Riley: 0:00

This is Riley Stockton, and you're listening to One Hour to Doors.

Jon: 0:08

Welcome to One Hour to Doors, a podcast dedicated to the business install of the festivals and events industry. I'm your host, John Stokes. Every episode of One Hour to Doors of Core Substitute Insights and Friends impacting the enterprise of bringing people and communities together in common complexity. Today my guest is Riley Doctor. Riley is the executive director of Spokane. It is the largest 300 basketball tournament in the world. It takes place annually in Spokane, Washington. We are recording today at the historic Davenport Hotel at the heart of downtown Spokane. Riley, welcome to the show and thank you for your time today. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. For our listeners, could you please give a quick overview of Hoopfest?

Riley: 0:56

Like you said, Hoopfest is the largest three-on-three basketball tournament uh in the world. Uh when we have Hoopfest at the end of June every year, we expect anywhere from 4,000 to 6,000 teams to grace our streets of downtown Spokane. Um and it's really hard to comprehend for people that haven't been here for it. For us, that means shutting down 45 downtown city blocks for two and a half days. Wow. Um 3,000 volunteers over, you know, um 16,000 to 24,000 players alone, and about 200,000 people that come down there, come down here for this two-day event. It's something really special to this city. Spokane's known for big events. You know, we have Blooms Day, um, but none are bigger than Hoop Fest. And we take great pride in being a light in this city.

Jon: 1:52

Those stats that you just rattled off, those are on par with or beyond the scope of most major festivals.

Riley: 2:02

Yeah, those are beyond what most major festivals are doing, and it's just because of the amount of one basketball lovers uh in this area, meaning all of Washington, but specifically Eastern Washington, and then the amount of people that want to be involved in an event. I've been a part of events in Seattle, I've been a part of events, you know, throughout the area here, but there's something about Hoof Fest that brings people together and makes people want to be involved with this event, both playing and spectating, as well as the volunteers that maybe don't have an interest in basketball, but want to be involved in a city event.

Jon: 2:40

You said 45 city blocks is what gets I I'm having a hard time even visualizing that.

Riley: 2:48

Yeah, so pretty much all of the downtown core, uh, so where we sit today, every street around here for five, 10 blocks going east, five, 10 blocks going west, and then up by the Spokane Arena. So if you're not from Spokane, uh the river really cuts off our site. So the river, we have the south side of our site, which is our downtown core, and then we have the north end, um, which is up by the arena, and the different businesses up there, which consists of about 15 to 20 city blocks up there alone. Um, it's all walkable, it's all a part of Hoop Fest, but the size alone, it's really hard if you've never been here to really gauge how big it is until you've been a part of it.

Jon: 3:33

And the courts are made in the streets.

Riley: 3:36

Is that what correct? Yeah, streets and parking lots in this area, and then we have our crown jewel of center court that's actually in Riverfront Park. And again, the Mystique of Hoop Fest, the Magica Hoop Fest, in my opinion, comes on Friday night. Friday night we close down the streets at seven, and we build somewhere around the number of 350 courts with all tape lines, basketball hoops up, all the safety precautions necessary for all those courts up in about three hours. So our goal is by 10, 1015, all of the courts are done, ready to go. And then the best, best part of Friday night is as soon as those courts go up, people start playing on them. I would guess out of the 350 courts that we put up Friday night, you'll have 80 to 90 percent being played on by 10 o'clock.

Jon: 4:33

Wow. My head is just swimming with these stats, and having not been to Hoopfest myself, this is just fascinating. What was the first year of Hoopfest?

Riley: 4:42

Hoopfest was founded in 1990 by Rick Betts, Jerry Schmidt um, and a couple other business people in this area, and kind of for different reasons. You know, Jerry Schmidt, who's a local guy, went to Gonzaga Prep here, uh, started as a Special Olympics fundraiser. Oh, and then Rick Betts, who is still on our board today, still very active in Hoop Fest, traveled around and saw Hoop It Up on the East Coast and thought, God, why can't we bring something like that? So those two got together along with three or four other people to kind of develop Hoopfest. And it started with 512 teams and it has grown tremendously, tremendously since then.

Jon: 5:27

What happened during the pandemic?

Riley: 5:29

Yeah, so I wasn't around, I wasn't a part of the team when the pandemic happened, but they had a couple of different things happen. The first year, it was pretty much just a no-go. You know, we kept thinking that it was gonna happen, it was gonna happen, and then kind of looked like not gonna happen for 2020. Uh, 2021 was definitely a little bit more difficult. We built it up, everything was looking like it was gonna happen in June, and then the new variant came with COVID. That stopped it until we tried to redo it in September of 2021 and still couldn't pull it off. Um and for people in this area, people that have been a part of Hoop Fest, Hoop Fest has been the last weekend of June for 33 years. Yeah. Um, so to change it and for it to not go off definitely, definitely hurt us. But I think we're starting to grow back to pre-pandemic numbers.

