Peter Tomozawa: World Cup Baller Elevates Seattle, ep. 2 – Seattlemag

July 10, 2024
Peter Tomozawa, CEO of the Seattle World Cup organizing committee, chats about how Seattle snagged the 2026 FIFA World Cup. He discusses the hustle of local leaders, the importance of community support, and how the event will benefit the entire region.
Missed the first episode? Listen to it here.
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[00:00:00] Jonathan Sposato: Let’s go back a step. Level set us on how this whole effort with the World Cup in Seattle even came to be a dream or a possibility. 
[00:00:10] Peter Tomozawa: That’s a great question. And, and, you know, it does take a village. It takes a lot of people. I’ll start with Governor Locke. 
[00:00:18] Jonathan Sposato: Yes. 
[00:00:19] Peter Tomozawa: 1997, he and Fred Mendoza, Fred Mendoza is a lawyer, they got together and they started talking about what it would take to build a new stadium.
[00:00:32] Peter Tomozawa: And they came up with this Proposition 48. I’m sure there were many others, but those two really drove it. And Governor Locke, under his wise tutelage and under Fred’s leadership, put together Proposition 48. And Proposition 48 stated and stipulated that this new stadium that was going to replace the Kingdom would be built so that they would be ready for a FIFA World Cup or an Olympics And [00:01:00] that kind of foresight and cause there was no thought of anything other than we need a new stadium to replace the kingdom.
[00:01:06] Peter Tomozawa: Right. And that is actually part of the charter and the stipulation of what is called Lumenfield now. And so my first task when I was named CEO of the world cup was to go visit governor Locke. He was then the president of Bellevue college. I went to his office and he’s like, why are you here? 
[00:01:28] Peter Tomozawa: I’m here to pay my respect to you. Your foresight over 20 years ago allowed us to have this opportunity and he was so touched. Um, yeah, I bet he was. Yeah. And, but it was like a respectful thing. And then Fred Mendoza currently is the chair of the PSA, the public stadium authority. So he’s overseeing what they did.
[00:01:50] Peter Tomozawa: And of course I, I’ve been working with him all along, but the story of how we got the world cup started with two people and their kind of vision. [00:02:00] And then it evolved in terms of looking at trying to win it over several times. And there’s a group of people when the 94. World Cup was here that tried to get it for Seattle.
[00:02:11] Peter Tomozawa: We weren’t successful because we really weren’t ready at that time as a stadium and all that. Yeah. And, but by the time 99 rolled around, uh, we started having better infrastructure and better stadiums. Uh, and now this stadium that was built for the Seahawks was also built for Seattle. So that the Sounders could play and also was built such that it would be ready for a FIFA World Cup should it ever come to be.
[00:02:34] Peter Tomozawa: And in 2016, US soccer decided to make a really compelling argument to FIFA to get the FIFA World Cup in 2026, so 10 years to the United States. But in order to make it a sweeter deal, they proposed that. It would be a three country effort. It was called the United bid and the countries that were stitched together [00:03:00] were the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
[00:03:03] Peter Tomozawa: And they thought, wow, we’ll give a continental bid. Never in the history of FIFA world cup has three countries Dared to join together and there’s been two Japan and Korea in 2002, but never has there been three and FIFA thought that was so compelling in 2017, they awarded the, uh, FIFA world cup 2026 to this United group.
[00:03:28] Peter Tomozawa: That set off another competition because us soccer said then by, by, by decree at the time there was going to be three cities in Canada, three cities in Mexico, 10 cities in the United States that was by decree. They just, that was the agreement. So that was negotiated. And so each of the countries set off to find host cities.
[00:03:51] Peter Tomozawa: And so 44 cities. In the United States applied for 10 spots and then like, you can also assume that New York, LA, [00:04:00] probably Dallas or like shoe ins. And so there’s actually less spots, less spots. Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. So it’s all like you’ve talked about going for 41 cities for seven spots. So the odds get lower and lower.
[00:04:12] Peter Tomozawa: And so, uh, two people really took the reins, uh, the Sounders. We’re really, really behind the, uh, Seattle bid. So there’s, there’s phases, it’s called a bid phase and then an operating phase. So once you get something, then you can move to an operation. So the bid committee, which I was part of, was really chaired by two real drivers.
[00:04:35] Peter Tomozawa: Uh, these two women are extraordinary. Beth Knox who is the CEO of the Seattle sports commission. 
