Chris Murphy: Santa Cruz Warriors; Growth, Grit, And Giving Back

A packed gym can change a city—especially when you can feel the hardwood in your chest from 15 rows up. We sat down with Chris Murphy, president of the Santa Cruz Warriors, to unpack how a G League franchise turned a 2,500-seat arena into a winter ritual, a talent pipeline, and a hub for community pride. From the first sellouts to the next arena, this is the story of choosing right-sized over oversized and substance over flash.

Chris shares his coast-to-coast journey from entry-level ticket sales to running the club, and the operating reality beneath the roar: small departments, rising costs, and the tricky math of recruiting in a high-rent market. We dig into the character-first philosophy that shapes the roster, why 60 percent of NBA players now have G League experience, and how Santa Cruz’s “just right” proximity to Golden State fuels real development and real call-ups. You’ll hear why players love living downtown, how front office staff logs 50 to 75 volunteer hours a year, and what it takes to balance practices, school visits, and sold-out nights without losing momentum.

If you’ve never been to Kaiser Permanente Arena, consider this your invitation. Tickets average about forty dollars, the court feels a breath away, and the themed nights are built for locals—think a full Grateful Dead tribute and a celebration of the Golden State Valkyries’ historic season. We also talk candidly about the proposed arena timeline, the partners helping make it possible, and practical ways businesses can plug in—from season tickets as client gifts to sharing community events that make the team more than a game.

Join us for a courtside look at growth, grit, and giving back. If this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves hoops or Santa Cruz, and leave a quick review to help more neighbors find it.

Transcript

Market Check: Rates And Insurance

SPEAKER_05 0:02

Welcome to the On the Coast Podcast. All right. Hello, hello. Welcome back to the OTC podcast. This is Brandy Jones with Keller Williams Thrive.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

And to my right is Ryan Buckholt, Cross Country Mortgage. And Jerry Seagraves with Seagraves Insurance.

SPEAKER_05 0:17

Oh yeah. Hey Ryan, how are the rates this week?

SPEAKER_01 0:19

You know, today actually got a little bit better. I think Trump actually came out with some news about him kind of standing down, possibly. I don't know if he exactly said those words, but it was positive for the bond market. So we're seeing them get a little bit better because of that.

SPEAKER_05 0:32

So we saw last week we we were at 5.99, and then Monday everybody freaked out because they went back up to six. So when you say a little bit better, are they back in the fives? Or what are you looking at? Probably back to 5.99. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 0:43

Jerry, you had some good news, but it was frustrating news. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Challenging week. But yeah, no, the insurance markets, kind of the same uh tone. You know, I would say easing is probably the word I'd use. And we're seeing landlord markets coming back. That's been previously kind of a little bit of a difficult market for us, and opened up a couple new carriers this week that are writing pretty competitive landlord products. So we're seeing things shift, which is a huge win for me.

SPEAKER_05 1:13

Yeah, it was pretty constipated. I meant stagnant for a while, wasn't it? I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

We're still having some residual stuff.

SPEAKER_03 1:20

Hey, the qu I have a question. The the emotions of the market like that, are there some people in your industry that are on the outside looking in like the stock market where even though that was a temporary kind of, you know, there was some news generated, rates, you know, did what they did. Are there people sometimes on the outside looking in with suitcase of cash taking advantage of days like that? Or weeks like that? Yeah, exactly. Definitely.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

It's funny, I I see it in my business. We get a flood of mortgage updates. Like instantly, the market changes, like a week later, we get all these notices in the mail. Change these mortgages uh on the on these uh homeowners' policies or rental policies, you know. So I imagine you're the tip of the spear of that. So as soon as the news changes, people are calling you.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Exactly. And so everything's so instantaneous now. Now there's a tickler on the bottom of CNBC that says what 30-year fixed mortgages doing. Like we never had that before. I actually feel kind of important now.

SPEAKER_05 2:14

Well, I have some follow-up on that. In the last three years, and Chris, you can chime in on this. What year from 2023, 2024, and 2025, you know those answers, Brian does say, what year do you you think we sold the most single-family townhome condos? So the three years, twenty three, twenty-four, two.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

I'd say twenty-three.

SPEAKER_05 2:32

Ryan?

SPEAKER_02 2:32

Twenty-five? Well, just to make it fun, I'll go twenty-four.

By The Numbers: Home Sales Trends

SPEAKER_05 2:36

One of us is in twenty twenty-three, one thousand one hundred and ninety-one homes sold. 2024, 1,259 sold.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 2:47

2025, 1,717 sold.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Holy cow.

SPEAKER_05 2:51

Way to go, Ryan.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

I was surprised by that. It was a busy it was a busy market. People are thawed out from the whole COVID thing and rates down into three. They've kind of lost that, and now they're understanding, okay, it's six percent, that's what it is.

Meet Chris Murphy And His Journey West

SPEAKER_05 3:05

Yeah. Well, just to warm you up a little bit, Chris, we have our special guest. You are an icon in Santa Cruz. Yes. There is not a single person on this planet that doesn't like you.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Ooh.

SPEAKER_05 3:16

So Chris Murphy is here with us.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

We checked with everybody. Yeah, everybody's there. Randy was busy.

SPEAKER_05 3:22

Randy was busy this week with my intel. Sending out polls.

SPEAKER_03 3:27

It's 100% accurate.

SPEAKER_05 3:30

The two people I interviewed absolutely love you.

SPEAKER_04 3:33

I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_05 3:34

So you're the president of the Santa Cruz Warriors. You're the senior vice president of the franchise. You're also the executive of the year 2017 and man of the year 2023 and a dad.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Nice. And dad of the year.

SPEAKER_05 3:52

And dad of the year. So you originally come from the East Coast. You went to school in New York. How the heck did you land in Santa Cruz?

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Totally. So first and foremost, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to get to sit down with you all. You know, how I got to Santa Cruz. So going back to college, I, you know, sports was always a big part of my upbringing, played sports, you know, knew I wanted to do something in sports eventually. And when I was in college in Syracuse, New York, I kind of worked at Syracuse University's athletic department, selling tickets, making phone calls to sell tickets for basketball and football. This was at a time back in 2004-2005 when the NBA was really starting to expand their ticketing world and no longer was being as passive around like, you know, turning on Ticketmaster and hoping games sell out. Sales staffs were really expanding. So I, you know, had applied and got a job with the Golden State Warriors in their ticket sales department, had to be across the country a week after I graduated. Wow. Thought I would stay a year or two and go back home and be around family and loved it. I mean, how can you not love the West Coast? How can you not love, you know, I was in my 20s living in San Francisco, like working for a sports team. It was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_05 4:59

There's a lot of stories we won't talk about.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

Yes, on there. Hopefully a lot of them we will talk about. Yeah, but you know, so that that's how I started with Gold State. I spent my first 10 seasons there growing up in the ticketing side of the business and into management and senior level management there on the ticketing side. And then in 2015, they asked me to come to Santa Cruz and learn to run an entire organization. At first, with the thought of, you know, at least three years, and then you can come back to Gold State. It's now been 10 plus, but I'm not in a hurry. You know, I love I love it here. My family's here. This is where, you know, we're trying to build a new building. This is a community that I would love to be in for an extremely long time.

