dodger Stadium,
but having it so close right the proximity that you're
cutting down on the drive, on the cost of you know,
on the time and the cost, and it's just so
exciting to hear about these plans for the stadium.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
You mentioned this stadium is going to be one of
the if not the best.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Question.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
So paint the sure what does this new stadium look like?
How many will it see?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
What are some of the amenities that are going to
be unique to it that you know fans will be
able to enjoy.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Yeah, you know, in our market, we've got three other
minor league teams. We got the Lake Elser Storm, it's
a nice stadium, the Diamond out Lake Elsinore. We got
Salmonol Stadium for the Inland Fire sixty six ers, another
nice stadium built in the nineties, and also Ranch bookamonga
the Quicks, another nice stadium. What's unique about this stadium
is that it's obviously a modern, recently built ballpark. It's
(12:31):
got a three sixty design to it, which I think
is very unique. None of the other ballparks have it.
And what I mean by that is that when you
come into the ballpark, you can walk around the whole stadium,
and there's activations, meaning that there's points of sale for
food and beverage throughout the whole stadium. So you're gonna
have to walk behind the home plate to go sit
in the grass and get you know, like you can.
(12:52):
There will be a F and B out in left
center field or be left food beverage out down left field.
We're gonna have this really cool airplane on a pedestal
that's gonna light up and the propeller is gonna go
off when the home runs go off. We're gonna have
a splash pad with water. It's not gonna be Blagio,
but we're gonna have like a splash pad with water
(13:13):
features out in left field that kids can go run around.
And we're gonna have a fixed playground set out in
left field. We're gonna have a We're gonna have a
stadium within the stadium, so we have a small wiffoo
ball stadium inside the stadium where kids can go play
woof football. We we'll have players out there and are
soon to be unveiled the mascot. We'll be out there
taking VP with the kids playing woofletball. So I think
(13:36):
the idea behind the stadium is Look, there's something for everybody.
Like I said, right, if you want to sit out
there to be other kids down the left field line,
sit in the grass, that's great. But if you want
an elevated experience, we're gonna have something that a lot
of stadiums don't have. We're gonna have dugout suites. So
we have two suites on the ground level next to
the dugout where you can bring your business, you can
(13:57):
run out for your family and bridal party, whatever you want.
I got twenty four guests in each suite and you're
right next to the players in the dugout. It's fantastic.
We've got a club level with seats that of two
hundred and fifty people. We had ten suites down the
left field line, and then we have an open air
party deck that you can host them to sixty people.
(14:18):
So again, very unique, a lot of different options, a
lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
That's so exciting And what I find inspiring about your
leadership also is your commitment to really.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Being a part of the community.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
And I know one of the ways that you did
that when you were with Eugene Oregon was to establish
the Monarchus talk a little bit about the Monarchicas.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Yeah, so thanks for bringing that up. The monoticas is
probably one of my favorite things that I did in Eugene.
We've done a lot of fun things. Monodica's Baseball was
major league based minor league baseball endeavor to attract more
Latin fans, and so instead of telling the team, hey,
(14:58):
we want you to go like be lit Emeralds, right,
like you know, like a lot of teams do, right,
they were like, look, come up with a new brand
for your Latin market. And so I went to our
I got a community of you know, elders, activists, students, teachers,
business owners of the Latin market and said, hey, you
(15:20):
know what, We're going to create this new brand for
our Latin fans families in Eugene, and I want you
guys to come up with the name. I don't want
to tell you what the name is, Like I'm Latino,
but I didn't grow up Latino. In this community, like
what is it? What's important for you? And we went
round and round and they all talked about it, and
they came up with Los Monatica's the Eugene and the
(15:42):
reason why they came up with Moonatica's was the monarch
butterfly exists in every Latin country in South and Central America.