[00:04:42] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah. Beth is tremendous. Maya Mendoza Ekstrom, uh, who is the daughter of Fred. So there’s a legacy there. She was the chief operating officer of the Sounders and she was, those two were the vice chairs of our bid and we presented Seattle in its best light [00:05:00] and they were really driving it.
[00:05:01] Peter Tomozawa: I was part of the bid committee. Uh, there were several other people, part of the, of the committee, which was Adrian and, uh, David Young from the, from the Seahawks. So, uh, this core group of people and conjunction with. Uh, Mayor Jenny Durkan. So we need to give credit where credit’s due. Yeah. Good one.
[00:05:19] Peter Tomozawa: She, she went out and, uh, put us out there. Uh, and then I joined the group, um, when I became president of two in 2019. And, uh, that was sort of the height of when we were really kind of bidding for this thing. And so that’s how this came to be. Uh, we presented the city and all its best attributes, but one of the things that we tried to do differently was think about what’s in it for FIFA.
[00:05:46] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah. 
[00:05:47] Peter Tomozawa: Cause everybody has a great city. Don’t let me tell you, you know, every city is beautiful. Right. No, no city is not beautiful there. Yeah. Um, and you know, people were saying, well, of course Seattle’s going to get it. We’re [00:06:00] the bastion and the cradle of soccer. Everybody loves soccer. But actually, if I’m from another city that isn’t considered a bastion, I would argue to FIFA, you need to come to my city because we’re not where the growth is here, you know, don’t go to Seattle because the growth, there’s no growth.
[00:06:17] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah. Right. You guys are already good. It’s like Joe Biden coming to Seattle too, you know, it’s, yeah, he’s got the votes. He’s got 
[00:06:23] Peter Tomozawa: the votes, but I’m glad he did because you can’t ignore people. Right. That’s right. But, but the, and at the end, um, we started talking about all the resources that we have.
[00:06:34] Peter Tomozawa: Cause like, you know, we were like, we had this presentation with natural beauty and like, okay. Every city has their natural beauty and they’re like, we’re the center of soccer. And I go, okay, at least 11 cities out of that 44 claim to be the center of soccer. Right. What’s the differential. And what we have is this beautiful kind of business community, right.
[00:06:53] Peter Tomozawa: And that, you know, FIFA covet. those relationships. Interesting. And so, you know, so that was a difference maker. That was a huge difference maker. The business community and the richness of the business community. Mm-Hmm. . ’cause I think people don’t actually know how deep our business community is.
[00:07:09] Peter Tomozawa: And so there’s so much richness. Mm-Hmm. of the community. The Costcos of the world. Yeah. Alaska Airlines. Mm-Hmm. . You know, they go on and star, it’s this list. W Haer. Yeah. Yeah. W Haer. You go, the list goes on. Yeah.
[00:07:24] Peter Tomozawa: Nordstroms. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and it’s just such a great opportunity to showcase all of that. And then we started thinking about showcasing the state as a resource, not just Seattle, but the region. So we changed the pitch to talk, talking about delivering the Pacific Northwest to you. And at the time, Vancouver was not even in the equation.
[00:07:48] Peter Tomozawa: Vancouver’s mayor had said, we’re not really interested because they had just gotten done with the, uh, Olympics. And so they were like, you know, we’re not that interested. And so we had prepared for the day that [00:08:00] Vancouver would actually be part of this. And because we wanted it not to be an objection. Cause if you’re sitting in Europe and you zoom out of the map.
[00:08:10] Peter Tomozawa: Vancouver and Seattle look like they are literally 20 minutes apart. Yeah, that’s right. Like they’re like one block from each other. Right. If you’re sitting in Zurich, that’s how it looks. Yeah. And so we had to say, and we did say that we would welcome and work with the city of Vancouver, Canada, you know, uh, it’s, it’s, they’re the neighbors.
[00:08:29] Peter Tomozawa: This is not one or the other. So we tried to position it that way. Any rate, this is community. Pacific Northwest, and then by fortuitous luck, uh, the Seattle Sounders, not only did they win the MLS cup, so the FIFA people got to see a state sold out stadium. We actually won the champions league. And that was a seminal moment for our bid because the FIFA folks all flew in for that match.
[00:08:57] Peter Tomozawa: Wow. 
[00:08:58] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah. 
[00:08:58] Peter Tomozawa: And that match was [00:09:00] critical. So we had government officials, we had the, uh, Puyallup tribe of Indians, this whole, their whole government council. Wow. Meet with FIFA. Wow. Because the Puyallup tribe of Indians were a big sponsor of the Sounders. Mm 
[00:09:13] Peter Tomozawa: And those two groups all got a chance. And FIFA got a chance to see them, but they also got this chance to see and talk about how important the world cup is to our region.