SPEAKER_05 5:37

What I find so interesting about that, it's one thing to be in San Francisco. And the Golden State Warriors have their, you know, like the Niners, they're their own fan club. And they drive everyone crazy because every game is a new version of what you're gonna get on the court. You come down here, it's surf culture, it's old school, it's Santa Cruz, you have to go over that mountain. How do you break in and make the Santa Cruz Warriors what they are today?

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, from day one, we leaned into the community first, right? I think that, you know, knowing that it's a smaller community, knowing that it's a community that has a lot of pride and supports each other and wants to lift each other up, that community wrapped their arms around us when we got here and welcomed us when we first came to Santa Cruz. And before my time, I got here in the fourth season. But for all of you, like there's probably a lot of questions about whether or not a pro sports team would work at Santa Cruz, right? And very clearly the community wrapped its arms around us. And we had a lot of success on the court the first couple of years, which definitely helped. I mean, I think now, ever since, it's like we are part of this community, but we want to be a part of it as a giver as well, not just showing up. But I think it's also like it's what's happened organically as well. When you're in Kaiser Permanente Arena, it is impossible to walk around and not see a bunch of other people you all know. Right, right. That is the best part, in my opinion. Like doing the lap, saying hi to every eighth person, seeing everybody, oh, I haven't seen this person in a little while. Santa Cruz has a lot of differences, a lot of differing opinions. Like when people walk into KP Arena, they set it all aside and they're all high-fiving each other, and it's it's that like beacon of togetherness for Santa Cruz that we don't really have, especially in the offseason.

SPEAKER_05 7:10

That's really cool. I mean, the fan experience is exceptional. I mean, the level of playing is right under NBA. In fact, bounces back and forth. And yet you feel like you're in a school gym. And was that strategic? I know Kaiser Permanente building is not permanent, but did they try it to were they planning on upscaling or how was your vision when it started becoming that this is a part of the community?

SPEAKER_02 7:35

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I don't think anybody th thought we should have come here not knowing if it would really work and build like a 5,000 seat thing. Right, right. No matter how big that building is, there's still only so many people that live here. There's still that, I don't mind the 17, but there is that aura of people coming over the 17 that could slow people down. So we built a building that we thought was kind of right size for the community that could be vibrant and full and entertaining. Like there's nothing worse than playing in a half-empty gym, right? That is an excellent point. So as we think about the future, like we think about a new arena, like we're not trying to build a 5,000 seat arena. We're thinking 3,000, like a little bit bigger. Right, because you're at 2,500 now.

SPEAKER_05 8:16

I mean, we're talking 500 more. So the fan experience should well, we can get into the future of it, but the goal is that you're here to stay.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

We are here to stay, and there's nothing that beats high extremely high quality basketball, and the worst seat in the house, like 15 rows up, and it's affordable. Like you are right on top of the court. Like you said, it's a big high school gym.

unknown 8:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:36

Yeah. And uh just to kind of go back a little bit, did your family come follow you out here now that you're here?

SPEAKER_02 8:41

No. My entire family lives uh within like a mile and a half of each other, back east in a small little lake town. Where? Outside of Syracuse. It's called Skinny Atlas, New York. It's the Finger Lakes.

Right-Sized Arena, Big Atmosphere

SPEAKER_03 8:53

I coached football back there for 20 years. Oh where I was gonna make a an IHC Immaculate Central up in Watertown. But the question I have actually staying there, we'll get back to that. But I have a question that came up in my mind is so that four years at Syracuse? Did you do it?

SPEAKER_02 9:08

I actually I went to Le Moyne, which is a smaller school in Syracuse.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

Okay. But the my thought being about with what you've done with Santa Cruz Warriors here, were you an orange fan?

SPEAKER_02 9:18

Oh yeah, growing up, my family said seasoned.

SPEAKER_03 9:20

Because here's where I'm getting at long-winded here is that the carrier dome in Syracuse has a very similar uh community feel to it. It's like, especially in the wintertime, especially something there where there's a magic to that place, and you would not think it on a national level, but it's it's a it's an absolute rabid fan base. They love their football, they particularly love their basketball. And lacrosse is huge there also. But did some of that does some of that carry over sometimes in the ether of what you're doing there as far as like when the thing that Syracuse does is they win that zip code. You know, they they won that zip code, they won Onadaga County, they kind of win that hands down, um, and then they click they get their national following. But the Warriors, Santa Cruz Warriors, is a perfect example of winning a town, you know, like Syracuse.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, of course we love our Bay Area fans that come to games, and we love, you know, either Deep South County or Monterey County that love to come to games. We we want all fans um as well. But yeah, if we don't, if we we can't count on that for 2,500 tonight, right? So we need to we need to win the community in it we are in, and we also just so happen to be a part of that community, and out in the community and in the schools, and in the you know, all the youth groups and doing everything we can for nonprofits. So I think again, like we're a good community citizen because it's what we we are a part of the community. We want to be a good community citizen, but good community is also good business. It is. Like it is for all of you.

SPEAKER_05 10:43

So when now that you have success, how do you and you're giving credit to the community and you're sort of like you said, the ether that allows this fun to ebb and flow. But when you get to the serious side of managing this, what is the thing that stresses you out most? Or what is the thing that you have to focus on most to m most to maintain this?

SPEAKER_02 11:05

Brandy getting deep early.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

Going right in.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

I would say you know, two things and they they feed off each other. I think building the proper team, uh, our front office team and staff, you know, as as is the case with many of our businesses, like expenses these days are growing faster than revenues. I mean, we've really got to find a way to like continue to grow revenue. Well, we all we exist in a world where on the court your best players get taken to the NBA and you're excited about it. But that happens off the court as well. You know, I think we lose a lot of good talent to go to Gold State and continue to grow their career, and it's something we're excited about. We want to help that happen. But every time it happens, we've got to reload. Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 11:48

Well, you've got to reload financially, but also in your heart, because this is a team.

Staffing, Housing, And Keeping Talent

SPEAKER_02 11:51

Totally. And and I think what happens is in a community that isn't have like a big sports management program at the university or a business program that's super in-depth, like we've mostly have to bring people from outside the area. So then they start to look at housing, they start to look at costs, like, and those things just continue to get harder and harder. So the challenge of finding, you know, people that can make this work and want to be in sports, and sports is not the most well-playing industry. Um it's so glamorous, though.

SPEAKER_05 12:21

I thought you were a bazillionaire.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

So I think you got to find the right people. And then, like many of you, as you grow a company, like not every hire you make is a home run. Sometimes you miss. And I think that smaller teams without tons of depth at every position, you have a lot of departments that are two to three people. You have turnover, you lose people, it takes you a while to find somebody new, then you gotta train that person. Like that is by far the biggest challenge we face. How do we continue to grow the business, get more sophisticated, do more for our clients, create a better experience, but you're constantly like reloading at kind of the staffing levels.

SPEAKER_05 12:56

With the new stadium with the proposal that's coming, which includes housing and uh terrace, could that possibly be a sum of the solution with the housing there?