There's there's thirty three countries in Latin America. And on
the butterfly there's uh, actually, this is the Monarca's glove
on the on the logo of the hat, there's thirty
(16:04):
three dots representing thirty three countries. Oregon was the thirty
third state in the Union. The monern butterfly represents migration,
and so the idea was, look, we migrate as as people,
we want to create bridges and community. You know. It's
this really nice, beautiful message of like unity amongst like Latin,
(16:26):
the Latin community, and they loved it and like they
clamored to it, and it was in a community were
only six percent of the populations Latin, but growing. It
is the fastest growing demographic in Oregon. Was just an
interesting thing to do and be being Latin. I thought
I wanted to give it like presents and wanted to
give it some I didn't want to just be like
(16:48):
little smart vitas or something, you know what I mean,
Like I wanted I wanted it to be meaningful.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
And this did right.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
The Monoka that migrates across thirty three countries in Latin
America and Oregon the thirty third country, you know, and
so many things that had overlapping meeting. Do you anticipate
sam on not GA's part two in Ontario, although Ontario's Latin.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Population, We're definitely gonna do something, probably not the first year,
probably not Monotica. It's probably some probably something a little
more fun. I just think, you know, we have a
dynamic culture out here. We'll see, we'll come up with something.
I think I got to get this brand off the
ground first and then we'll figure out. Hopefully near two,
(17:33):
we'll come up with something. And we work toying with
some ideas right now, but we'll definitely come up with
something that's exciting.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
And the reason why I bring that up is because
it's so important to have an organization that really cares
and is focused on integrating into the community and bringing
the community closer right and serving it and identifying with it, right,
creating messages and moments that really resonate with the community.
And in our conversation, you mentioned that you wanted the
(18:01):
Ontario Professional Professional Baseball Club to be involved in the community.
Even with schools, talk about how you foresee being involved
with schools as you know, this new club evolves in Ontario.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
I think education in schools and our youth is wildly
like the most important thing. And we certainly we've done
a great job in Eugene and carry that same project
out here. Is we want to integrate with the school
districts out here, meet with the superintendents and the development
and with the teachers, I should say, and and introduce
our you know, you know, we have a literacy program
(18:38):
or reading program where we just kind of you know,
go out to the schools and encourage reading through a
variety of different methods rather depend on our age group,
you know, whether it's chapters or pages, whatever it is.
And then you know, we reward the kids with like
two tickets to a game, you know, and we'll go
to the school do an assembly with our mascot. That's
one thing. The thing we want to make sure that
we're doing with the kids is like whatever activation are
(19:00):
doing for the holidays or whatever, we want to make
sure that we're out there when they're doing their jogathons
or whenever they're doing their fundraising. You know, we want
to make sure that we're out there supporting the kids
and the schools as much as we can. So we
do encourage if you're watching, make sure you reach out
to us. There's a lot of schools that we'll be
reaching out to ourselves, but really want to make sure
that we're involved in those things. So and it is
(19:22):
interesting the schools, you know, it's like through the YMCA,
through Boys and Girls Club, making sure that we're reaching
and working with those groups two that are helping helping
our kids kind of succeed at life because we all
know that it's hard and a lot of parents are
working two jobs, and we want to make sure that
you know, we can help our families not just at
the ballpark, but how can our team also integrate into
(19:44):
the world of like you know, the nonprofits that are
helping our community a year round.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Right And in your bio you also mentioned that you
are a strong supporter of the Boys and Girls Club.
Talk about some of the efforts, events, just experiences that
you've been able to cultivate alongside them.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Yeah, so Boys and Girls Club is something that was
very important to me and Pinco Rivera. I went to
the Boys and Girls Club. It's actually i've said many times,
it's kind of where I learned to speak English, you know,
I spoke mostly Spanish at home apparents that speak English,
and it was like, you know, Boys and Girls Club
was kind of like the first thing, right, And so
did that for a little bit. And when I moved
(20:23):
to Eugene, I joined the Boys and Girls Club board
just wanted to help. And within a year of joining
the board twenty ten. In twenty eleven was like the
middle of the recession and we had to close our
doors because donations dried up, and you know, and it
was really bad, but decided to stick on. We reorganized
the club. We got you know, some of our board
(20:45):
members dropped off and whatnot, but the ones of us
that stayed were committed to reopening the club and finding
new donors so that we could help our youth in
our community, because we knew that it was a valuable
service for our families. And yet at the time it
was just twenty bucks a year to be a member
and you got after school care. Where do you get
after school care for twenty bucks? Unheard of a year? Agree,
(21:08):
That's what it was, right, I mean? And so we
did that through fundraising and whatnot, and so we did.
About eight months later we reopened and through the help
of the club, I mean the team, you know, volunteering
a lot of hours and doing a lot of fundraising.
