Professor Rick Harrow inside the $2.6 trillion business of sports, and we're on the record after the United States Conference of Mayors winter leadership meeting that I was lucky enough to preside over as part of a public-private partnership lecture on how public facilities and private facilities mesh, not just stadiums and arenas, performing arts convention centers, and while we're at it, airports, other infrastructure, all geared.
To COVID recovery.
100 years ago, Spanish flu recovery caused public money for the Orange Bowl and other stadiums across America.
This is bigger.
Pre-COVID, about 7 to $9 billion of money in the pipeline.
Now $30 billion.
Chicago, Buffalo, San Antonio, other cities, Denver beginning their new stadium for Burnham Park in.
2031, all because of enlightened political leadership in an ongoing series with the mayors around the country, we start with the forty-sixth mayor of Denver elected in 2023, a school teacher by trade, started in the Mississippi Delta, became principal in schools around the Denver area, then was appointed to as a special advisor for education.
By President Obama and clearly on the Merrill doing things track in only 2 years he's done a number of issues for climate, homelessness, and the like, was in the Senate, was involved in community activities.
Most important, he is now the chief driving political force for the new stadium in 2031. $2 billion facility, the Walton Penner family, land committed, tax increment financing committed, a dome, Super Bowls, Final Fours, religious revivals, all part of the rotation, college football playoff.
Clearly, he is an advocate of sports and big business.
Shout out to Empower.
He talks about them as a major corporate partner.
The naming rights.
Deal for now and in the future, couldn't do it without a public-private partnership.
Major corporate support.
You want to hear more about how these facilities are done?
Here's Mike Johnston.
Thank you very much for being here, Mayor.
I really appreciate it.
I'm delighted to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Very cool.
So, uh, well, we will talk about your background, a, uh, uh, uh, high school English teacher, uh, in the Mississippi Delta.
Talk about that for a minute.
Yeah, that was my first, uh, job out of college was as a teacher in Mississippi.
I'm a 4th generation teacher.
Teachers changed my life.
I felt like that was a great way to try to give something back.
I taught English, coached a bunch of sports, coached track and field, coached soccer.
I was a college soccer player, and I managed to start 9 ineligible players in my first game as coach.
So I, I had some work to do on becoming a great coach, but I love it.
So you, you prep the rules when it's appropriate, right?
Very well done.
It's innovation, innovation, yeah, that's what they call it, uh, but, uh.
Um, yeah, so I, I love teaching.
I came home and I was a school principal for about 6 years, and that was what first got me into politics was I had a lot of students who were undocumented immigrants who want to go to college and couldn't in Colorado.
Well, but also the 3 Denver schools, the, the principal, uh, and, uh, you missed as far as the educational career, the senior educational advisor under President Obama.
So that was a big, that is a big deal.
Uh, I love the chance to work for the former president, uh, a leader of real courage.
I think sometimes you'll find.
I find people who've been athletes when they live in public life are more risk tolerant because they know what it means to take shots and miss some of them, but you got to keep shooting.
Well, it's good that you're in a position of where you are because you can appreciate the day to day, uh, agita that is public-private partnerships as well.
So it's 2009.
We're fast forward and you're the Senate.
And the Colorado Dream Act, the Gary Community, uh, uh, ventures, all of that is key to, uh, homelessness, affordability, all of those issues which are very important to you, but very important to the community.
Yeah, I, um, I first entered politics from being a school principal to focus on.
Trying to help my kids get access to going to college.
That was our version of the DREAM Act.
Uh, after I left the Senate, I worked for a couple of years running a foundation, a venture philanthropy organization we call Gary Ventures, which is focused on how do you use, uh, nonprofits and for-profits and policy change all to deliver better outcomes for people.
A lot of our work was focused on affordable housing and homelessness, and that was what, uh, got me into, a lot a statewide ballot measure to create a first stable funding source for affordable housing and homelessness statewide.
And I realized a lot of those dollars would go to cities, and it would rely on mayors to be able to see if we could actually deliver those results, and so that was why I ran for mayor.
And so 46th mayor, July 17, 2023.
Did you ever find anybody that voted against you?
So.