SPEAKER_02 13:07

Yeah, if only the if only like either the private sector would love to discount a bunch of housing for staff or the affordable sector was able to be earmarked for staff, that'd be great. Right, right, right. But no, I mean I think ultimately just the amount of housing.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

They don't want to pay$6,000 a month for a two-bedroom apartment.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

I mean, it's funny, like we we talk about this a lot because you know, I'm I'm very like pro-housing, and people, you know, I've rented up until buying a house like 18 months ago. And I think so many people are like, oh, like these rents are crazy. It's like, no, like that's what rent is. Yeah. Like that's just what the market is for that level of product. Like, there's no it may be crazy to somebody that's been in a house for a while or has like a mortgage that's 2.7% or whatever. Yep. But you want to go live in a nice new building in anywhere, you're over four or five grand.

SPEAKER_05 13:59

Right. Right. Well, when you are we're gonna ask a question, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

I I was gonna ask a question. This is kind of like in the back of my mind with the the players, right? So how many players a year matriculate to you know the NBA or in your case Golden State? Is it a small number? I'm like, I I don't really keep up on that a whole lot.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

So each team's a little different. Yeah. But the the easiest way to look at it is an aggregate across the entire league. So right now, this season, 60% of NBA players have played in the G League. Okay. So if you think about an NBA roster of 15 people, you know, you're talking about 10 guys, nine, 10 guys on that team have G League experience. Maybe not that year, right? Right, but at some point. But at some point in their journey, they have played in the G League. And that percentage is just going up and up and up every year. You know, this year already, we've we've had two players that have played in Santa Cruz that have now played at Gold State. It actually happened in Monday's game. They played our afternoon game and then their night game the same day. You know, I think if if each team across the entire league, you probably have 50 to 100 players a year that go from the G League to the NBA in some way, shape, or form. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05 15:14

How do they get to the G League?

The G League Pathway To The NBA

SPEAKER_02 15:16

So the G League, there's a variety of different ways, but I I think the easiest one to understand would be, you know, if you think about there's 325 D1 college basketball programs. So you probably have about a thousand people that come out of school every year. The NBA draft has 60 spots. So there's two rounds, 60 players. So if you want to go to play professionally, there's only 60 of those people getting drafted by the NBA. So there's a lot of other talent that would love to continue to play professionally. So trying to get drafted in the G League is a big part of that. And then some amount of those 60 that even get drafted in the NBA play a lot of their time in the G League.

SPEAKER_05 15:54

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_02 15:54

You know, because it's about developing. Like if your great example would be last year, Gold State drafted Quentin Post in the second round. You know, not knowing how long that was gonna go, he signed a two-way contract, so he played in Santa Cruz. A month into his Santa Cruz career, he played a game at Gold State, made like six threes, and played really well, and he's never been back to Santa Cruz. Like that the development can happen so fast. And a lot of times when you're you know, you're a second-round pick or whatnot, like getting minutes, being able to develop, practicing hard, working on your skill set, you kind of can cultivate that talent so that when they're good to the NBA, they're ready to contribute.

SPEAKER_05 16:32

So when people are not drafted to the 60, and now there's a thousand that the G League can pick, how well known is Santa Cruz in that G League? Are we we rated at the top?

SPEAKER_02 16:41

In terms nobody wants to be anywhere else in terms of a market. That's amazing. If you think about the market, the people want to be here, right? Like you want to be, and I hate to pick out any one of my colleagues, but in the middle of January, do you want to be in you know Sioux Falls, Iowa, or do you want to be in Santa Cruz where it's 70 this weekend, right?

SPEAKER_05 17:00

Well, I play beach volleyball, so yes, I'd rather be here.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

Um so I think I think being honest, like the market is second to none. Home games are second to none. But the basketball, some other places, like you know, whether the the Lakers, Oklahoma City is another example. In Cleveland, they have this where their G League team's a mile or two away from the NBA club. So they practice together often. Like, so there might be some basketball advantages for some of that close proximity. So that could be, you know, you could see some other teams saying, like, hey, that would be better, or a player. Or also it depends on the player. Like, if you come to Golden State, like we're trying to win a title right now. Yeah. So you it's not as likely that 22-year-olds without that didn't get drafted are probably gonna matriculate into our NBA roster right now.

SPEAKER_03 17:45

Right.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

If you're another team that may be looking at losing a lot of games so they get a high lottery pick, they may have more appetite for young players to play more minutes.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Does it show when you have something that's a G League a mile away that there's less fan base because you have pro right there? Totally.

SPEAKER_03 18:01

Yeah, it's like crazy, right? Like I remember I watched some of those Lakers games when you guys were on the road, and honestly, I mean, uh if there's 200, 500 people in those stands, there's not much more than that.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

Yeah, no, you're you're right.

SPEAKER_03 18:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

I mean, it's really hard to draw, right, when your NBA clubs in the same exact market.

SPEAKER_05 18:18

Are we technically the same exact market or are we just over the hill?

SPEAKER_02 18:21

No, I would say we're a different market. Okay, cool. We're over an hour. Like setting aside all actual market geography, like they're getting in the car for an hour.

SPEAKER_03 18:30

It's almost ideal, right? It's almost an ideal distance as far as you know, sometimes you you go down there and you'll see Steve Kerr on the bench, and you'll you'll see the players. Steph will come down every once in a while. So it's close enough for that, but it's far enough away to have your own base a little bit that that kind of supports it. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

And far enough for the basketball development where you're not like practicing with us and eating lunch back then. It's kind of like, hey, like go develop. You can you can play in a game here and there on the same day. But when you're coming, you get to be here and be present and work on your game and work on your skill set. And you're not constantly worried about like, where am I going to dinner tonight with the with the you know whoever else that's you know lives by my apartment in San Francisco. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:09

So when you say community, how do you establish as the president, what like emotional roles do you get to play in how people are chosen or drafted and creating a community around the guys playing?

SPEAKER_02 19:21

Yeah. So in terms of this is probably the easiest part of my job is that like I run the business. I don't run the basketball. So I don't have to worry about player evaluation, all that thing. The one thing that I I'm very fortunate that we have a front office, a general manager, Zach, and his, you know, his team as well, that really leans in on high character guys. You know, we don't look for like the high ego guy that could score 35 a night, but is a terrible teammate. Like that's not who we want on our team. That translates a lot to the community as well. We want team first people that are like about the best success of the team over themselves, which usually translates very well to being like good human beings and good citizens and like.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Want to representatives of the team.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Totally. Like, want to go, you know, aren't going to pout when they have to sit a few minutes. They want to go to the school and read to the third graders at Galt because that's a community program we're doing. Like that really matters. And I think our organization values team first high character guys. And that definitely helps on my world. That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_05 20:22

Yeah, that's super cool. Going into the community now, now you've got these like massive guys who are really cool. And I think it's such a great example. Like you said, they're not pouting because how many families and kids? I feel like the Santa Cruz Warriors, when you say community, they didn't exclude children, moms, dads, grandmas, and that halftime shows. There's events, you know, like you said, going to Galt School. How do you manage that for the community? Because that's a lot. These guys are on court practicing, then you've got your general manager, and now you're also like you need revenue, but you want to give back. What does that look like?

SPEAKER_02 20:56

I mean, if I had my way, our players would be in the community like eight days a week.