[00:09:23] Peter Tomozawa: Not only that they got to see because every other city is like we can do this We can host something we can sell it out. We actually got to show them So that’s a little bit of fortuitous luck, but we but we did sell out the stadium Uh, it was phenomenal experience Uh, it was beautiful Probably the proudest moment, uh, I think that one could have Garth logger way, who was our general manager at the time, you know, Craig Weibel is now that that was probably peak for the first, first America team in history to win the champions.
[00:09:55] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah. And so, or in modern history anyways, and so that those all things [00:10:00] collided and then we got awarded the, uh, yeah. Here’s a little fun backstory about that. So Adrian being Adrian, and he’s a very humble guy that when, you know, we were thinking about all this and FIFA tell us, okay, this is the date we’re going to announce the, uh, city and the winners.
[00:10:17] Peter Tomozawa: And they kept it all under wraps. We’re like, well, can you just give us a heads up? Cause we’d love to have a victory party. You know, they’re like, nope, we’re not going to do that. Yeah. And you’re going to find out that same day, everybody else finds out. And so of course, us being planners and things and thinking about this, and we’re like, okay, you know what we’re going to do for the announcement?
[00:10:38] Peter Tomozawa: We’re going to go to a few bars. So we split up our team and sent them to a bunch of different bars around Pioneer Square, telling the press where to go. We kind of had a viewing. Situation where we were going to find out and then we said, we’re going to have a celebration where we’re going to invite elected officials and all these are very important people that had supported us throughout this whole process, but we’ll [00:11:00] host it two hours after.
[00:11:01] Peter Tomozawa: So we’ll know if it’s a victory party or if it’s a remorse party, and if it’s a victory party, we’ll have the governor there, the mayor there, and all these kinds of important people. And if we lost. We’re just going to have free food for people at Fagg’s market. And so, that was our plan A, plan B, plan A was a victory party with all the important people, plan B was, and the public plan B was just to have free food and booze for the lucky people that happened to be down at Pike’s market.
[00:11:36] Jonathan Sposato: That’s awesome. That’s great. And you’ve answered a really important question. And I know that our listeners were curious about what the sort of the core winning KPIs of this bid and you’ve answered it very beautifully.
[00:11:50] Jonathan Sposato: And, and, and I want to touch on something you mentioned that is also fascinating, which is that Seattle was [00:12:00] fundamentally always a soccer town. What do you think makes any city indexed towards a particular sport? Is it clearly something organic happening at the fundamental grade school level perhaps?
[00:12:14] Jonathan Sposato: What made Seattle such a soccer town? 
[00:12:16] Peter Tomozawa: You know, that’s a great question. It’s, it’s, it’s kind of one of those, um, sports is accessible to everyone. But if you look at Pierce County and King County, Over 76 languages are spoken. It’s the most diverse community that was in the list of cities bidding, maybe outside of Los Angeles, right?
[00:12:36] Peter Tomozawa: But Los Angeles skews heavily Hispanic and, uh, Spanish speaking. We have 76 different languages. So we have such a broad diversity of people here and those people come generally as first generations. From other countries where soccer is the main thing. Yeah. Um, and so I think we have a natural draw for that.
[00:12:56] Peter Tomozawa: Um, and we’ve had, you know, sounders have been here for 50, this is the [00:13:00] 50th year anniversary of the Seattle sounders. Uh, so we’ve been entrenched in, in the community for a long time now that the rain are part of the sounders, it’s now going to be a really symbiotic thing between men’s and women’s soccers, but women’s soccer has been a big focal point ever since title nine.
[00:13:16] Peter Tomozawa: The community of color that we have, the diversity of the makeup of, of the language that they’re spoken here is so rich. It could only possibly be that it was a natural thing for soccer to catch on. But I do think the way that the organizations are built around community and soccer. If you think about why soccer is such a global sport. 
Peter Tomozawa: You know, it’s because it’s about the community. Everyone goes to these games because it’s about representing the community. And there’s a really egalitarian kind of thing because, you know, all you need is a ball. Yeah, right. You can play and you can play. Yeah. Right. And so that’s what’s most appealing about [00:14:00] throughout the world.
[00:14:00] Peter Tomozawa: And I think that’s what appealed here. 