Right now, if you go to the club, we're at
two locations looking open. The third side in Eugene, we're
(21:29):
at capacity. You know, we're running events and doing a
lot of fundraising, and the club's doing really well. I
would argue that the team in Eugene was very crucial
to ensuring that that team succeeded. I think you can
call any board member there and asked them that how
important was the club, And the club was important because
(21:50):
we did a lot of fundraising, We did a lot
of a lot of marketing for the team, we did
a lot of volunteering, and those things are really important
to organizations like the Boys and Girls Club. So for
me personally, the Boys and Girls Club was very wildly
important to me. But it was also more than anything,
like incredibly rewarding, right, incredibly rewarding to see these kids
(22:15):
and maybe they didn't know us all. We would come
in and you know, the kids move in and out,
but knowing that those kids had a safe place to
go after school and get a meal and get some
tutoring and maybe get some mentoring. Right, It's really important,
you know. I believe we'd certainly helped a lot of
kids stay on track.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
So I agree.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
You know, I grew up as a latch key kid myself.
I did not have the Boys and Girls club, but
we made it through anyway. But it's true what you say.
You know, when an organization like a major you know,
a sporting team or in your case the Monadcus and
Eugene and here today the Ontario Professional Baseball Club, when
the kids see that their local hero which are sports
(23:01):
professionals that they look up to.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Care that they make the time to reinvest in them
and guide them and give them some mentorship, some guidance
or just a moment of their time to inspire them,
it goes a long way, and it means a lot.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
It does. It means a lot not to but it also
means a lot of the parents and also the community
capital that it builds. You know, I think one of
the most important things a team can do, any team,
is being present in the community year round. You know,
I think a lot of people ask, oh, what do
you do in the off season? You know, well, in
the off season, if you don't see us in the community,
(23:37):
but then we're not doing our job, you know, like
we need we need to be building community capital and
that pays off for us by ban people coming to
games and caring about.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
The team, right, integrating into the community, becoming part of
the fabric of the otpersity, but also giving back right
because you're investing in When you invest.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
In the community, they invest back in you.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Exactly so, exactly so we are coming up on a
break everybody. Yvett Walker with APCNIS and Talk Southern California
Business Report here today with Alan Benavidez, the new general
manager of Ontario, California's Class A Dodgers affiliate, launching in
twenty twenty six, bringing over twenty years of experience, including
a transformative tenure with the Eugene Emeralds, a dedicated Dodgers
(24:20):
fan and Boys and Girls Club board member, truly embodying
the spirit of baseball and community whatever return.
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Speaker 3 (27:46):
Welcome back everyone. Eve at Walker with ABC News and.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Talks Southern California Business Report here today with Alan benavidis
the new general manager of Ontario, California's Class A Dodgers affiliate,
which is launching in twenty twenty six. Over twenty years
of experience, including a transformative tenure with the Eugene Emeralds,
He's a dedicated Dodgers fan and Boys and Girls Club
board member, truly embodying the spirit of baseball and community.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Thank you again for being with us today, Ellen.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Yeah, thanks for having me. This is great. Thank you perfect.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
So prior to the break, we talked about your involvement
with the Boys and Girls Club and the impact that
it makes.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
To have those heroes come in, spend the time and
reinvest in the community.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
I'm curious what organizations do you foresee being that recipient
of the support that you once gave to the Boys
and Girls Club and Eugene Oregon.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
Yeah. You know, We've looked around a little bit, and
I think right now I'm going to join. I've joined
the Board for Promised scholars They do a lot of
tremendous work of scholarships and getting kids to school and
the Ontario Montler School District. So the Great Board, I'm
really excited just joined. Learning a lot about it right now,
but I'm excited to help in that in that fashion
and we'll see where that goes from here. But I
(29:00):
think another big thing for us is being able to
provide scholarships for kids wanting to play you sports, and
making sure that kids have access to play maybe something
that they could do right, whether it's doesn't have to
be baseball, it can be. And we just want to
see kids active, right.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
It's important for kids to be active when they're developing,
when they are making good decisions.
Speaker 8 (29:19):
Right.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
They could be on the field.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Building team principles and character, or on the street doing
other things they shouldn't be doing.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Yeah, rights, And that's the thing, right. I mean, I
just think I think, you know, I played a lot
of sports as a kid. Didn't get very far, you know,
but I played a lot of sports as a kid.