Jon: 6:25

3,000 volunteers. I am very familiar with what it takes to put together and manage an 800 to a thousand-person volunteer team. 3,000. Now you're talking that's multiple people, a year-round effort, I presume.

Riley: 6:42

We actually have one staff member uh that kind of takes on volunteers, but it's also year-round volunteers that kind of keep it afloat. Uh we have 30 to 40 key volunteers, which we call our operating committee, that all take on a portion of Hoopfest. So it could be everything from beverage distribution, it could be volunteer lunches, there's the tape and cleanup crews, there's the site setup crews. Each of these people take on a section of Hoopfest. They then, with our help, recruit their team of volunteers. A lot of them are family members, friends that have been a part of Hoopfest for a long time, and they're the ones that take ownership of that area. Without the operating committee and without our top marshals and area administrators, Hoop Fest doesn't happen. Yeah. Um, to your point, 800 court monitors can't be managed without those people. We are a staff of seven, and uh we can only do so much. And so it's those volunteers that have been involved longer than I've been playing in the event uh that really make it happen.

Jon: 7:57

Now Spokane Hoopfest is a it's a 501c, correct? Correct. C what?

Riley: 8:03

C three.

Jon: 8:04

Okay. And has it always been a C3? Yep. Any particular reason why a C three versus anything any other entity?

Riley: 8:12

Uh, you know, I probably couldn't answer that. I think it's always been a C three since I've known it, and that's the last two years, but I think it's been a C three for 33 years. I would imagine it has something to do with the accounting um aspect of it.

Jon: 8:26

Yeah, sometimes the answer is just I don't know. That's just where I started.

Riley: 8:31

Yeah, yeah. Um the good thing about our board is they have a lot of interests or capabilities in a lot of different areas that come outside of Hoop Fest, one being the accounting world. We had Rick Betts was a partner at Moss Adams for a long time, and so he set us up with smart business decisions early on that we're still reaping the benefits with um with 33 years later.

Jon: 8:56

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's fantastic. Let's talk about closing down essentially the entire downtown, from what I can gather. How do the businesses and anybody who lives in the air, how does the local community deal with that?

Riley: 9:12

You know, I think it's a lot of people see the benefit of Hoop Fest. Over the last five years, I think we have an estimated economic impact of 47 million that we bring into Spokane. And in comparison, the second largest event, uh, Bloomsday, which used to be the largest street race, I think in the country, brought in about 11 to 12 million. So I think the businesses see that we add value, we create a lot of opportunities, especially for the bars and restaurants, but also hotels. You'd be lucky to find a hotel room that's open over that weekend. And so I think we bring in a lot for this community and they see that. You know, there's some businesses I would say that don't always love hoop fest, and that tends to be like the clothing retailers and the people that have sweaty basketball players coming inside their stores at all hours. But I think everyone sees the value of it, and it's one of the lights of the Spokane community.

Jon: 10:13

Wow. So Hoop Fest fired back up last year, and so this is the second year back from the pandemic. How how was business this year? Business was great.

Riley: 10:23

My first year was in 2022. So I started January 1st of 2022, and that was coming off two years of no hoop fest, some people that may have forgotten the magic of it, and we came back with 3,500 teams, which is great. That is around 14,000-ish players, which to any other event in the world, those are numbers you dream of um and what you want. But for us, that was a little less than the norm. Our normal year is anywhere around 6,000 uh teams, which puts us around 24,000 players. But for us this year, we grew by 800 teams. So we were up to 42, 50-ish with the number of teams that we had, and the majority of those came from the youth brackets. Youth alone, we had 500 more teams than we did last year, which is vital for us for a number of different reasons. One, we run the youth basketball programs in the city, uh, which helps with those numbers for sure. But two, those are also our future hoop fest. And the thing that was the most important to me growing up is the experience at Hoop Fest. I started when I was six years old. I remember how nervous I was. I remember how important it was for Hoop Fest to go well. And now for us to kind of start growing the uh youth numbers back up to what they were. I just know how important that was for me. And to have those kids that maybe have never experienced a Hoop Fest before the whole COVID pandemic happened is really, really special.

Jon: 12:01

How long have you lived in the area?

Riley: 12:03

Yeah, so I grew up in Spokane. I'm born and raised. Uh I lived here until I was 18, and I played in every hoop fest I could until 15. So Hoop Fest, you're supposed to start in third grade. I started going into kindergarten. I played with my cousins up a couple years. I was always a little bigger of a kid. So everyone thought I was even old for that age. And then I probably played until high school, until my high school coach wouldn't let me. And then I moved away. I went to college actually in Seattle, uh, at Seattle Pacific University and couldn't play while I was in college. And then every year since I've played a Newtfest and uh it continues to be a tradition in our family um to be a part of this event. My dad is one of the 22, 23 players that have played in everyone. So um it is very important to our family, and so for me in this role, it's important to do it right because I know how important it is to the people of Spokane and I know how important it is to the family.