[00:14:01] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah. With your story about how this all came to be with the world cup, you mentioned the importance of, of FIFA as an organization, viscerally, very tangibly seeing the excitement of the championship and all the community support. Looking at it the other way, how the community might view FIFA, I have to admit, there are a lot of myths, I think, about FIFA that they’re like this monolithic, big commercial enterprise.
[00:14:29] Jonathan Sposato: Are there some misnomers about FIFA? 
[00:14:32] Peter Tomozawa: John, I’m so glad you asked that question. You know, the. The biggest myth about FIFA is that it’s just a money grubbing, uh, billions generating, uh, organization and it’s pure profit. Right. It’s actually a non profit organization. 
[00:14:50] Jonathan Sposato: A non profit? 
[00:14:53] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah. FIFA is a non profit organization.
[00:14:54] Jonathan Sposato: That’s blowing my mind. 
[00:15:03] Peter Tomozawa: And actually it’s more members than there are actual recognized countries. There’s 207 countries recognized by United Nations. The reason why there’s more members of FIFA is because they recognize places like Wales, Scotland, right?
[00:15:17] Peter Tomozawa: As individuals. Um, but what they do is they have these massive TV contracts, massive sponsorships. They put on these huge events, but whatever profit they make, it’s recycled back into the member countries. The United States is a big benefactor. FIFA with all their billions that they’ve made, have recycled money into all these different programs around the world to help women’s soccer become better.
[00:15:40] Peter Tomozawa: So you see countries like Morocco. Yeah. The Japanese are better funded right now. We have German women. We have British women. They’re like, it’s now not so clear who is the best anymore. And there’s been a big catch up. Well, how did that come to be? It didn’t come because it was just [00:16:00] sort of to it is, uh, or that women just started playing when they were funded by FIFA.
[00:16:05] Peter Tomozawa: So that’s one of the big legacies I would say, uh, around the world that never gets talked about. Yeah. The group that I run. As a nonprofit group, all the money that we’re going to try to make for the World Cup gets recycled back into our community programs that I described earlier on the show. It’s a privilege and honor to be part of this, you know, one of the things that we talked about was sort of.
[00:16:27] Peter Tomozawa: Building businesses, your show is about business and all those kinds of things. And we talked a little bit about building cultures and how the Sounders have built this amazing mindset culture around the community. We’re taking the same principles to the world cup, you know, and so the organization that we’re building to help run this thing, you know, one of the first people I reached out to on advice of Fred Mendoza, John Stanton, um, Todd Leiweke.
[00:16:52] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah. Was this woman that my very first hire, uh, who joined me was this woman named Ann Kawasaki Romero. Do you know, Ann? 
[00:16:59] Jonathan Sposato: I do not. 
[00:17:00] Peter Tomozawa: She’s the least known person probably in the Seattle-area that’s most impactful. 
[00:17:04] Jonathan Sposato: I need to immediately get to know her and have her on the next podcast. 
[00:17:10] Peter Tomozawa: Yes. She’s, she’s, she wants to stay under the radar. I’m outing her. And, uh, she was the executive director of the Kingdom. 
[00:17:17] Peter Tomozawa: She blew up the Kingdom.  
[00:17:19] Peter Tomozawa: Uh huh. And then she built what is now called Lumenfield. 
[00:17:22] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah. 
[00:17:23] Peter Tomozawa: And she’s been part of the public stadium authority for 20 plus years. She’s probably the highest quotient of what I call GSD. Get Stuff Done. On the planet. Yeah. She’s four foot 10. She says she’s five one, but she’s four foot 10. She’s four foot 10. Sounds like my mom. And she just. Works to get stuff done. And she’s been, she was my first hire. She’s our chief operating officer and she is just a delight to work with. When this is all said and done, I hope people know and recognize that there are a lot of heroes in this process that [00:18:00] she has not, she’s chosen to stay under the radar, but building a good team, she and I’ve set off to build a great team.
[00:18:06] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah. Uh, we have April Putney. 
[00:18:09] Peter Tomozawa: She was formerly of Dow Constantine’s King County. Uh, she was the deputy executive. Yeah. Uh, April is now our chief strategy officer. Nice. Uh, she’s tremendous, super organized. Uh, she’s an incredible talent. So one of the big things about these kinds of events is security. So I went off and found, um, and Anne helped me find former police chief, John Diaz.
[00:18:32] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah. Yeah. 
[00:18:33] Peter Tomozawa: So he is our head of security. Nice. She’s chief security officer. He’s on our management committee team. And John and I sat down and talked and I said, John, you got to get involved in this. You got to help me fill them in, figure out how to do this the most safe way possible because people need to feel safe about coming to a big event like this.