I played a lot of baseball, played water polo, and swam.
But I think sports really provides a good base of
how you learn to fail, how you learn to succeed,
(29:49):
and work as a team. I think it provides a
lot of beneficial things for kids, absolutely, and not all
kids need to play sports. I've got met you who
hates playing sports. He's an amazing shovelist. He plays a
cello like crazies. I mean, it's it's not for everything, but.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
You know, an amazing cellist or in sports. But doing
something that cultivates and creates a better environment for growth
and a healthy mindset and just a healthy future really
what it boils down to. And in some of our
previous conversations when we talked about the stadium and the
construction of the stadium and the fact that it's going
(30:24):
to be the nicest stadium in the country, right.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
I'm telling you, so everybody.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
You have to check it because it's gonna be the
nicest stadium in the country.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Talk about how Measured Q fit into the funding, the
financing or the development for the building of the stadium.
Speaker 11 (30:44):
So you know, the citizens here in Ontario a few
years ago past Measure Q, which raised salesacks a little bit,
and they're using those funds to reinvest into this community.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
And part of that, you know, investment is the stadium.
Part of that is Grand Park that they're building down south,
and part of that is the sports empire there. You know,
I when I told you earlier about this tremendous community
and what they're doing and their vision, you know, they
have to invest in this community as they double in size,
(31:17):
as their goal is, right, and you can't just build
homes and hope for the best. Like you got to
build homes, and you gotta build parks, and you gotta
build facilities, and you gotta build things for families to do,
because you can't go to La in San Diego and
Orange County for everything, right right, right, you just can't write.
(31:38):
And so you've got to be able to give something
for your local families to enjoy, right. And like I
said earlier, like not everybody's a baseball fan, right, And
that's why I want to make sure that the experience
in our ballpark is more than baseball. And you're gonna
have that with our mascot. You're gonna have that with
the design of the stadium. You know, I jokingly say
my goal for the stadium is for us to lose
(32:02):
a game eleven to zero, okay, And when people are
leaving and I'm giving them high fives, I want to
see them smiling and laughing and being like hey, and
we'll see you tomorrow. Because it's about the experience. It's
not about the wins and losses. And so if we win,
it's gravy. I'm always choked a way I work at sports,
But it's not about that. It's about the experience, right.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
It's about the work. It's about the experience that goes
into like you said that the end of the day
and enjoying that.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
And I know you mentioned in addition to hosting these
games and other sports, you're also looking at doing ASM concerts.
Speaker 4 (32:37):
Yes, yeah, so ASM, who's the stadium the venue manager
of the state. They also operate Toyo Arena. They do
a ton of stuff throughout the state. They're also going
to be the venue manager for the stadium and we're
working in partnership with them. They'll be helping us manageball park,
FMB and Browns Crew, and they'll be bringing in more
events at the stadium. As the stadium next year, we'll
be focused on baseball. The Sports Empire opens in October
(33:01):
of next year, but I'm really believed coming in the
next few years, you're gonna see some big stadium concerts
happening at the ballpark that ASM will be bringing in
and you'll be and it'll be a tremendous menu to
come see an outdoor concert at the stadium. And so
we're looking forward to working with our partners at ASM
to bring large scale, you know, twelve fourteen thousand person
events to an outdoor venue right here in Ontario.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Wow, will fireworks be involved?
Speaker 4 (33:27):
I hope so right, No fireworks, drune shows, all that stuff.
You know, I think I love fireworks, but you know,
we're you know, fire season and whatever.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
They have great drones.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
The drone shows. It's gonna be amazing and we're gonna
have a huge drone show. We're gonna talk about this
before we get off at our launch party.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
On September eighteenth. Yes, Yes, Thursday, September eighteenth is the
launch party. We're gonna be talking about that as well.
So it's very exciting. You don't want to miss it.
That's when they're going to.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
Unveil We're gonna unveil the team name, the sky Mules.
I'm joking. Everybody thinks it's the sky Mules. It's not. Okay,
everybody needs a calm bas sky News not the sky Mules.
People think it is, but it's not, or it is no.