Jon: 13:04

Okay, I think this question was maybe the most important question in this whole interview. Now that I understand your context, wow, man, congratulations.

Riley: 13:15

Thank you. Yeah, it's funny. Uh I I said this in my interview for the position and when I first started, but when I was 15, I wrote this as my dream job. I knew people that work for it, and I always thought it was such a cool company. Uh, I love Spokane, I love hoops, and so to be able to be doing this is not a day goes by where I'm not thankful and I don't count my lucky stars that it all worked out.

Jon: 13:40

That's just a big, big deal.

Riley: 13:43

Yeah, it it's a without a doubt, it's a hundred percent a privilege, but there is some pressure with it. Um you know, I I bet you when I walk around Hoop Fest, I could tell you um a lot of people's names that I'm walking by. And if it doesn't go well, I'm definitely gonna hear about it. But that's what I want. You know, I want to go where I want to work where somewhere where I'm being pushed, and this job pushes you. And so again, I've been extremely lucky about that.

Jon: 14:13

Well, and that awareness too, not a day goes by for me where I don't reflect on the fact that for all of the cool things that I've gotten to do and the big responsibilities, but at the end of the day, all I'm really doing is standing on the shoulders of some amazing people.

Riley: 14:30

Yeah. And again, I am I'm just carrying the torch at this point. Uh the boat was built, um, the plan was hatched long before I became a part of it, more than playing in it. Um, and now it's just making sure that flag continues to be moved forward and we continue to grow. And that's what I'm most excited about. Um, is where do we take it from here?

Jon: 14:56

How does Hoopfest stay contemporary?

Riley: 15:00

We try to realize is there's a portion of people that come to Hoop Fest for the basketball, right? I don't know what that percentage is, but there's a portion that will always play in it because they love Hoop Fest, they love hoops, they love playing with their friends, but we aren't naive enough to know that that's gonna keep us forever. And so I think is we will always have the basketball portion, we will always have that to build communities, to uh have people enjoy the summer, uh, play with their friends. We will always have that, but we're always looking for different ideas, different ways to engage the people that may not have the basketball love. What can we do differently um to make it special for people that are down there just watching friends or just want to enjoy a festival-like atmosphere? That could be anything from having concert, honoring people in the community, having giveaways that maybe are related to basketball, but you don't have to have any skill for you to win. Is it giveaways? Is it, you know, an idea that we have this year that I'm super excited about? It's called the Festival of Hoops. And what it is is it's a raffle for a basketball experience. Yeah, I'm I might not love basketball, I might not love playing it, but I like watching the Zags play in Maui. I like the, you know, I want to go see Corey Kispert, uh Gonzaga legend, play in Washington, DC. How can we make it special for people that may not want to play? Um, and that's what we battle with every day. I think when I was when I first hired, um, one of the board members grabbed me, and one of my to-dos and one of my, you know, things that I am required to do each quarter is to figure out how I can make Who Fest still fresh? How can I make it um unique and different while keeping the stuff that everybody loves? You know, it is fun to see 45 cities blocked shut down, there's no doubt about it. But that'll only keep people around so long. And we try to do it in everything we do. How can we make our merchandise unique? How can we make um the experience of the food vendors unique? Um and again, 16,000 players, that's great, but we're trying to cater to the 200,000 people that will be down here over the weekend as well.

Jon: 17:26

Now, for my edification is Spokane's uh population what's growth like? What's changeover rate like? How do you feel that? How does that impact the festival?

Riley: 17:38

Yeah, so I I think we aren't as diverse and it hasn't changed as much as in western Washington for sure. Um, but we did see big growth in the pandemic. Um, we've seen a lot of people move from out of town from the Californias of the world during the COVID pandemic, the COVID migration, as people call it. So I I think we're still in the community where people have lived here a long time, they understand it, but there's always new people that we're trying to grasp. And we're lucky enough to be the biggest event where people want to come see what Hoofest is. They'll hear about it all May, all June. People will talk about it, people will prepare for it, whether that's restaurants, bars, all that sort of thing, where it becomes a little bit of a spectacle. And I say that very humbly, but it is a spectacle of Spokane to come down and see it. Whereas in Seattle, you're battling everything, right? Oh, yeah. You're battling the Mariners, you're battling the Seahawks, you're battling every concert that comes there. Um, and Spokane just doesn't have that to the Seattle level. We have a good scene, but it's not Seattle.