[00:18:50] Peter Tomozawa: And I said, when in your life have you ever been involved or been asked to be involved in a project at the beginning? None at the end. Right. Because security is always the last thing. [00:19:00] Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. This, I said, security will be the first thing. Uh huh. Very good. You know? So John came on and he’s like, this is awesome.
[00:19:05] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah. And then, um, we are the only city, the singular only city of 16 that are hosting the World Cup to have even this position, and it’s called Chief Legacy Officer. And we hired Leo Flohr, who is also from King County to be our chief legacy officer. And he’s responsible for those six buckets, the six pillars.
[00:19:29] Jonathan Sposato: What else is within the scope of a chief legacy officer? 
[00:19:32] Peter Tomozawa: So that’s the person that we now have, making myself and the organization accountable for delivering on these projects. 
[00:19:41] Jonathan Sposato: Good one. Yeah. Very good. Very good. Well, first of all, I mean, this conversation should begin and end, uh, we’re not going to end it right here because I have a couple more questions, but it should really, as the saying goes, begin and end with a huge debt of gratitude to you and your organization for what you are doing [00:20:00] for the city of Seattle and the region as a whole.
[00:20:03] Jonathan Sposato: I am so glad that we were able to In this format where we can spend a little bit more time, you know, digging in and understanding your priorities, understanding the fundamentals of what got us here, the life cycle of what you’re going through. So congratulations on all of your successes and future successes as well in this endeavor.
[00:20:23] Jonathan Sposato: What are sort of the next hash marks? What are the next important milestones that you hope to be able to tell us about? 
[00:20:30] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah. You know, a big part of what we will eventually be able to deliver will be my ability to raise funds. The more funds we can raise, the more we can do in the community. Yeah. You know, we have, obviously we’re going to hold the events and the matches and those kinds of things, but we are a 501c3.
[00:20:46] Peter Tomozawa: We need to raise some money, uh, to do so. We have an initial seed investor. I see. Uh, we made history last summer by having the Puyallup Tribe of Indians be the very first indigenous peoples [00:21:00] ever to be a FIFA sponsor of anything. 
[00:21:02] Jonathan Sposato: Wow. 
[00:21:03] Peter Tomozawa: It still to this day gives me goosebumps, because Yeah.
[00:21:07] Peter Tomozawa: It’s giving me goosebumps, you know? And you say, why did they do this? Why would a tribe wanna be this? And they’re like, this is an opportunity to tell their story in their voice. To foster a better understanding of First People all over the world. Yeah. And so they’re the, they want to use this opportunity to make sure that the image that people see of Native American Indians is not just simply around what they say, this is their words.
[00:21:35] Peter Tomozawa: They say beyond teepees and planes to see them in their environment, with water, their respect for nature, uh, and sort of like, we’re going to showcase how they teach. Their generations and their children about their culture, but we want to do that so that we teach the world to foster better understanding.
[00:21:57] Peter Tomozawa: Wow. I just think that’s such a noble [00:22:00] and amazing. 
[00:22:00] Jonathan Sposato: It’s amazing. And I think we can all be sort of very Seattle proud because this is also kind of unique. Kind of only here of all the FIFA cities or I would imagine. Yeah. We’re the only one, you know, everything, you know, so that’s why I like, I keep telling people, this is not just a commercial endeavor.
[00:22:20] Peter Tomozawa: This is a community thing and that’s how we’re leaning in on it. And so of course the eyeballs and the, you know, the opportunity to sell stuff and all those kinds of things, that’s going to be there, but this is a real opportunity to really. Showcase the best of Washington to the world. 
[00:22:38] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah. 
[00:22:38] Peter Tomozawa: That’s what our aim is.
[00:22:39] Peter Tomozawa: And the other thing that we’re trying to do to which Leo’s got the big task of doing and as April and, um, and have, uh, operationally didn’t figure this out, but we’re going to bring the event to the people. So we know. That the demand for tickets will be off the chart. We know that not all people will be [00:23:00] able to come over the mountain, you know, and, and afford to do the World Cup.
[00:23:05] Peter Tomozawa: So we want to bring it to the people. So we’re actually selecting nine sites outside of Seattle to have fan zones during that time. We are also, in addition, building a community playbook so that for those places that we can’t go to and you still want to enjoy the world cup, this is how you do it. So we’ll have a, we’ll have a community playbook and we’re also going to have an economic development playbook.