But yeah, so we'll be in beigeling the team, name
the colors, the mascot, and that's me on the eighteen
(34:14):
and we can talk about that now or later.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Yeah, well we'll talk about it. We'll pick up on
that because that's that's just.
Speaker 6 (34:20):
That.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
There's so much more that goes into this, and I'm excited.
Who are some of the concert names the talent that
ASM works with that we can anticipate seeing at the stadium, Guys.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
I think I think they run the Gamut. I mean
they run some of the biggest events in concerts on
the West Coast and throughout the country actually, so I
wouldn't be surprised to see some of the bigger names
that you can think of. Like I don't work directly
for ASM, but if you see what's going on in
the Greek Theater, you see what's going on in the
Toyota Arena. I mean Tote Arena is probably fourteen thousand
(34:53):
people large sold out right, They're bringing Morris, They're bringing
big acts I mean would I would adventure that the
actually are going to see at the ballpark will be
those a level, ten thousand seat arenas, which are big names.
I'll on Taylor Swift, Is it okay? Tho?
Speaker 2 (35:12):
They still out so fast?
Speaker 4 (35:16):
I'm ringing them for a baseball game. I went good.
I love that. Yeah, yeah, they're great. But yeah, it
would be stuff like that, I mean, and it's gonna
be a lot of that very nice. Wow.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
So let's talk about the location of this stadium because
a lot of people may not be familiar with it.
They may see a lot of dust, a lot of conjunction,
but not know what's happening.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Please tell us about that.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
You know, it's funny and I feel like they live
bit every day and I feel like everybody knows about
the ballpark. But you know, we live in a very
busy environment. People are driving a lot to work, and
a lot of people don't know that this is happening.
I would say, but half the people I know know
about the project. There's half of the people that have
no idea, right, So it's a brain new stadium getting
(35:58):
built on Riverside Drive between Archibald and Vineyard. So whispering
Lake Skulf Course directly across the street, and you will
notice the stadium because there is a gigantic Dodgers video
board that is part of the stadium. You won't miss it.
The giant parking lot parking structure right next to the stadium.
(36:22):
And it's gonna sit in the middle of a two
hundred acre sports complex known as the Sports Empire. So
that is happening on riverside between Archibald and Vinyar, so
just south of the sixty freeway.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Okay, so it's it's very very close, super accessive, super accessible,
great access.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
I won't lie right now. The traffic isn't ideal. It's
cut down to one, you know, one lane each way
because of the construction. But they're widening the streets, like
the street access. Once this is done, like you're gonna
don't speed, but you'll be able to fly down the
road and there'll be great access to the ballpark.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Very nice, very nice.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
And you know you mentioned that you're looking forward to
having mascot themed knights and different themed nights to.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
Entertain the community. What would some of these things look like?
Speaker 4 (37:12):
For this is my favorite part of the gig My
favorite part of the job is the promotion. It's the
stuff that we get to create. So you know, some
of my your things that I've done over the years
in my time has been you know, obviously those are
the easy ones. These ones are like Star Wars Night,
you know, Lel and Stitch, you know, SpongeBob Knights. We're
gonna do a ton of those Blue Knights, you know.
(37:34):
But I think some of the really fun ones that
we can do are like, how do we do a
softball game between the fire department and the police department?
You know, call it guns and hoses? Then you know,
you know, how do you how do you do? How
do you how do you do a tribute to our
military and wear camelo jerseys for our military and honor
veterans that are coming are going to you know foreign
(37:57):
you know, uh uh, you know war or whatever. Right,
how do we do our fun school nights? Where's our
cheap hot dog night? And do we call it wild
Oueni Wednesday like we do in Eugene, where every do
wear's a hot dog outfit? You know, we do great
souff Dead nights. You know, I would love to do
a night where we honor you know, the Fontana just
honored Travis Parker the drummer. I was Linklin two. Like
(38:21):
I want to get Travis Parker out of here, you know,
I want to get c J. Stroud out here. I
want to do like's, how do we honor our community
with some fun promotions every year? So, like, I want
to make sure that when you come to the ball
when you come to the ballpark, I want you to
have a fun time, whether it's a Tuesday night or
whether it's a Friday night. Right, it should be the
(38:42):
same experience. And that's what we start to do.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
That's remarkable because you know sometimes when you go to
certain venues, it's they save some of the better, the
more bigger fun things for the weekends versus the weekday.