Jon: 18:55

This gets right at a theme that I teach in my strategy workshops. And that is the fact that tradition, which so many of our events are all about, tradition relies on a critical mass of people living in the same place for a long enough period of time over generations. And kind of a statement of the obvious when you're in cities or regions that experience this rapid growth and or rapid change over of people, the whole notion of tradition gets really hard to hold on to because the people who who held that tradition, they're not here anymore. And the people who are coming in now, they're not invested in the local traditions. They just got here. And further, many are bringing their own traditions. And so the population stability that you describe over here, that's uh certainly helps drive home that sense of tradition.

Riley: 19:55

Without a doubt. What I would say I was probably most lucky for. Well, one of the things I was very lucky for. When I was in college, I interned for C Fair. And so I saw I saw both sides of it, right? I was seeing the tradition and what I would say is the best event that happens in Seattle while also trying to keep it fresh every year and what they can do to make it new and great while also keeping the things that people love. And that was, and I didn't know it at the time, that was such a valuable learning experience, seeing the creativity of the CFAR team while also keeping what's special uh for everybody else.

Jon: 20:38

With every passing year that I'm in this business, I become more and more fascinated by CFAR and by other events that have been around for so long. Events that were conceived and built around times that just largely don't exist anymore. Seafare and the way that they keep pushing that event forward into the future is just astonishing to me. And I know many of the people that have have led that effort over the years, and they are astonishing, remarkable people, but I know it's like it's this all-consuming 365 day a year push to keep it contemporary, just to keep driving home that point.

Riley: 21:22

Yeah, and uh I am extremely biased, uh, but I think the Beth Knoxes of the world, the Eric Cornings, who are both great mentors to me, um, are the reason they keep it so fresh. Um, that you're not gonna find a lot better minds than those two, and that team they put together are unique and hardworking, and they put such an emphasis on doing stuff out of out of the norm and going above and beyond what you can do. And, you know, I I mentioned that of Eric and Beth and Karen Komodo, and I see that same personality traits on our board, you know. When I talk about Rick Betts, he has the same mindset as those three did. And um, you know, there's a number of people on our board that share that. And so, you know, we've been around 33 years. I think C Fair is around 70-ish. Um, and so my hope is we can continue to kind of take that model of push it forward, don't be satisfied, contemporary, to use your words, um, to make it special. And I think we have the ability to do that, just like C Fair does.

Jon: 22:33

I boil it all down to one word, and that word is leadership, tremendous leadership.

Riley: 22:40

Without a doubt. Um, they're some of the best leaders I've ever met. And I think I've been around, I've been lucky enough to be around great leaders in my life, and it's everything for how they treat their staff to the expectation level of their events. And I can't tell you how many times I walk around an event and I think of Beth Knox's keys, and I think of Beth Knox saying, Hey, why would you ever handwrite a sign? Um, why would you not laminate a sign? And it's simple stuff that people don't realize how simple it is, but it takes your event from a bare minimum of a C if you're putting in bare minimum effort to just putting a tad bit more effort and making it so much more special. Um, and so uh when you talk about leadership, those are the names that come to mind. Um, and again, I'm biased, I work for them, I loved them, but in my opinion, you're not gonna find a lot better people um running event organizations than those people.

Jon: 23:40

Here, here. So I have a really good guess as to how you're gonna answer my next question. My next question is who were your most important mentors in the industry?

Riley: 23:50

Yeah, I I just named the three of them. Um, you know, Beth Knox, anybody that does events in Washington State, but specifically Seattle, uh knows the capabilities of her, her work, her effort. She was a great mentor because she was right alongside you. And the same thing goes with Eric Corning. Uh, you know, Eric is so talented and so smart, and he would see things, you know, 10 miles ahead of where I would see when I worked him. Yep. Worked with him. Um, Karen Komodo, you know, she is as smart financially of a person as I've worked with, and also kind of shows you how to have fun in the event world. Uh, too many times, and I try to preach this to my staff, is to always take moments at events to take a deep breath and to enjoy it. When you work in this world, you can be so stressed by every little thing that goes wrong. But if you don't take time to enjoy it, the 11 months, 12 months of preparation that you do don't feel nearly as good. You know, each Hoop Fest, for example, I walk around, just sit and watch a game. Uh, usually they're adults or a family member, but you know, I could be running around fixing the little, little things, but I think it's just as important to watch the enjoyment of people at your event um and talk to those people and be a part of it. So those three uh were really, really special. Um, and I'm really thankful I crossed paths with them.

Jon: 25:21

So you've been in the captain's chair at one of the largest events that happens in the state, period, for a couple of years now. And with that, as you described, there's some great days and some some good times, but uh inevitably there are some tough days. You just described some fantastic tools, making sure you actually stop to take in that which you are creating and observe the people enjoying it. Kind of to me, that just means it's like a reminder of why we even bother, right? But how do you approach managing the the tough times?