[00:23:29] Peter Tomozawa: We want to. Take some funds and build an economic playbook so that people will understand what it takes to be successful during the world cup and how can they, how can they be ready for it? Yeah. So we’re building a playbook for, for communities to do that. One of the things that you’ll love, cause you’re such a geek wire geek, you are, is, uh, I like to call it, we’re re imagining wayfinding.
[00:23:53] Jonathan Sposato: Oh, neat. 
[00:23:54] Peter Tomozawa: So wayfinding in typical city fashion is around, here’s a list of things [00:24:00] to go see. Here’s your restaurant. Here’s your hotel. Here’s your attractions. We’re going to gamify that. 
[00:24:07] Peter Tomozawa: And we’ve already contracted with, and we found a really great organization. Uh, ex Microsoft folks, uh, actually ex Lucasfilms people, but anyway, um, you probably do, but I can’t tell on this podcast, but we’re about to be announcing this thing, but we found a group of people that will help us build an app that gets you around.
[00:24:28] Peter Tomozawa: Our city and our state, but in a way where you can be able to collect things. Think of it like Pokemon Go. So there’ll be a geofence. So like if we, we can incentivize people to go around our loop, for example, we can incentivize people to go visit certain companies. If a company wants to sponsor us, uh, we can, you know, certain things to go see trails, to go hike, um, you know, you’ll get, let’s say, let’s say one of the collection things are like jerseys.
[00:24:57] Peter Tomozawa: Right? You go to Spokane, [00:25:00] go to the riverfront, get to a certain part that we want the Spokanes, you know, Spokanians want us to go see, you get 10 jerseys. Yeah. And then you fill up your sort of bingo card, if you will. You fill up your card and you automatically win swag. Nice. Or an opportunity to win tickets.
[00:25:18] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah. Yeah. And so we’re going to have creative incentivized ways to go around our state. Yeah, I love it. And then we’ll probably leave that as a legacy to some organization to do that for future opportunities. But isn’t that great? 
[00:25:32] Jonathan Sposato: That’s awesome. That’s really great. And again, I, I’m sort of surmising that.
[00:25:36] Jonathan Sposato: This is again and another only in Seattle kind of a thing. Yeah. Yeah. Your only city that’s doing it. We’re the only city that’s got that kind of deep tech gaming expertise and a great outdoors and because it’s so synergistic with the loop and other things that you’re doing. It’s just perfect. What a great idea.
[00:25:55] Jonathan Sposato: We talked about some other real movers and shakers in this [00:26:00] space. Um, other team owners, people like John Stanton and Todd, who I think are kind of, um, almost of heroic stature, uh, in, in terms of the place. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, what have you learned, uh, uh, the most from, uh, from them? 
[00:26:14] Peter Tomozawa: Well, you know, and, uh, you know, the Seahawks have done an amazing job too.
[00:26:17] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah. You know, you have the Jodi Allen and her team credit for, you know, kind of their connectivity. Um, You know, football is football in America, but John Stanton has been so kind with his time and he’s been fairly great on, on sort of helping advise and think about things. We’re talking now about how, you know, everybody was worried, you know, the World Cup comes here.
[00:26:42] Peter Tomozawa: We have a secure zone around the stadium. We’re going to be here for four to six weeks. Are the Mariners going to be on the road for six weeks? And that’s, the answer is no, but so that means we need to work with them on figuring out how this can all work together. And he’s [00:27:00] been a great thinker about the synergistic value to the organizations involved.
[00:27:05] Peter Tomozawa: Um, one of the big things I think I’ve learned from him and, and, and Todd actually is talking about like how important the neighborhoods are around the stadium and Kawasaki Romero, who has run the PSA for so long. She’s big on that, you know, being, making sure that we’re listening to the CID, making sure that we’re listening to the Pike Market Association, bringing in Occidental Square, all the different communities, Soto, all the communities that are directly impacted and affected by an event like ours, we’re out there talking to, we had 30 plus meetings in 2020.
[00:27:42] Peter Tomozawa: So Three, our target for this year, it sounds crazy, but it’s not because we were on track towards 150 meetings with community members. And our key thing is trying to listen. You know, listen to concerns, listen to issues. We studied what happened, major league [00:28:00] baseball very closely. Um, you know, they had a great all star weekend.
[00:28:04] Peter Tomozawa: Um, but there were certain communities that felt that they weren’t, didn’t have everything they wanted. Uh, so we listened to that and there’s always learning, right? Uh, one of the key elements that we found, uh, that, that Major league baseball, all star game really drove under Katie Criggs. And, you know, that’s another person, by the way, she’s terrific.