SPEAKER_05 21:01

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

But you also got to balance like these guys, the the quality of play and the proximity to getting to the NBA is growing year over year. Like when I got here 10 years ago, the quality of play on the court was great, but it's not nearly what it is today. Like it is tremendously different. So these guys are right on the cusp. So as we work with our basketball leadership, it's a lot about like, hey, I need them to go to the school because it's our reading program, but what might work for the school is like 9 a.m. on a Tuesday. Well, that doesn't work for practice. So we can't move around practice and routine. So we work with the schools to do it at one o'clock when the when it's kind of flows within the player's normal routine. So we really work closely with our basketball leadership group to understand like what do you need for these players to put them in the best position to get to the NBA and let us work around the fringes. So it's it's a really collaborative relationship there. And then we really lean in on our front office being representatives as much as a player. That's really a good point.

SPEAKER_05 22:03

Keep going.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

So we have like a monthly volunteer program for our front office staff is out doing a different thing every month in the community. We're doing a river cleanup with Coastal Watershed next week, that our season ticket holders are and some players are going to be there too. So like we realize myself, like I we joke about me being on 18 different nonprofit boards locally. Like, you know, we need to be representatives of the team as well because players come and go, right? Not only year to year, but season to season, week to week. And at times, like, you know, we need them to prioritize themselves and getting to the NBA for their sake. So not every one of them wants to do a million community things, but that doesn't mean that us as an organization can't walk the walk that we ask them to do. We probably do each person on my front office staff on average, we're probably 50 to 75 volunteer hours a year on the front office staff alone. That's impressive.

Character First: Players And Community

SPEAKER_05 22:53

What uh what makes your heart beat for the community so much? I mean, uh, it's been a thread you read about you that way. I mean, we we're joking about the 19,000 different boards you're on. You have a new baby, you have two kids that are 11 and 9. All of that's important to you, but you act like you are a spray chicken. Like you are just bouncing around.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

Like it's all the coffee.

unknown 23:15

It's all the coffee.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

No, I mean, I think like like all of you and like myself, I mean, Santa Cruz is special. It's amazing to live here. I grew up in a town of like six or seven thousand people. So it was super small, like you knew everybody. I mean, while Santa Cruz is a lot bigger than that, like it does give me those vibes of like, you know, when you when you reached out, right? Like about this, like Karina used to watch my kids.

SPEAKER_04 23:37

I know how cute is that.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

That's like the small worldness of it, and being able to like see, you know, I saw you at the turkey trot with your family, like not even knowing we lit you would be there. Exactly. Um, so everywhere you go, you see people you know, and everybody, it's not just the warriors, like everybody's always trying to do something for the community. I know each of you in your spaces do a lot for this community as well. So I think it's easy to want to lean in when like everybody leans in.

SPEAKER_05 24:04

That's such a good point. I like that. Because Ryan does everything. I always wonder how you sleep. Karina, how does he sleep? I mean, honestly, Jerry too. Everybody here is we are, I would say full. We live a very full, happy life. I'd say very well.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

I think that's what makes I know living here, at least for me, good, like when you go out in the community and you know, you've done all these things with people that you know, and then you see them in your recreational time. And you know, you have that commonality or or that bridge that kind of connects everybody together. I mean, there's so many people in town that I'll be at lunch and they just honk their horn as they drive by and wave, you know. And that was me. I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_03 24:41

But as much as we complain about like rush hour traffic here and there, those are slight moments, but yeah, I always make the argument, being born and raised here, that the logistics of this town overwhelmingly are very good for giving back. You know, like literally somebody wants to meet you here, you can go there, are basketball games here, you can get there. And and there is some nightmare scenarios when you're on Highway 1 at 4:30 or 5, but even that is compared to other markets. What are you really talking about? 23 minutes? What kind of life are you living the twenty Southern California? It's exactly what it's like. Or even the Bay Area. Or even or even the Bay Area. And I think when I look at other cities that I've been around or you know, we've been in, is like you can care in Denver, for instance. Denver's a sprawling, you know, city. And it's very hard. And it's not that you just don't you you might show up on a Thursday, do something, kind of lives in this small little silo and still has the same impact in that moment. But here, because of you know, you know, you can get in your car and you can do these things, it is a tight-knit, larger community. I mean, I think we're high 200,000s in the county, something like that. It's not tiny, but it does feel intimate here.

Balancing Player Development And Outreach

SPEAKER_05 25:47

That's a really good point. Uh when I first got into real estate, they told me this is like Hawaii, because you have the Santa Cruz Mountains that wrap around. You have about 17 different micro microclimates, and it's just truly one of a kind. Like you won't find coastal redwoods anywhere else in the world other than Northern California. We have the deepest ocean, we have beachfront, we have some of the best farming in the world, and it is all right here. About 15 to 25 percent of this county is some sort of nature preserve or farmland. Like, and yet we still have all these people here that we make it work.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

Well, and the other thing that's interesting to me about Santa Cruz, the area in general is like you have the communities that stay within their communities, right? Like you've got we've talked about this a lot. West side is west side. You know, you don't really go outside of the west side. You know, Aptos folks just stay in Aptos. You know, they go, I go to Deluxe Foods. You know, that's interesting. I've never lived in a place like that. You know, and and I I really have a great appreciation for it.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

You know, it's but it's like the beacon like the you know, Santa Cruz Warriors, where you go and somebody will drive from Aptos to come. So you get to see everybody there. It's there and Costco.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

So I'm curious. Yeah, Costco too, right?

SPEAKER_02 26:57

For sure. Having lived in San Francisco and then the East Bay for a while before coming here. I I still get this little chuckle when like we're talking about where to go to dinner and with friends, and they're like, oh, I don't want to go all the way to the west side. I'm like, dude, it is like eight minutes. Like, what are we doing? Always coming out of the middle. Like Aptos, yeah, it's like four miles. Like, what are we talking about? Get in the car, let's go. And that's the best part, though, is you can get you know, unless you're trying to get 3:30 to 5 30, Monday to Friday, right? But yes, on any other moment, you're like, sweet, you want to go to dinner at Scots Valley? Like, great, 10 minutes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 27:29

Well, let me just he's third generation Santa Cruz, second generation.

SPEAKER_02 27:33

I am in the type of the way you're thinking.

SPEAKER_05 27:34

Yeah, so there are there were so there's like no west side. West side is the west side?

SPEAKER_00 27:39

I mean, I grew up like not allowed to surf on the west side. You know, like I was like, you stayed in your area. Yeah. I mean, that was very much. I drove by I drove by like Swift Street one time and people were throwing rocks at me because I was from the east side, you know.

SPEAKER_05 27:51

So And us newbies. We're like, what do you mean? I really Okay, this is a shout out to Ben Loman. Amori, the restaurant. Have you tried it yet? Oh my god, they have this Apple Strussel. Because it was the German restaurant before. Anyway, shout out to them if you're willing to drive to Benjamin.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

Yeah, that's 24 minutes. That is so good. That might be that might be a bridge to form.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

No, I'm just you're officially a Santa Cruz man.

SPEAKER_02 28:15

You just have to plan it a little differently. Like, I'm gonna go for a walk in the woods and then go to dinner. I don't want to jump.