Riley: 25:56

It's a great question. Uh, and something I struggle with pretty much all of April, May, and June. I'm not getting a lot of sleep. Uh you know, my significant other would say that my stress levels are through the roof. But I would say it is a lesson I learned a long time ago. Uh credits my dad, and this is all sports background, is you know, the job's not finished until it's finished. And I'm willing to kind of put my head down and go to work. And and I think when you leave stuff half done or when you leave stuff 80% complete, that that doesn't really help anybody. Uh, you're just gonna sit and think about it until you get done. Now, there's no doubt that you need to put stuff away and you need to close the laptop and go, hey, I I gotta go do something else, especially when there's a huge problem that needs some more thought. But uh, I think at the end of the day, what helps me is putting my head down and going to work. And it sounds simple, but that's kind of what has always worked for me. And then I think the thing that I have gotten tremendously better at in my life, and I was I I couldn't have got worse at it when I was in high school, and it was grades or sports, and then I got a little better as I moved through college sports, and I got a little better when I played in Spain is never get too high and never get too low. Um, and that is the personality I try to have in the office, especially when it gets to May and June, because as the leader, people look to you, and if you're fretting every single thing and if you're freaking out, people are gonna freak out, or if you are keeping everything way too calm and you're just saying, Oh, it'll be all right, people will take that for granted and not know the importance of what needs to be done. And so it's a simple thing. Um, and I try to remind myself just never too high, never too low, and put your head down and work.

Jon: 28:01

You didn't by chance grow up on a farm, did you?

Riley: 28:05

I I wasn't lucky enough to grow up on a farm, but I had great parents. Um, my dad was my coach growing up. Um, and a lot of the lessons I use in the work world are all sports. It's all working with different people from different backgrounds. I was lucky enough to have great coaches in college. I was a captain in college, so you have to be willing to learn about other people, to lead different people, the same people I was always willing to lead how people needed to be led. And I think it's the same way in our office today, is there's some people that need to be stroked and need to be telling how good they're doing, and and that's great, and those people are super valuable. And then there's people you need to get on and perform better with maybe a little more adversity. And part of the fun in leadership, in my opinion, is figuring out people, figuring out how people want to be motivated, how they want to be led, and how they perform their job better. And again, this is all a credit to my dad, my mom. They were great, great teachers, and uh I think I've taken a lot from them.

Jon: 29:17

I ask the farm question because I myself grew up on a farm, and so as I'm listening to you describe work ethic and work philosophy, I hear myself talking, and I've always assumed that's the farm work ethic. There's no day on off. You don't have that option, it's the commitment. You're either in or you're out. I have worked with hundreds of production managers. Of those production managers, there's like maybe 50 or less that stand out as just extraordinarily good at what they do. And of those people that I've been fortunate enough to get to know, to meet, to spend any time with, you would be surprised how many of them it turns out their background is they grew up on a farm or ranch.

Riley: 30:03

It doesn't shock me. Uh, I think it's it's pretty evident in my world, the people that have dealt with adversity, that know how to deal with adversity, and that know how to work. And I think, you know, we talked about mentors a little earlier, and I don't want to keep referencing them, but when you see Beth Knox working until 7, 8 at night and then coming in Saturday morning, and you're under her leadership, the expectation's pretty simple. Is you're coming in and you're working just as hard or um getting things done as just like her. But when your leaders show that work ethic and I hope I'm this way, then it's pretty easy to follow once they set the standard. So much of leadership is modeling. Without a doubt.

Jon: 30:55

What's the basic financial model of Hoopfest? What's your principal source of revenue?

Riley: 31:01

Yeah, if for our events specifically, it's sponsorships and team fees. Um so they make up I don't know, 90% of what we make for Hoop Fest, the Hoop Fest event alone. Now we do a number of different things throughout the year, one being the Youth League, which I mentioned a little bit earlier. Uh, we, you know, we built 35 to 40 community courts around the eastern Washington area, but our moneymaker, our baby is Hoop Fest, and that is all sponsorships and team fees.

Jon: 31:36

Talk, if you will, about working with the city, city support. I don't mean necessarily financially, but just how's the city of Spokane to work with?

Riley: 31:46

City of Spokane is wonderful. They are so good to us. Anytime you're gonna shut down 45 city blocks and the big park, it takes a lot of work, a lot of meetings, um, but a lot of buy-in on their end. And needless to say, Hoopfest doesn't even come close to happening without their buy-in. We work with what feels like every department in City Hall over there, from streets to police, fire, emergency management, waste management, downtown Spokamp partnerships, basically every person um in City Hall, I think we touch at some point. A lot of credit goes to our past executive directors and our past site directors for building those relationships and making sure they were fostered and done the right way because we do so much through them. Uh, we start meetings seven months in advance, everything from what our streets could look like to what construction projects are they working on, where we can put courts, where we can't, and all that. So we are super lucky.