I think sometimes when I'm at a parade, they'll yell at me from the sidelines if they're mad about something, uh, but no, it's, uh, you, I find you get a lot of feedback as mayor cause you're in the grocery store, you're dropping your kid off at school, and people always say, hey, I got an idea for you.
Has being mayor exceeded or disappointed your expectations?
Oh, I, sometimes I'll be in the grocery store and someone will come up and give me a hug and say, oh my gosh, your job is so hard.
Uh, and I say, I actually love this job every day.
It's the most fun I've ever had.
It's the most rewarding work you can do, the most high impact work you can do, so it's crazy, but it's fantastic.
Are you term limited?
Uh, I have a three term limit, but I'm still in my first term.
Yeah, I'm only 2 years in.
I we're going for reelection in 207.
Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out in 2030, 2032, when we're having the same conversation, whether we're gonna be sitting, you're gonna be sitting in this chair.
That would be, that would be my issues.
We'll see.
I have no idea.
Well, so apropos to what we're talking about at the US Conference of Mayors and spent much of my life doing public-private partnerships.
It used to be in the late 60s, you would have a round stadium like the Vet or Riverfront and you would put the baseball and football team in there and you would decide what the millage rate would be to sell the bonds to build an $80 million stadium and you would increase the taxes and may get voted out of office.
And So that was the end of the day.
Now, post-COVID, people are incredibly creative, including, by the way, providing the land as part of the financing and using existing land as part of a major new urban development, which is the way you succeed and thrive.
So, post-COVID causes people to be incredibly creative and get solutions done that might not otherwise have happened.
Yeah, we have 3 major stadium projects all happening in our city at the same time.
We're very proud of, and it is a matter of looking for the win-win, what's great for the franchise, what's great for the fans, that's what, what's great for the city long term.
And so I think our project around, uh, the future of the Broncos stadium, particularly is a great example.
This.
The current mile high side will pull down.
That's about 80 acres of land in the middle of downtown Denver that will come back to the city's possession.
So we'll get to work with neighbors and build an entirely new neighborhood there.
And then the Broncos are going to invest about $4 billion of their own money to build a new stadium without any public support for the construction of that stadium.
We'll help provide the infrastructure and make sure folks.
You can get in and out of that site.
It's right on light rail.
It's connected to a front range passenger rail line that can take you from Cobba Springs or Fort Collins to a game on Sunday.
Site's gonna be an amazing opportunity, and that'll bring new residential units, new retail, commercial, all in a walkable West Denver neighborhood.
So we think it's gonna be a game changer.
So Mary, you walk into Walmart and you say, thank God, Walton family.
Or it's an amazing, uh, uh, the evolution of ownership.
We have a great partner in our new ownership group, which is, uh, Carrie Walton, great founder.
They've been fantastic citizens.
They care about the long-term future of the city, and they wanted to create a real legacy space in Denver that would be a cultural magnet.
It'll be a place where people come for concerts.
It'll be a retractable dome, so we'll be able to host the Super Bowl in Denver for the first time, host the NCAA Final Four, all those catalytic events, so we're really excited.
Well, so a couple of things.
When I see in the industry that you have a deal at Burnham Yards for 2031.
I realized the, the partners in power, we talked about them, the whole world of Denver, uh, coalesces so easily.
Easy is a hard word, that you've got a deal already announced basically 67 years, uh, before you have to occupy.
Uh, that doesn't happen.
Uh, it's not easy.
I spent 2 years on this deal, so probably from the day I came into office, we've been working on it.
Um, but we wanted to find the right place, the right partnership, the right structure.
And I think, uh, you know, it's gonna keep the Broncos in Denver for another 50 years.
It's gonna allow us to triple our tax revenue with a retractable dome because we can be able to do more events, uh, you know, year long.
I was at Sofi, they do about 30 or 30 events a year outside of football.
We only do 9 or 10 because of the, of the open roof.
And so, we think it's gonna be a big impact for the economy in Denver, but mostly for fans who are gonna wanna, uh, come to events all year long.
Let's talk about open roof.
So, of the 9, NFL.
Stadia processes, only Buffalo, and who knows why those people are affected by the cold too much.
I don't know why, uh, and Jacksonville are in theory open.
Jacksonville is kind of open, but everybody that's making decisions on how to do public, uh, uh, private partnerships, uh, want the benefit of Super Bowls, Final Fours, religious revivals, uh, CFPs, and the way to do it is a retractable, translucent, permanent roof.