So what you're saying about keeping it consistent across the
board is it's great.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
You should not the difference.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
You should know the difference, right, and like you know,
typically like your giveaways will be on a Friday night
or fireworks are a Saturday night, whatever it is, right.
But my point is that like every game has the
energy or has the theme promotion that captures everybody's attention.
Whether you love baseball you don't, And that's that's the goal.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
And so in addition to being able to watch these
games live in a stadium, they're also going to be
broadcast for the community to listen to if they don't
if they miss a game, if you're gonna go to
the next one, what does that look like?
Speaker 4 (39:30):
So you can stream the audio on our website and
listen to on your phone, or you can watch it
on MLBtv dot com or MLB dot tv. So Major
League Baseball's at you know, if you want to watch
the Dodgers, and a lot of people, if you're a
baseball fan, have major have a Major League Baseball teav account.
And one of the benefits of having MLB TV account
is that you get to watch the minor league game.
(39:52):
So we broadcast all our games a professional quality Ford
camera system. Where you're watching a Dodger game, the Dodgers
play at one o'clock and the Ontario Baseball teams playing
at six thirty five, you can watch it live on
MLB TV.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
Very nice, very nice.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
And so we'll go back to the launch party because
that's super exciting and it's coming down the road here
in September eighteenth. Tell us what do we need to
know about the launch party and what is going to
be unveiled again and how can the community participate.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
So look, we haven't announced everything yet, so you're getting
like you're getting exclusive back.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
It's super exclusive. Are you listening?
Speaker 4 (40:28):
I love it? Thank you. So our launch party is
September eighteenth. It's a Thursday, asking people to get throw
about five o'clock because at five thirty precisely, we are
launching the brand. With the special video, we'll announce the
team name, the sky Meiles I'm joking. We'll announce the
team names, the uniforms, the colors, the mascot. We're gonna
(40:52):
have Dodger Legends in house to help us with the launch.
We're gonna have Bill Russell, Kelly gang Ye, Steve Sacks
and Green. You might have a special Internet personality show up.
We have a celebrity MC and Mario Lopez who's gonna
(41:15):
be our m C. We have Mariachi from Disneyland and
potentially Ozo Monthley is gonna close out the night. It's
gonna be a huge event. It will be the first
time you get to buy any merchandise so like art.
So we'll announce the team name and the team store
will open the meeting, So we'll have hats, jerseys, shirts, flags, cousies,
(41:41):
whatever you can think of. Like it's gonna it's gonna
be at town Square, right next to the mule car
between It's on Nuclid between B and C Street. The
streets will be closed. Our team store will be on
the medium, and all the talent and everything will be
on the stage age at town Square. It's gonna be
(42:03):
really exciting. To close out the night, We're gonna have
a special drone show over town Square that will highlight
the team sponsors and it's gonna be tremendous. It'll be
the biggest launch we've ever done.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
That is so exciting.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
And I can already visualize it on Euclid Avenue, which
is a historic route and just in history period and
having that blocked off to make this major announcement. Talk
about the work and the effort that goes into not
only preparing this new team to move into the stadium
and create this whole new brand, but also preparing for
(42:41):
this grand unveiling on September eighteenth in downtown Ontario.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
Please tell us about the team that it makes.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
It's a small team. Right now, we're about you know
a dozen employees, but it's the City of Ontario has
been tremendous in trying to help us. They are the
permits and everything we need to get done to make
sure this happens go. Cow and ASM have also been
tremendous partners of ours. Michael Krause and his team have
been very great and helping us make sure that this
(43:12):
is an event that the city can be very proud of.
And you know it's a free event, right, so there's
a lot of costs going into this and the team's
investing a lot to make sure that everybody has a
good time. So yeah, I would say them, And you
know our partners at O and T and at Yamaua
and all these folks, but otherwise are like these folks,
(43:33):
our sponsors are huge partners for us and making sure
that this all kind of comes through.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
That's very exciting. And so what are you most excited
about as you approach this?
Speaker 2 (43:47):
You know, time in April? Yeah, tell us when is
the date that?