Jon: 32:53

Do the city services, the essential city services, fire, police, medical, does everybody play from a pretty coordinated playbook around here?

Riley: 33:03

Yes. Everybody's on the same page. Uh, we have city meetings with everybody involved, and then we have volunteer meetings where those guys come and meet with our teams as well to make sure everyone's on the same page. They are very, very gracious with their planning, their preparation. We give them our tools, they give us theirs, and it's a really it's a cooperative effort. And again, that there's a lot of things that make Hoop Fest right, and the city is definitely one of them.

Jon: 33:34

Well, that's just the best thing to hear ever. I I love hearing that.

Riley: 33:37

Don't unfortunately don't hear that all that often, but yeah, you know, we are we are super lucky um with them and have always had a great relationship, you know. For the first time, we are starting to get charged now for police services. And again, we couldn't do this event with the time and effort without the police. And so that's been interesting hurdle to deal with and to kind of evolve with. But as for everybody's performance and what people bring to the table, it's unmatched.

Jon: 34:07

So, not to go too far down the rabbit hole. Uh so is the city seeking 100% cost recovery, or where are you at on that?

Riley: 34:16

So, no, at this time they're looking for um 60% of cost recovery for their police costs throughout the event. And for 23, 24, and 25, it's 25 of 60 percent, 50 is 60 in 24, and 100% of 60 in 2025. Got it. So it's um we're still getting helped out, as you could say, but you know, when we look at 2025, we're looking at a bill of 90,000. And for a 501c3, that's a lot, and uh with all of our expenses going up 20, 30 percent, and then tacking on a new one, um, it's a lot, and we're we're still dealing with it, and I still think there's some routes to go to make some changes, and I'm hoping the city sees the value of Hoop Fest. But yeah, we're we're working through it now and hoping for the best in the upcoming year and 25 as well.

Jon: 35:28

I want to ask you about any big challenges that you have faced in the last couple of years. I think of a couple this year.

Riley: 35:38

You know, any event producer will tell you there's challenges every year, small, medium, large. No matter what you do, there's always gonna be stuff. You could plan everything. That's why I ask. To the nth degree. I think our biggest challenge um in my time was we lost a parking lot that we have played in, that we have activated in for 25 years. Um, and it is it's what held our store, it's what held maybe the biggest contest of ours, and it is right smack dab in the middle of our event. It is on Washington and Spokane Falls Boulevard. And for people that don't know Spokane, um, you could not pick a more center parking lot than this one. And so the only good thing about it is we found out in April that the owner for that year wasn't gonna lease it to us and it was just gonna sit empty. So we had some time to figure out some um different areas to put things like our store. And you know, our store is a big deal. Our store, when it was a Nike store in 2018, I believe, was the second highest Nike selling store in the world that weekend. And so it's a huge moneymaker for us, and so to have to just find a different place for it is really challenging. And to find a new place to put our biggest activation or one of our biggest activations with sponsors all over it, we had to find a new place for it. And so again, it's just, and I I said it earlier, it's not getting too high, it's not getting too low, and just figuring out a solution. Um, and I think we found a solution that was 80, 90 as effective as that parking lot would have been. But when you saw that empty parking lot, it was still frustrating. That's called adding insult to injury. Yeah, pouring salt in the wound, that's for sure.

Jon: 37:28

What is an example of a great success story?

Riley: 37:33

I think there's a lot with Hoopfest. I think Hoopfest, um, and again, to no credit of mine, it's all to the past executive directors, it's all um to past board members. Um, but growing it from a 512 team tournament to a 7,000 team spectacle is no doubt a huge accomplishment. I think of a year where I played in front of the ESPN booth that was here that was broadcasting live sports centers here, that was a success. I think the one that if you're a part of the Hoop Fest know, I think bringing Kevin Durant to Hoop Fest, which would have been had to been four or five years ago, is no doubt a success. But it's gonna sound corny. I think the success is when people get their champion t-shirts and they're taking pictures in front of the fountain. And it's the smiles, it's the kids with the snow cones. And again, that's coming from a Spokane kid that was a part of it. You know, my uncle was my coach when I played, and when we won, we got a pizzerita um slice of pizza after the championship game, and that's the success. I think it's the people that make it a success. And uh and again, we talked about this earlier, and I I don't want to go too long on this one, but the fact that we can get 3,000 volunteers out here for nothing more than t-shirt. It's great for Hoop Fest, but it shows you the people of Spokane. Um, and it shows you how willing they are to help one another. And I think being from here um and being a part of Hoop Fest, that might be what makes it so special for me. Those are truth words.