[00:28:24] Peter Tomozawa: And John’s leadership on, around the MLBA all star and, and, and Beth Knox too, with this, what’s called region ready, this amazing organization that, that we were, they, they were able to stand up for major league baseball all star, but is now something like anytime we’re going to have a big event. We don’t have to recreate the wheel.
[00:28:43] Peter Tomozawa: We have all the elements in place, security, fire, um, you know, EMT, uh, transportation. And we’ve already held many, many summits with the region ready folks to talk about, Hey, get ready. This is coming. This is a fascinating thing too, I [00:29:00] think. When you speak to people like Todd and John and that you see how they operate and they operate in this world of like thinking through not just all the possibilities and combinations of things.
[00:29:11] Peter Tomozawa: By the way, that was how one becomes a partner at Goldman Sachs. You’re questioning yourself all the time. Yeah, right. Where you’re wrong, that’s almost more important to think about where you’re wrong than when, you know, thinking that whatever, hoping that you’re going to be right. And so this is the kind of thinking that we were sitting around a table and we’re talking about the demand that we’re going to have on police officers, John Diaz, former Seattle police chief.
[00:29:38] Peter Tomozawa: And I were sitting around talking about this with our executive team and we were like, you know what, why don’t we use this as an opportunity to turn the equation around and like, what, what are you guys talking about? And I’m like, let’s turn the equation around. Let’s not just talk about the man. Let’s work on the supply.
[00:29:53] Peter Tomozawa: Okay. Uh huh. Right. Let’s use this opportunity of the World Cup coming here to get young people excited [00:30:00] about careers and policing in law enforcement. 
[00:30:02] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah, right. Yeah. And so they have that problem that they still have to solve. 
[00:30:06] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah. Because their problem that they’re solving for is they need a bigger supply.
[00:30:11] Peter Tomozawa: Of young people. Mm hmm. So now we’re working with some community colleges, some indigenous peoples populations on job fairs and thinking about like, how do we help address a longer term issue, which is the supply? 
[00:30:23] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah. Right. 
[00:30:24] Peter Tomozawa: And not just worried about our short term issues like spike, uh, peak demand. Right. 
[00:30:29] Jonathan Sposato: That’s right. 
[00:30:30] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah. Yeah. So we have a whole workforce development program going on and we were just, we’re, we’re thinking about replicating that across the state. So let’s use the power and the megaphone of the World Cup that reaches a lot of young people. Yeah, that’s right. Particularly in diverse populations.
[00:30:48] Peter Tomozawa: And let’s get them excited about careers because not everybody, obviously everybody, you know, if you could, you’d want to be a professional soccer player, although I would argue, I think I’d rather be a rock star than a professional athlete, 
[00:30:58] Jonathan Sposato: but I don’t know, I [00:31:00] always wanted to work at Goldman Sachs, you know, I got as far as Microsoft, you know, you did fine, but, um, in fact, you know, uh, I’m, I’m going to see the Rolling Stones tonight for the sixth time in six different decades.
[00:31:14] Jonathan Sposato: Wow. How many people have you can say that other than, you know, the, the families of the, of the Stones themselves? Probably very, very few. Maybe one of them. 
[00:31:23] Peter Tomozawa: 1978 Uhhuh Masonic Temple in Detroit, Michigan. Nice. 1981, um, Pontiac Silver Dome Uhhuh in Pontiac, Michigan. Yeah. 1994. Tokyo Dome I was to Nice. Uh, in, in, in Japan 2004.
[00:31:38] Peter Tomozawa: Uhhuh. was, uh, Madison Square Garden. Nice. New York City, Uhhuh 2019. Was Seattle women field, right? 2024 tonight. Yeah. Yeah. Right on. I love it. Six times. I love it. It just shows you how old I am. 
[00:32:02] Jonathan Sposato: Well, I’m right there with you. And I am always so inspired. Uh, my last two concerts were Madonna [00:32:00] and yeah. And before, and there’s a theme here. And before that was Depeche Mode. 
[00:32:05] Peter Tomozawa: Geez. 
[00:32:06] Jonathan Sposato: And I’m telling you, there’s nothing more inspiring than seeing some of these amazing artists, they’ve been career long, they’ve had amazing careers, and they’re out there, and they’re still rocking it, they’re still doing it, they’re moving around, they’re jumping up and down things, and you’re, and you’re like, okay, that’s, that’s, that’s really cool.  
