San Jose Earthquakes’ Chief Operating Officer Jared Shawlee, with Earthquakes owner John Fisher and Intermedia Communications CEO Mike Gold in the background, addresses the media at the recent unveiling of Intermedia as the Earthquakes 2020 jersey sponsor
Photo credit: ISI Photos/San Jose Earthquakes
The energy coming from Jared Shawlee is undeniable. The Earthquakes Chief Operating Officer cuts quite the figure as he still wears the suit, without a tie, that just forty-five minutes earlier he wore to present Intermedia Communications as the new three-year jersey sponsor of the San Jose Earthquakes. Despite the suit and the earlier formalities, there was no pretense here; no stuffiness to be found. What Quakes Epicenter discovered was an MLS executive who is completely happy and passionate about his role on the business side of his club. The love affair between Jared Shawlee and the Earthquakes has been there since he was a child.
Quakes Epicenter: In the press release where the club announced the changes to the front office, there was no new President named, but rather the duties are to be shared among you (the Chief Operating Officer), Executive Vice President Jed Mettee and Vice President of Strategy Ian Anderson. Can you explain how that will work in everyday practice, and who will oversee which aspects of the club?
Jared Shawlee: So [in] the structure prior to Tom [Fox] leaving, I was overseeing the business side as well as Jed and Ian reporting up to Tom, as well as [Earthquakes General Manager] Jesse [Fioranelli] reporting to Tom. With Tom leaving, Jesse is reporting directly to our board [of directors] overseeing soccer, and I’m overseeing the business reporting to our board. Jed and Ian were mentioned in there, two people I’ve worked with – Jed for the past 12 years, Ian for the past six or seven years – they’re incredible. These guys love the Earthquakes as much as I do. Jed focuses more on our marketing, PR, community outreach, in-stadium experience. Ian is focused more on big, strategic projects for the club – some of stuff that we need to do to continue to move the club forward, and he is also working directly day-to-day with our jersey rights and naming partnerships. So he’s the one who really ran the point with Intermedia to get this jersey partnership done and is now running the point on the [stadium] naming rights deal.
And so from a day-to-day perspective, though, even along with Jesse, it intermingles a lot, and we talk to each other more than we see our families (laughs). There’s a practical sense, and there’s a structural sense, and we’re all working on everything all the time.
QE: Where do you see the Earthquakes going as a business entity given the recent front office changes?
Shawlee: It’s incredible to continue to see the growth of MLS. And so, as a business entity we have our near-term priorities, which for us now are: continue to upgrade the fan experience at the stadium, naming rights on the stadium will be our top priority next, parking – we have some pretty exciting announcements on parking people will really like – and then on the longer-term plan: it’s how you will continue to build the best club and brand possible here in the Bay Area.
We have an incredible market for soccer in the Bay Area. We know it’s one of the best markets in the country. One that’s rich in talent. And we see what teams are coming in and doing like Atlanta and LAFC, and every team that’s coming in keeps raising the bar. And I think it’s great. I’ve been in this league a long time, and I’ve seen when Seattle came in and raised the bar, and then LAFC and Atlanta. And the key for me is I know that’s not going to stop. I don’t know what it’s going to be, but I do know we have the best market here, we have a club with incredible history, [and] we have a great fan base.
I think it is all possible here. And that’s kind of the best way for me to describe it in a longer-term sense. But in the near-term we are working on all those things to make sure the stadium is awesome this year.
QE: John Fisher, the team owner, seems to appear on the team website this offseason for the first time, at least that we’ve noticed, now as a part of the staff page. He was present for the Intermedia announcement. Is he taking a more proactive role in the front office?
Shawlee: I did not know that [about Fisher not being on the website], so I’m not sure if that was [an oversight before]. But John is very involved with everything we do here. He’s at nearly every single game. I think most fans don’t really recognize who he is when he’s there. He’s very involved. I talk to him all the time; Jesse talks to him all the time. So I don’t know if there’s anything that’s different than we’ve experienced in the past, maybe externally that’s a little bit different.
QE: There has been a really positive reaction that we’ve noticed from the fans, particularly on Twitter, to your expanded role. What do you make of the fan reaction to the changes?
Shawlee: Just working here is dream scenario for me, going back to 2008. I loved the Earthquakes, I loved soccer, [and] I loved the Clash growing up. When the team left, that hurt. I felt the pain the fans felt when the team left in ‘05. I happened to be lucky enough to be at the A’s when Lew Wolfe and John Fisher bought the option to bring the team back. So I was the first person raising my hand, “hey, I gotta be a part of that thing.”