You.
The right decision.
Yeah, we feel great about this decision because we both, you know, we'll say, and the owners will say we still want this to be an open-air stadium.
If the Raiders are coming to town in January, we're gonna let it snow, right?
Um, but when you have folks who say the conditions of a Super Bowl are to be able to close the roof, we'll be able to do that.
If you want to host a Beyonce concert in January and they want to close the roof, we can do that.
So we think the flexibility is what matters, uh, but it'll still be great open sun and open snow in Denver in my life.
Uh, let me tell you, he won't say it this way, but, uh, I'll say it this way.
Uh, and we got a Bronco fan, uh, who is behind the, the mic there.
If the retractable roof was in place and it was a clear second half and Stidham had an opportunity to inject, they'd have been in the Super Bowl if when you'd have be in Seattle.
We would have.
It is a hard.
How's that sound?
It became the best argument for a retractable roof.
OK, yeah, yeah, clearly.
Uh, I, I remember the discussions we had when I was doing the NFL stuff and when Places like Tampa needed a referendum.
It was, you know, we, we, we, we stink.
We need to be competitive.
When Denver needed a public-private five-county partnership, it was, we need to preserve the excellence.
The message changes, but the ultimate message is economic development, industry relocation, quality of life, sports is very important.
It is, we think, you know, sports is in the bloodstream of, of Colorado.
We're very proud.
Denver will now be the only city in America that has 6 major professional sports franchises, all housed and playing in the city center.
You have fun with the, you have fun with the other marriage.
I've been teasing Chicago and Philly and Atlanta who are falling far behind.
But the reason why is it's 200 nights of live sports in our city every single year.
That's 2000, 30, 500, 70,000 people coming out, going to restaurants, going to bars, getting on public transit.
And in more and more of these places, what we're doing is moving away from the era of, of NU being, hmm.
You know, a stadium with 60 acres of parking lots around them.
Now we'll all have entertainment districts that will have restaurants, they'll have residential, they'll have commercial, um, and they'll have public transit, which makes it easy to do that.
So we think those make them real win-wins to build complete neighborhoods in our city, and we love that part of it.
Well, so, uh, as far as the adjacent development process, we know that About 62% of all of the big five venue new facilities have them at their core.
Frankly, I don't know why the 38% other don't do it for other reasons, but that is an important necessary component of this entire process, correct?
It's critical for us.
I mean, if you look at over the last 20 years, I think 15 of the 32 NFL teams have left their cities, right?
The 49ers don't play.
In San Francisco anymore.
The Patriots have never really, oh, they didn't play in Santa Clara.
Oh, yeah, well, that's just super.
Cowboys don't play in Dallas.
Bears, they might play in Chicago.
For us, it really matters to keep that team with a sense of place and a sense of connection to the city.
And so that was, uh, I think one of the things my, my now past dad will be the most proud of me about is that we made sure the Broncos stayed in Denver for the next 50 years.
But more importantly, you know, we extended the Abs for another 25 years, yeah, Nuggets for another 25 years, that's 100 seasons of major professional sports in the city and county of Denver.
That will change the city's future.
Process wise, corporate partnership, and a ball relative to anxious relative to that facility, but Talk about empower.
I have a personal stake in knowing how creative they are in the area of protecting wealth and franchise, uh, value of wealth, good corporate partner and obviously a commitment to the Broncos going forward too.
That helps in your discussions.
They, they've been a great partner.
What we love about them is they were also the ones that pioneered the partnership to say, uh, a whole lot of the folks that.
He wanted to keep the Mile High name in our bay to say, uh, it is in Power Field at Mile High Stadium.
We both have a great corporate partner and we also have a long-running Civic brand.
Those are both important to us.
I think it's one of the few, knowing more than I probably should about naming rights.
It's one of the few naming deals that have survived the, the dual moniker.
Yeah, many of the naming deals not only have the one name.
But they are not affiliated with the city, and they change every 4 years, so you really don't know who it is.
You've got some long term sustainability.
We do, and that's been key for us cause I think that if people want it to feel as stable as the team itself, not like something that's gonna change like a pair of underwear every couple of days.
Yeah, there's an analogy for it.