SPEAKER_05 28:20

There you go. There you go. Or my excuse is hey, let's go look at this property and then we can go here.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

I mean, I I I bought a building in Scotts Valley and I refused to move into it because it's too far away.

SPEAKER_05 28:30

Do you still own that building? Oh my goodness.

Why Santa Cruz Feels Like A Small Town

SPEAKER_03 28:32

I had a legitimate apology to my parents when I moved back here finally, like, because we had been away back east for a little bit. And I think a buddy of mine has a kid had a game up at SLV. And he's like, You want to come up? I'm like, Yeah, I'll drive up there. And I just got in the car, drove up there, and I think I was up there in, I don't know, 14, 17 minutes, something like that. Like everything went my way, right? And I was up there from where I was to there. And once I got to the parking lot, I called my mom and dad. My dad was still alive at this point, and I said, I legit am sorry for like what an asshole I was when I was a kid. My dad coached football, he'd want to go scout in SLV. I may as well for me have been Oregon. When they asked me to go to SLV, and this was even through high school, and the coach says, I'm like, I would basketball, I didn't even know who we were playing. In football, I cared, but we were like, we're playing SLV, and I and I didn't even want to go because I felt like how long it was gonna be up there, and I was a miserable in the car on the way up, and the whole time time doesn't change, it was probably even shorter. Yeah, I'm like, that drive was probably 12 to 15 minutes, even when I was complaining the whole time.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Well, Brian, the weird logic for me is if I go to San Jose and my wife's like, we need to go to Sunnyvale to pick up this thing, I'm like, Yeah, no problem. Like, what is that?

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Me knows me, anything past Los Gattos, I don't even know what it is. It could be Mountain View, it could be Palo Alto, just all the ways. Might as well be a road trip.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 29:49

So, what area of the county did you choose to live in?

SPEAKER_02 29:52

So we live in Santa Cruz Gardens.

SPEAKER_05 29:54

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

Oh, very cool. Fortunately bought a home there when I first moved to town. I mean, then me and my current wife were fortunate enough to buy a house there December 2024. Phenomenal community. Like the kids went to elementary school there. We got the neighborhood pool. Like a lot of a lot of young families and whatnot.

SPEAKER_05 30:12

Absolutely. That is a neighborhood that you get to see the second and third generation. Grandmas still live there. Sure. Yeah. You have a lot of it so yeah, that's so beautiful. And especially for the kids.

SPEAKER_02 30:22

And it's like from uh growing up in a small town, like the fact that you know you kick the kids out the door on a bike and they've got six other buddies that are all on bikes and these they're gone for a couple hours. Like that is what I miss the most about like kind of just childhood in general, versus when the kids are like, Can I get on an iPad? It's like, no, get outside, like just go.

SPEAKER_03 30:41

That was the single reason we stayed back there to raise the kids up in Watertown. Is is what you just said was like I still had a very good idea of what it would be here, but there there was this unique ability where we they would get breakfast and then we'd see them in the afternoon. And that's just not something my buddies here were doing already, like even in the late 90s, early 2000s. But before we get too far off, I there's always a question that lingers for me is we kind of blew through it and you talked a little bit about it, but I took a job on the other coast in ticket sales. That sounds very entry-level.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:16

And and you're president. Yeah, like that that's as entry-level as it can get to go all the way across the country to president. And I'm just wondering, were you an ambitious? Did you have a vision when you took that job? And just kind of do that little kind of TED talk of us like how do you go from ticket sales entry level to president of the club?

SPEAKER_02 31:37

I think, and this may not be a great piece of advice for for every, you know, everybody's got their own path, but like I think the fact that I didn't have a vision for what's next actually led to my success because I was so laser focused on being the most successful possible person in the position I was in.

SPEAKER_05 31:53

Wow. Just living in the moment.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

Learning as much as possible. I worked with great people. My boss, you know, I succeeded in my current role. My boss got started to give me more responsibility, which in all of our worlds has probably happened. It's like the more I was proving to him that I could do more, he gave me more, which freed up his time to take on more from his boss. And like, you know, it was a cycle that today our president of the Golden State Warriors has been at the Warriors a couple three or four years longer than even I have. My boss from day one is my boss today, also. Um, so you we I worked with good people, I worked my ass off to be the best that I could be and learn as much as possible in the role that I was in, and opportunities came. And nowadays, I think a lot of times everybody, you know, people that are a week into the job and they they know exactly where they they want to sit in my shoes in three to five years. It's like, great, good luck. Like it's just not the pace that everybody's so worried about what's next, yeah, but they're not focused on being the best they can possibly be in the role they're in and learning as much as possible in the role they're in, and opportunities find you.

SPEAKER_03 32:57

I think that's phenomenal advice.

Focus Over Flash: Career Advice

SPEAKER_00 32:59

For sure. And that's in a culture right now of shopping jobs constantly. Yeah, right. Like that's I mean, I I have a lot of entry-level employees, and that seems to be the thing that happens. They use me for the salary that they can put on a resume and then level up beyond that.

SPEAKER_03 33:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

And and I I always took I have one employee that's worked for me for 16 years. He's gone from making minimum, well, less than minimum wage,$10 an hour, as a telemarketer, and now he's our highest paid person in the office over me, right? Like he makes more money than me. And he saw the whole thing through from beginning to end by just doing the best job that he could and staying focused on it. And that's that's gone. That's it. I can't find that.

SPEAKER_03 33:40

No, but it but it exists, and uh this is a really huge wraparound to the Warriors ecosystem right now. As far as showing up to work, doing your job. Jonathan Kamenga got in the game last night after sitting down for what two months? A month and a half. I mean December, right? Coach's decision do not play, you know, high draft pick of the Warriors, and for a million different stories going on right now in the high weeds, he was not getting into the games based on a coach's decision, could have been keep him healthy or trade, could have been different things. But you basically, that guy showed up last night and he clearly had been putting in the work because he plugged and played and and he excelled not probably to this highest level, but he played the game and he was ready. And I think there's a focus to that. And I don't know where that ends up going, but I do think there's a sports analogy, Chris, to you know, even a ticket sales job to uh somebody that gets drafted in the G League draft or gets drafted by the big team comes down, is kind of win every day, kind of win your position, win a practice even. It gets singular sometimes, you know, like not just the practice, but win this individual kind of role, don't worry about you know the rest of it. I think that's uh really good advice.

SPEAKER_05 34:53

How do you frame your day? I love what you said because it's living in the moment is probably one of the things that I find that I'm not I'm making sure I did this from the past. I need to focus on this for the future. And in the moment, there's this like calm and trusting that you can do it. How do you get to your version of that every day?