So I think the relationship I have with the fans is just that I understand where everyone has been and come from, and – what’s really cool about the Earthquakes – is everybody has their own time they kind of enter the story of the Earthquakes. Back to the 70s, you talk to folks who went to Clash games, when the championships happened, when the team left, the Buckshaw years, and now the Avaya years – and I just relate to it. And I relate to how they feel about the club, I relate to how they view the club’s future, I relate to challenges that they see in front of us, and I honestly think it’s awesome.
I’ve said this before – and it’s absolutely true – if I could sign a lifetime contract to be with the Earthquakes, I would do it today. Everyone here feels like family – staff, fans, everyone is a part of it.
QE: Which interactions with the fans have stuck with you throughout the years? We’ve seen you walk around the stadium on game days and interact with the fans quite frequently.
Shawlee: It’s the vibe that the Earthquakes have, that the club has – it feels like a family on game day, like the stadium’s our home. And so I spend my entire game day – I should probably track this – but I bet I interact with 500-plus people between fans, our employees, our game day staff, our security, my own family. I’m bringing 30 friends and family a game – a lot of our family is local, so they’re all here. My kids come to every game. 2018 was maybe the best example of this: even in some of our toughest moments on the field, I’d be walking around the concourse, and I was getting hugs from people after some of those tough losses in 2018. And I’d go outside and talk to everyone who was out here – outside the gated area after the game where the players are coming out – and I think you just realize that when you talk to people human-to-human, especially in a soccer club, there’s so much love there. It’s not about the losses and the negativity and the concern that sometimes you see in other parts of the social media ecosystem, and things like that. It’s just a really positive vibe.
I believe when you are an executive in a club, then you really, really love the club, and you believe in the club and everything that goes with it. I read everything. I read all the articles, I read all the content, I watch all the videos people produce. I read the comments they send to me, because it matters. It shapes how I think about this, and how I think about us going forward. I share that with the team here. And that what makes us different, too. If we can be a club that listens…and we have always had this here, too: transparency, openness, ability to talk to the players, executives, whoever it is. That is so different and special to me, compared to other sports – sports teams in the US – that I just love it. There is no secret sauce. I have no idea [why the fans connect with me like they do], but that is the approach I take to it, and I hope the staff we have here at the Quakes takes to it also.
QE: Last season with the hiring of Matias Almeyda, we saw a big step for the club in terms of its reach into the local Mexican and Latino communities, as well as a television rights deal to broadcast three games on Telemundo. Did you have the impact that you were looking to have, and where do you think the club is at right now in its penetration of the local Latino community?
Shawlee: You know the Telemundo ratings for those games – the first game was #1 among the 18-49 year-olds across any station in the Bay Area that night, and the second one was the #1 broadcast for any station on that night. So clearly we saw it – and obviously bringing in Matias last year was a very big part of this – we saw penetration in the Latino community like we’ve never seen at the Earthquakes before. And that’s a crucial market for us to continue to tap into and grow if we are going to be successful around the Bay Area. You’ve got 33 percent Hispanic, 30 percent Mexican population, 300,000 people of Mexican descent living in San Jose. And when I talk to partners or people, this is most affluent Mexican population in the entire world here in San Jose. It’s a hugely important market. Last year once we announced Matias, and then the season we had, you saw the number spike on ticketing, viewership, etc.
So we are going to look at our opportunities in that area, be it Telemundo or otherwise. But that was awesome for us last year, and hopefully we’ll do more stuff this year.”
QE: Was that success eye opening for John Fisher? Or all along was he the one going “We need to go into the Latino community. Let’s do something to make an impact.”?
We all knew that opportunity was there for the Earthquakes. I think we’ve always had a separation on our soccer side – you know, what Jesse and his team want to do to win on the field – versus the business side and the opportunities that might exist there. And so I think it just needed the right opportunity, which was Jesse bringing in Matias who has the impact in the Hispanic community in an authentic way. One thing we’ve always said is, “when we really make our push in this community, we need to do it in an authentic way, and not try and sell something that is not real.” This was the opportunity to do it, and to see it “pop” like it did, I don’t think was surprising. I just think it was the right moment to start pushing that way.
QE: In the same vein, is there a percentage we can put on a potential partnership that we can put on Telemundo again for, say, a three-game deal in 2020?
Shawlee: Yeah, I don’t have a percent. I’d say: we are all still talking, and clearly I think all sides are interested in it. I think we have a great English-language partner in NBC Sports California, so they are a huge part of those conversations as well. So it would have to be another setup where all sides feel good about the arrangement, because we think both are hugely valuable. What we are learning, too, is to balance the dynamics between the Spanish and English speaking – and I kind of love where it’s come to, and it’s like when you walk into our locker room, which is this mixed version of ‘Spanglish’ that’s being spoken – hopefully maybe our broadcasts can represent that same dynamic next year, too.
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