Jon: 39:05

I hear you loud and clear. I want to jump back for a second to something we were talking about earlier, and that is not only Hoop Fest being the biggest event of the year in the area, but not having to compete too heavily with other events. So a couple of questions that come to mind. First of all, do you feel any competition by other three on three tournaments or equivalent from other parts of the country? Is there pressure on your event that way as to where players are gonna go?

Riley: 39:38

I don't think so. I I think we have such a kind of a niche here in the eastern Washington, Pacific Northwest area that I I I don't think it's a huge competition. I think it is interesting that now three on three is in the Olympics, and now there's a lot more different styles of three on three. I think that could be interesting um in a number of Different ways. I think we've added it, uh, Division to Hoot Fest to that level, but I don't really see them as competition and almost as people that are in the same fight as we are.

Jon: 40:12

As festival producers, we tend to get into this mindset that our competition is simply other similar festivals, other similar events. And I've learned that's not true, particularly if you're in an area that has lots of other offerings. The aha moment for me in Seattle was realizing that I shouldn't be worrying so much about the competing music festivals on the same weekend or in the same general area of the calendar. My biggest competition is Seattle Seahawks.

Riley: 40:42

Yeah.

Jon: 40:43

Especially when they're doing good. Yeah. Uh that's the same, it's it's substitute value is the term for that. And I I didn't figure that out until way later than I wish I would have.

Riley: 40:56

It's such a great point. It's something we talk about in the board meetings. You know, every event is fairly separated in Spokane, but that same weekend at the Gorge, there's a huge concert. I think it's Paradiso. And part of the reason why we try to keep it so fresh is to make our events stand out. Um, we also make it a really big point when we decide what team fees are or what prices are going to be for our vendors to come in, that we don't gouge people. I think that's a mistake that some events make. But if we can keep it somewhat affordable for people, and again, when you're flying in and paying the rates for um hotels in this area, we can't control those, but we can control what people pay for our specific part of the event. And um, trying to make it as affordable as possible is so so important. It's really hard, and I think the other thing is you can't worry at at a huge level to what other events are doing. I think you have to, I think you can get lost in hey, maybe they have a great idea, but maybe we couldn't pull off that same idea. I think we always need to be consistently thinking, what can we do better? What how can we make it more enjoyable? How can we make people keep coming back because what Paradiso is doing versus what HoopFest is doing are drastically different. And while we have to be aware of them, we also have to keep the main thing the main thing.

Jon: 42:28

They're drastically different, yet the dollars are coming from exactly the same place in the in the consumer's pocket. One of the questions that I ask people that are in leadership positions in this quirky industry of ours, when was it that you first felt legitimate as a leader, or have you ever? And I say that tongue in cheek because there are plenty of people that are fantastic leaders and have been for eons and suffer imposter syndrome mightily.

Riley: 42:59

I think for me it comes and goes. I think there's times where I make a decision and it works out, or it's the right decision, and people buy in right away, and you go, hey, okay, I I got this, I I feel good about that. That was my creative solution to a hard problem. But then you go to the next problem and it can be the completely wrong decision. And you run it by a couple people and you go, they're going, ah, I'm not so sure about this. And and I think I've always had it a little bit in every walk of life, whether it was playing in school, in this world. I've always kind of had the I don't know every answer, so I don't know if I should be here. But I try to rely on one, my trusted people, my trusted confidants outside of who I work with to go, hey, am I on the right way here? They're both mentors, family, business people that will check me if I need to be checked, but also having the confidence that you're in the position for a reason. And I try to tell when I'm really battling it, and there's times at both who fesses when I was both who fesses that I've been in this position that I battled it, and I try to rely on you were put in this position for a reason. And you're gonna make mistakes and you're gonna get things wrong, but you were put in it for a reason.

Jon: 44:22

So when you make the leap from management to leadership, one of the hallmarks to me of what changes is that you go from managing and dealing with what is now or in the very near future to speculating about what's coming around the corner tomorrow. And of course, we can never really know. And I believe I can't back this up, but my gut tells me, I think our industry is prone to more fluidity than many other industries. Anything can just change on you out of nowhere, sideswiped, didn't see that coming. You lose your major parking lot a couple of months before the event is a great example. There's this fluidity that I don't know that anybody enjoys, but a lot of people don't want to deal with that. Most people, I think, are wise and spend their lives trying to find stability and avoid fluidity. But our industry is probably 60 or 70 percent fluid on any given day, on every on every day. And there are some of us that maybe we have some sort of a defect in our head or whatever, but we tend to be kind of drawn to that fluidity. I know for me, I I like I like puzzles. And I mean, like in the literal sense, I love putting together puzzles, always have, since I was a kid. And I find in the events industry, every day you're faced with some kind of a puzzle. Overall, I enjoy it.