Pace, Process, And Managing A Small Team

SPEAKER_02 35:13

It's definitely not calm. I think the hardest part of every day for me is finding the time to do my own work. Oh, right. So like I show up to work with my team and you know, meetings here or there, sure. But it's kind of like you play consultant constantly in every part of our business, right? Like the marketing team's got questions about a certain initiative, like we're working together on how to help solve that. You know, then the next meeting I'm working with ticket sales and then community relations and then our partnerships and all around. And then like you look up and you're like, oh, what about that project I needed to do for myself? That's what gets done at night when the kids go to bed. Yeah. But it's that there's a calmness in being able to be supportive of every individual and every part of our team because we are a fairly small team and we all roll our sleeves up and help each other out. Um, and I think there's also an excitement in that, in that it doesn't get monotonous. Literally, if I have 10 meetings in a day, they're about nine different topics. So like you constantly have to have that like consultative, consultative mindset to like bounce around, move to the next thing. What's this, what's this task we're focused on, and then move to the next thing, which isn't calm, but it's I didn't grow up calm. I don't want calm. I can't have calm.

SPEAKER_05 36:26

I guess that's a flow state where you're still, you know, kind of the X games, you're doing something extreme, but you inside are aligned. I mean that's such a hippie word, but that's what I mean by calm.

SPEAKER_02 36:35

But yeah, it's it's funny because I don't like peace and quiet. Uh like I recharge around people. If I'm working on my laptop late at night, there's got to be a it doesn't even have to be sports on it. It could be like a TV show that's like a drama line that I have to follow, but I need that in order to do my work.

SPEAKER_03 36:50

In the exact same way. But like my wife hates it. My wife hates it.

SPEAKER_02 36:54

Yeah, it's I feel like I multitask very well. But then I also think when I do have some hour alone to only work on one thing, it's probably what I do my best for. But you know, I think a lot of the test times, it's like I just need to move with pace, and pace is something that I think, you know, to your point earlier about a lot of like earlier in their career professionals, pace is probably the thing that I don't understand where that went.

SPEAKER_04 37:19

Right. Right?

SPEAKER_02 37:19

It's like, oh, I'll get I can get that to you tomorrow. It's like I could do it myself in 12 minutes. Like it won't take you more than 20 at most. Right. Why are we talking about tomorrow? Like it needs to happen now. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:31

But that tells me that you've put together and assembled an amazing team when you can have that kind of confidence, you know.

SPEAKER_02 37:37

Totally. And I think, you know, I know that I uh earlier we were talking about being the tip of the spear. Yeah. Like I'm I get to be the tip of the spear for the Warriors, but like I'm if I'm just the arrowhead, like we're fluttering. Right. The team that we have in place, my management team, our entire group that we have, the energy they bring, our office is lighthearted and fun. We work really hard, we have lofty goals and want to do a lot of great things, but we we joke about it. Yeah, we're always having a good time and laughing. And I think you need to have that type of environment, especially here, but anywhere. But it's also easier to do that here because it's like, oh, I went for a walk to Westcliff on lunch today, like with a team member. I get to stare at the ocean, you know, four minutes walking from my office. Like it's hard to be too upset when you live in a beautiful house like we all live.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

Yeah. So, Chris, you've done so much for the community. What can the community do for you? Come to more games.

SPEAKER_03 38:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

Right.

SPEAKER_02 38:31

I I think that's I if I was giving like a true business answer, yeah. I mean, I think ultimately, you know, we sell out uh every night, we've got an over 50 game sellout streak, but that's a grind. Getting okay. And I'd love to figure out like if I was thinking about the community, like how do more businesses or whatnot like buy season tickets or different things of that nature. I know I'm biased, but I think if I was choosing 24 nights of entertainment and I can use that for staff, for friends and family, or clients.

SPEAKER_05 39:02

Like I'm just clients. You've got my I was asking asked the same question.

SPEAKER_02 39:07

So the investment's not as large as I think people think.

SPEAKER_05 39:10

Like, let's say we wanted to play that out. I know a lot of companies have their employees go, they buy season tickets, is that correct? So let's say I don't necessarily want season tickets, but I've got a closing and I want them to have like I make that a part of my standard. One, I can do that make an example, which I'm going to now, because I think that's really cool. And it gives them a chance to be in this community that we're talking about. What would be something as us business owners that we could help other than just buying tickets? Like would we can we like shout out? Obviously, we have social media, like what are some other cool things?

SPEAKER_02 39:42

Yeah, I think it's just continuing to amplify the message. Yeah. Like when we're doing you know fun things like we're out in the community or we're you know doing things about coming to the game, like we haven't even when's this gonna air? I've got to think about if I can break some news for you. Probably two weeks, huh?

Theme Nights And How To Support

SPEAKER_03 39:58

No, we were a week. No, no, no. New schedule. What's today? I'm not already losing track to it. It's out by Friday.

SPEAKER_02 40:04

So I I would just say, oh shit. Well then I gotta go.

SPEAKER_03 40:11

Chris, when do you want this to come out?

SPEAKER_02 40:14

I will word it in a way that it'll be okay. But like, you know, we we try to do a lot of fun things in the arena that are great experiences for fans. So yes, it's it involves coming to games, buying tickets, but it's more about like sharing like a fun culture. So later later this year, we'll have two nights that we're really looking forward to. One is we're gonna do a whole game night tribute to The Grateful Dead. That's amazing. Oh, that's cool. You know, jerseys, merchandise. Amazing. Oh my goodness. Like all sorts of merchandise. Our jerseys are gonna look amazing. Uh as a teaser, you may or may not see Maverick as part of the dancing bears on a lot of things. Oh my god, that's what we're doing. So that that's gonna be like a fun environment. Okay. So that's one. And then even further in the year, towards the back end of the season, we're doing a night in dedication to the Valkyries. So the Gold States WNBA team that just had the most iconic historic season in the history of the WNBA for an expansion team. We have a whole night design and dedicated for them uh that they're you know, right before their season starts. So these, yes, this is like buying tickets and coming to games, but it's about something different, right? Yeah, of course the basketball is gonna be top-notch, but like how fun is it gonna be for this community to celebrate like a grateful dog. I am so excited. You give me chills on that one.

SPEAKER_01 41:28

People watching on that night will be tall.

SPEAKER_02 41:32

Spinning in circles looking at the ceiling. But like, you know, I think one of the other things I would say is something you all already do in your own walks, and which is like just continue to support other things in this community.

SPEAKER_04 41:42

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_02 41:43

We do a lot of work with Second Harvest. So I'm you know, everybody does like just continue to amplify other great community organizations, kind of lifts everybody up, which inherently helps our business, but it's also just like helps living here in this whole community, and that's something you guys already do, and you know, I'd say encourage more people to do that.

SPEAKER_05 42:00

Well, I love that because a lot of us in this community, we know about the Santa Cruz Warriors, but maybe we don't go to every game because there's so many other things in Santa Cruz to be in love with and do. But when you add that humanity to it, and this is a community, I mean, I got super psych excited about the idea of my own clients because I try to tailor my gifts or my experiences to my clients. But it and I'm I'm not saying like I wouldn't have thought of that, but now it means something to me. And I hope this podcast does that for people who are listening, like that it it's not just basketball.