[00:32:22] Peter Tomozawa: I actually use Mick Jagger as an example, I’ve given, um, uh, sort of, New analyst coming into Goldman Sachs speeches. And then I’ve done a few graduation stuff. And, and I always talk about like one of the biggest, most negative thing you can tell your children, our children is to go find your passion. I hate that line.
[00:32:47] Jonathan Sposato: I agree. Oh my God. I won’t bore people with why I think that, but how, what do you think that? 
[00:32:50] Peter Tomozawa: Well, I think that is because it’s like creating a false expectation. That your life is supposed to be around chasing your passion. And I say what I said is [00:33:00] you just need to reframe, go do interesting things, let your passion find you and your passion is going to change over time.
[00:33:07] Peter Tomozawa: That’s right. Yep. You know, like I’ve had four different pivots, pivots in my career, but the thing that I will tell you, because I used the Mick Jagger example, because if you tell kids, go find your passion. You’re actually telling them go be like Mick Jagger, cause he’s probably one of the few people I know that are still doing the 76 that they did when they were 22, you know, and so that’s just awful.
[00:33:28] Peter Tomozawa: Yeah. And so no wonder it was, there’s an affliction, which I call millennial misery. Mm hmm. You’re a millennial, you’re in your thirties, you’re kind of looking back at your life and you’re saying, why am I so unhappy? Yeah. You know why you’re unhappy? Because people like me told you to go find your passion.
[00:33:44] Peter Tomozawa: Mm hmm. That was the wrong expectation. I tell young people, just go do interesting things, you know, do stuff and then let things work their way out. Build skills, build skills, do interesting things.
[00:33:58] Jonathan Sposato: Peter, you and I could talk [00:34:00] for many more hours just about that stuff. I, I, I’ll just say, uh, I, uh, Couldn’t agree with you more and I, I, I really do think that we, we can re vector some of these conversations that we have with the younger generation in terms of how they want to think about or frame their career prospects.
[00:34:17] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah. And that’s a nice segue, I think, to the final question that I want to ask you, which is really a little bit more personal. Okay. Which is, uh, you know, what, what advice. Would you give to your younger self? You’ve obviously had a very successful career and maybe everything turned out the way that it was planned and was supposed to be, but maybe that wasn’t the case.
[00:34:37] Jonathan Sposato: And, but so what advice would you give to say a 19, 20 year old Peter? Uh, if you could travel back in time?
[00:34:47] Peter Tomozawa: I, you know, I would say to my younger self, not to worry. And I would say to my younger self, Where you end in your life is all that is required is to have made things [00:35:00] better and what, you know, make it better.
[00:35:03] Peter Tomozawa: It doesn’t matter what it is. So live every day with the intention of making things better. And over a lifetime, if you accumulate the day, right, of making things better, you’re going to have an amazing life. And it doesn’t matter what it is you just do, and don’t worry about outcome, you know, and that’s what I would tell my younger self.
[00:35:27] Peter Tomozawa: That’s why I tell my children, I said, don’t worry about outcome, focus every single day, all your energy on making things better. If you leave the planet better than how you found it, that’s all that can be asked of it. And if everyone on the planet lived that way, it would be an amazing place. 
[00:35:43] Jonathan Sposato: That’s right. Yeah. Well, Peter, I want to thank you on behalf of Seattle magazine and our community for assuredly making our city and our region much, much better, uh, with your, uh, the work that you’ve done and the work that’s ongoing.
[00:35:58] Jonathan Sposato: You are [00:36:00] a phenomenal individual with so much to offer the world, uh, and just Deeply appreciative that you came and joined us here today for listeners. You will find links to a lot of the things that Peter, uh, talked about, um, in the body of the page itself. And I encourage you to click on it, to explore, to find ways that you might help Peter and his colleagues in this effort to, uh, bring the world cup to Seattle in the year 2026.
[00:36:29] Jonathan Sposato: So Thank you very much, Peter. Thank you. We appreciate you being here.
[00:36:37] Jonathan Sposato: Thank you for listening to the Seattle Magazine podcast. You can always find us on seattlemag. com. Look for new episodes approximately every two weeks on our website. A special thank you to the entire Seattle magazine staff and to podcast producer Nick Patry. Contact Lisa Lee at lisa at seattlemag. com for [00:37:00] partnership opportunities.
[00:37:01] Jonathan Sposato: Until next time, let’s keep celebrating Seattle.
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