So, let's talk about youth sports as well, so important, especially with your educational background, uh, important component to provide public recreational facilities.
In Denver, in concert with the teams and otherwise.
Huge part of, I mean, big part of who, what made me who I am was my experience with youth sports.
I was a ski racer, a hockey player, a soccer player, but I also have been a coach in youth sports.
I coached flag football for my kids for almost a year.
I do a ton of fraud.
Um, did you ever get injured?
Uh, uh, as a coach?
No, I survived.
Oh, no, not as a coach.
I did.
I broke a, I broke a leg, uh, playing soccer and then I did OK.
OK.
Oh yeah.
But, uh, but, um, my, one of my little known claims to fame is, uh, I gave Brian Greasy his coaching start, the San Francisco Forty-Niners quarterbacks coach who took Brock Purdy for Mr.
Irrelevant.
He was my assistant coach in flag football, so I, I didn't let him run the offense.
He didn't seem qualified.
I did, I did them as my defensive coordinator, so I had to be his reference check when he got the job with Kyle Shanahan.
Lady, ladies and gentlemen, you, you know, I'm gonna check his credibility.
Bob Greasy in Miami is a really good buddy.
Check this out.
Yeah, that's great.
Brian and I are great fans, so we're, we're got a hard time.
We're gonna figure this one out.
We'll be, we're a test of credibility.
Be back to you in a couple of weeks on that answer.
I'll send you the photo of our lineup with, you know, I wanna see it.
The other piece of this is a dirty little secret.
I'm gonna trap you on camera.
I've been involved in the last couple of years as the chairperson.
Of Nutil, which is the National Urban Debate League, and we're injecting sports into debate.
So it's no longer in high school debate, debate national debt, but it's now, uh, should athletes be paid?
What about college football?
What about franchise relocation?
All those issues, and we're going to come to Denver.
But my, my thought is, especially with the high school federations that include not only mainstream sports, but eSports.
And debate as sports, this is mental sports.
And so I am committed to making sure that all of those 20 agencies we've had tournaments in Oklahoma, we're gonna have one in Dallas.
The Atlanta Falcons are sponsoring.
I want a commitment on the air that you'll work with me to bring this to Denver.
We'd love to have you come to Denver.
We are, uh, love to be home for all sorts of sports, and youth sports is a great approach to debate.
I think.
I, I did some debate myself, as a lot of us did.
Oh, you did.
I did.
All right, I'm.
You understand how transformative it could, and nothing more fun than debating sports.
Two great tastes that go great together.
Yeah, good.
We got it.
That's a perfect, that's a great tagline.
He's got that done.
Any advice, uh, for mayors and, and people in other communities that have the ability to get this stuff done on how to proceed to get it done?
Yeah, I mean, I joked, you know, we worked very hard.
We have reduced violent crime more than any city in the country in the last year in Denver.
We reduced homelessness more than any city in American history, but I'll often say I think.
These Broncos stadium deal, our women's soccer franchise, the Summit, the extension of the Avs and Nuggets, those may be the most important lasting impact I ever have on the city, cause what they do is they create moments of joy for the next 50 years.
There are gonna be parents taking their kids and grandkids to a game on a Sunday in 2045, having no idea how hard we work to do that, but it does create the spaces that make you love the city. live in and that's what we think matters the most.
Well, and especially post-COVID, you know, it is interesting, and we'll end on this, that in the 110 years ago, Orange Bowl and a few other facilities were publicly funded as a quick recovery response to the Spanish flu.
Now we've got 100 years later and everybody sees the new Roaring Twenties.
Denver and other communities are good examples of how the roaring twenties could be enhanced by an elected mayor that could put all this together and get things moving quickly.
We are definitely gonna be roaring.
We got big things to build and big fun to have.
So, yeah, Denver will be the place to see the best concerts in the country if you come to Red Rocks or you come to one of our, uh, stadiums, but also the best place for sports.
And we think that's great for the folks that live here and great for folks who want to visit.
Well, Mike Johnson, you, you can gather right now, Mayor Johnston, you can gather right now that I'm coming.
I'm playing golf with you, Empower is gonna be big on the agenda.
I'm gonna help you as much as I can on this, these facilities, and it's wonderful to have you in this world leading this effort.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for having me.