Humanizing The Players And Fan Access

SPEAKER_03 42:33

It it's not, and I think the we we've got a partnership with the Warriors now, and I think part of the vibes is creating this narrative. And one of the things Chris and I talked about is not just overall, I think we started with like the making sure people are aware of the impact the Warriors have had. And this first article is just a broad the one that came out in the magazine today, is just a broad kind of scope look at what the Warriors have meant since they've landed here. But the other ones we want to get into is I think this is a huge part of it, is these players. You know, they're part of this community, and they're more part than you think. I think the average, Chris, correct me if I'm wrong, the average salary in the G League is around 40 grand, something like that. Very slightly higher. Yeah, yeah, but but that's still is a that's it's a working person's salary. They're not they're not disconnected from us. Yeah, there's a couple two-way guys that are getting the significant contracts and there's some money coming down here. But I really think that makes it more kind of like there's an affinity for it. Not only are they here, they're living amongst, they're breaking bread with us downtown, and they're not making millions of dollars and disconnected, they're they're grinding. They're grinding, they they're living a dream out right down there at Kaiser, and they're they're they're on the like you said, they're as close as you can get to that lottery ticket of the NBA, and they're 60 miles away from it, but they're millions of dollars away from being disconnected from us. They're they're part of this community, and I think there's something really to cheer for there in these kits.

SPEAKER_02 43:53

Totally, absolutely. I think they love, you know, we live the the guys live downtown, we put them up like I said on my drive here. I drove just because of the next thing. I normally only walk downtown. But, you know, like I passed two guys that were walking from the arena back to the apartment.

SPEAKER_04 44:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:07

Um, and it's like they are out and about, and like, you know, I think they love being here and they appreciate this community and they appreciate the how people connect, right? I think one of the things we do best as the Warriors, we have like an annual event for our season ticket holders in the fall that's like a food and wine, a local food and wine festival at the arena. I mean, there was this year there was close to 40 different restaurants, bars, like vineyards that where they're doing taste things. Our season ticket holders come and the whole team comes. And they don't come and like sign autographs or like sit in a photo line or get interviewed. They come and get to be humans. I love it. They walk around and eat and have a drink and everything, and everybody's talking to them and taking pictures, and it just kind of like humanizes everything. These are guys in their early to mid-20s, like trying, like you said, Brian, to make it to the next level, but like they have family somewhere too. Like they grew up in all over the country, and now they're here, and you know, they're living day to day, right? Yeah, their hope would be to not be here long, right? Because they get called up to the NBA. But they're really trying to grind it out while still being a positive contributor to this community. It wasn't hard for them to say yes when we are you know doing this event with Coastal Watershed Council next week, a volunteer event for my staff, season ticket holders, and a handful of the players are gonna come. I mean, talk about that is the river that is a stone's throw from where they play, from where they live, and they're gonna be out there helping us like beautify it. Like that's not that doesn't happen in professional sports, so that's way cool. Yeah.

Tickets, Value, And The On-Court Experience

SPEAKER_03 45:34

No, and you said it also. I think when you go in there, and Brandy was mentioned before you came in, the intimacy of that arena, but the thing about that intimacy is you're 30 feet, 40 feet away from people that are raining down 26-foot jumpers and they're they're playing three feet above the rim. And when you say they're close to the NBA, I don't think people really understand it. If and I would give this for the Warriors, if you've never been to a professional basketball game and sat there on floor level, which Kaiser kind of gives you that feel all the way around, to see the way those players move and the way that ball moves around and kind of like the overall um athleticism, and to see it up that close, it's worth the price of that admission alone. You know, and what are what are tickets going for now about ish?

SPEAKER_02 46:18

Yeah, the average ticket price is a little over$40. You know, there's obviously less expensive options, there's more expensive options, but that's about what it breaks out to on average ticket.

SPEAKER_05 46:25

That's basically one meal.

SPEAKER_00 46:28

It's a bargain for a night of entertainment.

SPEAKER_05 46:29

Yeah, that's a bargain.

SPEAKER_00 46:30

It's three gallons of gas.

SPEAKER_05 46:31

You can't even get a movie ticket. Yes, three gallons of gas. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 46:36

So that's amazing. That's new campaign, Chris. You're not working, you're not being a dad, what do you do for fun? And and and second to that, is there anything that you've picked up since being here in Santa Cruz?

SPEAKER_02 46:49

I don't surf for no other reason than like not having tried or being very good at it. So I you know, I haven't put in the time to be good at it. I don't think I've picked up anything new or different here. I think I definitely go for more walks along the water than you know, growing up in a lake town, like being in the water is what calms me, and that's like when I get, you know, I feel as relaxed. Totally. So we we try to get to the beach as often as we can to just take the dog for a walk or go walk along East Cliff or somewhere. It's funny when you normally when people say when you're not working, what do you do? And the easy answer is just chase I'm chasing kids. Yeah, I drive my kids all the time.

SPEAKER_00 47:26

I'm a dad too, so I knew the way to phrase that.

SPEAKER_02 47:29

I love to golf. Okay. Um I love to, you know, and I do that now with my son and my wife. I like to be in the woods, like going for a nice hike with or without my kids or whatnot. It wouldn't matter.

SPEAKER_05 47:39

Well, you want to start with them and end with them so they Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:42

Oh, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 47:44

Always Karina's been left in the woods.

SPEAKER_02 47:46

What's your favorite local golf course? I mean, how do you not say Pestampo just because of the quality of it? But yeah, I actually think we're in a good I like day lots really close to the house. Yeah. Uh it's awful packed a lot of the times, uh, which is tough. And I don't know a lot of balls there. I don't operate deep. I don't operate too far in advance in my head. I should. Yeah. With the thought of making a tea time for next weekend or whatever, it's like, oh, I'll I'll figure it out later. Yeah, yeah. But then I'm upset when I'm golfing at 11 day. Right.

SPEAKER_03 48:15

And big and big shout out to Skinny Atlas.

SPEAKER_00 48:18

Oh great.

SPEAKER_03 48:19

It's just it's such a beautiful little downtown.

SPEAKER_00 48:22

And I mean, what a cool name.

SPEAKER_03 48:24

It's a cool, it's a cool place. And I remember going there for 7 a.m. wrestling tournaments and Lakers, right?

SPEAKER_02 48:29

The Lakers, that is true. You know, small little town. The high school had 400 kids. Like you knew everybody. Everybody knew your parents. It made it a little harder to get away with stuff, but you found ways to do it. Your high school parties were in fields and in the woods. They weren't, you know, they weren't rarely in people's homes.

SPEAKER_05 48:45

That's where I'm from.

SPEAKER_02 48:46

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:48

Tell me any place you'd rather be. And this I legit mean this because I wouldn't say this in than October in Skinny Atlas.

Life In Santa Cruz: Family And Hobbies

SPEAKER_02 48:54

Ooh, I'd probably back that up a little this September, but you know, October start to get a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of cold.

SPEAKER_03 49:00

A winter is coming. But I think September, October, though, man.

SPEAKER_02 49:03

Summer's utopia. There's a reason I still live here. There's a reason I can go back in 80s.

SPEAKER_05 49:09

Well, this winter has been like Hawaii. I mean, it's been until the last couple of days. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:14

I want to give it up for the Santa Cruz fans. I didn't when when they first said they were going to do this, I was like, this is a surfing hippie town. Yeah, I thought it was a lot of people. We're not going to support it. I didn't think it was going to work, but there's more support here that I'm proud of that I'm proud to say. This is Santa Cruz. We had floor seats for probably five years, and we'd always pick the seats right next to the opposing team. And so we'd sit there and talk to the opposing team and we'd be like, hey, what what what do you think about Santa Cruz? What do you like? And they're like, dude, your fan base is huge. When I go to games, like playing games, there's like 50 hundred people sitting there. You guys have 2,500 people here. It's exhilarating. It's fun. This is this is fun for us. So just give it up to Santa Cruz for doing that.