Speaker 4 (43:51):
So every days? April second? Okay, it's a Thursday, April second,
twenty twenty six. You know what, I'm excited to get
the game. You want to be very honest, I'm excited
to get the game over with, right, the first game. Yeah,
Like I think, you know, I just want to get
that off of my back. You know. I know that
it's gonna be great. We're gonna work, We're gonna have
(44:13):
a lot of you know, we're gonna we're gonna do
some really special things that we're already starting to plan
on that I don't want to like, let you know,
a couple of surprises.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
April. Talk again in April. I'm gonna market April.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
So it's that's, you know, I'm excited that it's finally
gonna happen, right, It's I think the reality of being
able to see my mom there and family seeing I
think seeing the city manager and city council who have
really taken a risk and and uh, I want to
make them proud that they that they took a risk
(44:51):
on building a facility for the community, and I want
to make sure that they enjoy it. And I want
to you know, I have a lot of I feel
a great sense of responsibility and making sure that our
leadership is happy, our fans aren't happy, our sponsors are happy,
and my mom is happy, you know, Like, I I
want I want to make all four of them super proud.
(45:12):
And I think that with the right staff and we've
got them right now, I can't see how we're gonna fail.
Like it's it's it's it's a dynamic partnership that we've
been able to create with the city. Really really, I
mean I genuinely mean, like really lucky to call them
partners honestly. And uh, I'm I'm so excited that they
(45:35):
elected to bring me in DBH the owner of our
baseball team, that they sought me to come take this team,
you know, as a as you mentioned earlier, as a
kid for me, still a first generation working with my
dream team. I mean, it's a dream come true.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Doesn't get better than that.
Speaker 4 (45:55):
True, And it's and I'm excited to share with the community.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
D And so for the community that is listening, where
can they find more information and follow the Ontario Professional
Baseball So.
Speaker 4 (46:06):
All you have to do is search Ontario Professional Baseball
Club on the on Google. It'll like hyperlink you to
our site. That'll change on September eighteenth, fat five thirty precisely,
our new website will drop, but it'll automatically link you.
You can go to on Pro Baseball, ont Pro Baseball, Instagram,
all our social media channels. You can find us on Facebook.
(46:29):
We're very very active on social media. Some pretty funny
stuff on social media, so please follow us. And we're
doing a lot of fun contests. We just we have
a season ticket holder who just won four ticket to
go to a Dodger game and got to go on
the field and watch BP with the Dodgers. So we're
doing you know, we're gonna be starting to do a
lot more engagement on social media and activations and so
(46:52):
follow us and for an opportunity to win some stuff.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Absolutely right now and following you. And I'm watching the
construction of the stadium. It's so excited.
Speaker 4 (47:00):
It's crazy.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
Everything happening right for your eyes.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
So if you're a collector, if you're a fan, you
definitely want to be there September eighteen to get the
first of the line merge coming off the line and
be a part of following the stadium.
Speaker 3 (47:14):
Building in the progression.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
And of course the team so exciting and as you mentioned,
the team at Ontario, if you're a part of it,
you're going to be successful.
Speaker 4 (47:23):
It's I just don't see how we're going to fail,
but you know, look, we'll have some we'll have some
challenges like any business, but we'll get through it and
we're gonna have some fun. And I'm excited to this
communities embrace us so far, and I'm excited to growth
in it and have my wife and my family be
a part of it. Super excited.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Thank you so much for sharing your work, for your
time and for your heart to deliver entertainment, sports and
healthy activities for our youth.
Speaker 4 (47:52):
Thank you, No, I appreciate you giving us the time
and a platform to speak going.
Speaker 3 (47:56):
Thank you all right for everybody listening.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
Don't forget to find us on face, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn,
and Instagram. Don't miss my conversation with Winds Spiller, a
dedicated memory of the Rotary Club of Grass Valley, California,
with a remarkable commitment to service since nineteen ninety four.
Next week we will have Jesse armanderaz San Bernandino County
Supervisor of District two, who is a dedicated public servant,
(48:19):
successful entrepreneur, and lifelong resident of San Bardino County who
has spent his career working to improve the lives of
local families. Elected to San Bernanzino County Board of Supervisors
in November twenty twenty two. Jesse has built a reputation
as a results driven leader who puts his community first.
With an update on San Bernandino County's District two, we
(48:40):
will see you all next week.
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