Riley: 46:06

I I would say that might be my favorite part of the job is this the problem solving of it. My family would tell you I'm a little high strung, uh, very stressed individual, but in those times, it's almost like you feel at peace. And it's crazy to say that, but I think there's no other option but to figure out the problem. So there's no going away from it, there's no hiding from it. You're there, the problem's there, and all you have to do is solve it. And I just really enjoy those times where it's the staff and I trying to figure out a problem. Yeah. Um, I don't enjoy the problem, but I enjoy the creative solutions that come with it. Um, you you talk about the parking lot that we lost. You know, for the first time we moved the R Who Fest store indoors to a department store, an empty department store that was in downtown. Now there were some issues with it, but it gives us a whole new option going into this year. Do we want to have it back in a parking lot? Do we want to move it back to a store? And there's pros and cons to each. And so um again, I don't like the problems. I never like the problems, but the the fun aspect of events are figuring out those problems. I'll mention him one more time. There's no better person than Eric Corning at this. I I watched him at the USA Games solve things and be able to think critically in milliseconds. And uh to this day, I'll never forget some of those problems that we were able to solve, and then you feel like a million bucks when you make it work for all parties. And so uh I I I'm in total agreement. We're almost it's like a moth to a flame sometimes with that stuff.

Jon: 47:50

You just made me remember a distant, distant memory, but I think the first time that I ever saw a master problem solver at work in our industry, it was it was John Vedino. I don't know if you know John Vedino. It was John Vedino, just like you say, just like a wizard, just somehow solving all of the day's problems.

Riley: 48:12

And being able to keep everybody happy. Uh, you know, in a lot of those problems, you're dealing with what's allowed with the city and fire versus what sponsors were promised. And that's a really tough battle for people. To be able to creatively solve problems while keeping everybody happy is an art form.

Jon: 48:36

Uh just a brief uh inquiry about public safety. What's public safety look like for Hoop Fest? How's the environment downtown these days?

Riley: 48:44

It is our primary concern. You know, we do a lot to prevent anything catastrophic from happening. I would say most go without notice of the naked eye. The amount of stuff that we do and the amount of work we put in behind the scenes, and that's a credit to hard work of our team and some of our volunteers that have been with us for 33 years that have backgrounds and the type of stuff you need to know for safety and security, plus what the police and federal government are working with us in. We go above and beyond. And as anybody that's been in events that does it, you can put in the most preparation. And if something bad wants to happen, uh there's a likelihood that it will. But we take every precaution that if something bad happens, it's mitigated quickly, and we take every step to make sure it's done in the right fashion. Is Hoop Fest televised? Our center court is, so where our elite players play, and that's in Riverfront Park. So they do wall-to-wall coverage at center court, but then there's also news everywhere. Is it televised live? Yeah. Yes, live TV. And does it go out? Where does it go out to? So it's the local NBC affiliate that puts it out on their sports channel from eight to four every day, and then all their morning, evening, and late night shows are from Hoop Fest.

Jon: 50:14

So you're working, yeah. So you're working with more than just your local law enforcement. You've got the the full spectrum.

Riley: 50:20

Yeah, without getting into too many details, our uh our people go above and beyond uh what any event, any other event would do, in my opinion. And you know, we try to tell people because there's the concern, and now that it's more prevalent throughout the news and everything that people watch, is that we take a lot of care into our plans and preparations for that sort of thing.

Jon: 50:45

Fantastic. What is your favorite sound? Swish of a net, crack of a bat, one of those two. What is your secret festival superpower? Commonist storm. You walk into the ice cream store, you're gonna get a cone with two scoops. What are your two flavors?

Riley: 51:07

Cookies and cream, and then there's a new gelato shop in town that has this crema venetia that is one of the best ice cream. What's that? It's uh it's like a raspberry drizzle on ice cream. This guy's from Venice. Uh, me and uh my girlfriend go there about every week, and I I don't think I've strayed away since I found it. So cookies and creams and no-doubter, and then the cream of anisha has caught my eye lately. And which scoop goes on top? I think you gotta do the light scoop. So cream of anisha has to go on top, and then the cookies and cream to end it would be where I would land.

Jon: 51:49

Who is your favorite ancestor?

Riley: 51:52

That's my grandpa Jack. You know, outside of my immediate family and my parents, best two parents in the world, but my grandpa Jack is a legend uh in Spokane. Uh, he owned a famous bar in town for 40 years, Jack and Dans. People from all over know about Jack and Dans. And that man was able to do more um moving one block in his life than about anybody else. And uh he is an absolute legend in Spokane, and I know he would be proud of where I am today.

Jon: 52:26

Riley, thank you so much for your time today. It's been a great conversation, and I look forward to more in the future. I really appreciate you having me, and uh, I'm looking forward to it.

Riley: 52:42

This is an all call, one hour to doors.