SPEAKER_03 49:53

And Ryan, you're onto something there because it's it's not just that Santa Cruz supported them. They won the surfing crowd. And it's so weird because so many of my friends, like I never would have seen that coming. Like the dudes that I grew up with that were surfers would not come to our games on Friday night. They were not coming out to those things. And for some reason, you found a lane early there where that just became sort of like pun intended lane.

SPEAKER_05 50:16

Oh, well blow up.

SPEAKER_03 50:18

But but it but it just worked out, and it's and it is a huge credit to them because they they not only won over the town and the surrounding communities, uh, but the you got street cred with the stuff. I think a few of those dudes went and they were blown away by the the thing we just talked about. I think athlete kind of like game respect sort of game a little bit. Yeah, and I think there's a tremendous amount of respect for the the level of athleticism in that gym.

SPEAKER_02 50:45

Well, you know, a lot of surfers. Sorry, were you gonna say something? I was just gonna say I think the fact that it's not the summer. Like it's kind of it's a time of year when like they're you know, you don't necessarily always see people at all the other things or whatnot. So I think that isn't it's really the only thing that brings everyone together at the time of year that we're talking about from November to April.

SPEAKER_03 51:06

Can you put an arena football team in the new stadium?

SPEAKER_05 51:10

That's awfully silent. So speaking of that, as we wind this down.

SPEAKER_03 51:14

Me and Jerry are gonna buy one.

unknown 51:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:17

We're gonna pull them together.

SPEAKER_05 51:20

So the new arena is in the plans. You got through the biggest hurdle. Well, one of the biggest hurdles, Coastal Commission. And the arena includes sort of the community around it. So it's not just the arena. And there's pros and cons to everything like that. The timeline's kind of iffy, but what do you think the timeline would look like? Two years? One year?

SPEAKER_02 51:39

Five years? Just making my dreams. Well, the first arena was built in 78 days. This one will take longer. That's that's the that's the only thing we know for sure.

SPEAKER_05 51:49

Oh, that's a great point.

unknown 51:50

Yeah.

New Arena Timeline And Partners

SPEAKER_02 51:51

Uh I mean, I think realistically, like I probably am more optimistic about the timeline than like what I should be more pragmatic. But I don't think it's out of the realm that it's you know 2026 now. I think there's a world where we play our 2029 season. Oh, wow. Which I think is like realistic, but also not over optimistic, right? That is three and a half years from now. Yeah. I think that's kind of the pace that we're looking at. I think you'll see some development on housing projects down there before that. You know, I think there's kind of four larger blocks that we're working towards, and they're gonna have to cadence. But yeah, I think that's probably like the most realistic option.

SPEAKER_05 52:31

I love that. 2029 is.

SPEAKER_01 52:32

Is there any timeline of you having to leave where you're at, or is that kind of open? We've been very fortunate.

SPEAKER_02 52:37

I mean, the Seaside Companies has been a great partner of ours since day one when we got here. They own the land that we're on, they've always been willing to partner on kind of what that looks like in the future. So, you know, they're not they're not trying to kick us out of out of town, but they've been nothing but supportive. So I would say it's like not, you know, there's no imminent deadline of which this is the last season that we have here. Yeah. I think they've been nothing but amazing partners to us. And I think I would also say just like shout out to the Seaside Company. I think they get, you know, they get such a bad rap at times about like cause them the traffic or this or that, like the economic engine that they are for you, which it's incredible. Also, what they do for the community, like their drive for schools programs, hundreds of thousands of dollars, like they do more for the community than I think they get credit for. And yeah, we joke sometimes about like everybody loves the Warriors, and it's like, yeah, we love that. And somehow they get more heat than they probably should, as like the boardwalk. It's like it's unbelievable. The boardwalk is incredible. Uh, it's what makes so much of this economy flourish in the summer as well. So, shout out to them for just being amazing.

SPEAKER_03 53:43

100% community part.

SPEAKER_01 53:44

That puts Santa Cruz on the map. Anytime you say you're from Santa Cruz, somebody has some story and then has a story about the boardwalk. No doubt. That's like everybody knows us.

SPEAKER_05 53:52

Isn't that how your parents met? Just kidding. So as we wrap this up, Chris, where can people find tickets? Or what where do you want to direct people? And then the second one below that is what if they have kids that want to get into basketball? So, what are the two places you would send them?

SPEAKER_02 54:06

Yeah, so for people, the easiest way to for people to come to a game would be to go to santacruzbasketball.com. Okay. That's the website. You can find tickets on Ticketmaster and other places too, but that's like the general hub for all your information. For kids that are trying to get into basketball, the first and foremost, I would just say like get out and play. Yeah. Whether it's your driveway or the neighborhood park or in a formal league, like just get out and get shots up and play. You know, we host different basketball camps throughout the year right here at KP Arena. Oh, cool. Um, but there's also some local community orgs doing like amazing things in in youth basketball as well. So I think I won't name any in particular because I'll get in trouble with all the others. Right. But there's a lot of youth basketball that happens in this community. People just really putting time into proper development of skills, which is what is most important.

SPEAKER_03 54:51

And the easiest thing to do to stay in the lane for that question is also like wherever your kids pipelining up to go to high school, just call the high school. They're very, they're very interested always at the top level as far as where they can get younger kids into these different programs, basketball and things like that. So if if if in doubt, kind of find out what school system your kids are in, call the top, and they'll they'll they'll give you a resource for where they can get some mute sports.

SPEAKER_02 55:14

And Brandy, let's not overlook Brian's lane reference for diagrams. I know. I know.

SPEAKER_05 55:19

He's really got this surfing lane.

SPEAKER_03 55:21

I've lost all track of my thought with Jerry and I's arena team right now. I've lost my arena track. I haven't listened to anything the last five minutes of all Marvion to financing.

SPEAKER_00 55:31

Hey, I mean, we're talking to warriors right now. I'm I'm digging deep. I'm like, do you gall?

SPEAKER_02 55:46

He was hoping I would say motocrums.

SPEAKER_00 55:49

Do you like cars? Please say it.

SPEAKER_02 55:51

Please say it.

SPEAKER_05 55:52

Please say cars, please say cars. Do you like cars?

SPEAKER_02 55:55

I like my car, but I'm not a bull. It's okay, man.

Where To Get Tickets And Youth Hoops

SPEAKER_03 55:58

I knew I was still friends. Barely.

SPEAKER_05 56:02

Well, thank you, everyone. This is Brandy Jones at Keller Williams Drive. 831-588-5145.

SPEAKER_01 56:08

Ryan Buffkolt, sometimes Hot Out Podcast, sometimes Cross Country Mortgage, whatever you want. 831-818-2339.

SPEAKER_00 56:15

Jerry Seagraves of Seagraves Insurance, 831-239-9425.

SPEAKER_01 56:20

Chris Murphy, thank you very much for being here. This is awesome, man.