Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Kelly Walker: Welcome to Hustle and Pro. I'm your host, Kelly Walker. On this episode, we are here at Comerica center talking with the Texas Legends team president, Malcolm Farmer. The Legends just won NBA G League franchise of the year, so we're here to congratulate them and sit down with Malcolm. It's been a while. We've had him on the podcast before, but it's been a few years. So we get to sit down with Malcolm, hear what the team's been up to, how they're able to achieve this awesome award, and be a great part of this community. So enjoy this episode with the Texas Legends.
Malcolm Farmer, thanks for joining us again on Hustle and Pro.
[00:00:39] Malcolm Farmer: Thanks, Kelly. Happy to be here.
[00:00:40] Kelly Walker: It's been a while. I think our last conversation on this podcast has been, I don't know, four or five years.
[00:00:46] Malcolm Farmer: It's been a little bit, but that's okay. You've continued to grow and develop and you guys are rocking and rolling.
[00:00:52] Kelly Walker: Still having fun talking about you guys. You know, I've had some players on, but I saw this nice announcement come across my desk, so I wanted to talk to you about it. So congrats to the Texas Legends for the franchise of the year for the 2024, 25 season of the NBA G League.
[00:01:06] Malcolm Farmer: Thank you very much.
Obviously, we're proud and honored to receive the award, but it's a, it's an award that reflects upon certainly all of our staff, all of our game day staff, all of our partners, our fans, and it extends out to, you know, certainly our parent club and the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Stars, who we share the building here with. And you know, the city of Frisco has been a fantastic partner for many years as well.
[00:01:35] Kelly Walker: It definitely takes everybody, right? So you have some new benchmarks and some different categories like average tickets sold per game. So you guys are topping, either topping or at the top of all these lists, average full season ticket plans, group ticket sales, and then selling out all 24 home games. This. Right.
[00:01:54] Malcolm: It's been a lot of fun and leading those categories. Those numbers tells a small part of the story, but I think that the more important story is the way that the community's gotten behind the Legends. The way the Legends gotten behind the community.
And we strive to put forth a product. You know, a lot of those things you're talking about are game centric and we strive to put forth a product that is going to be entertaining and fun for the whole family, regardless of your level of interest in basketball.
But we want to have things for all members of the family unit to do at our games.
[00:02:36] Kelly Walker: First of all, you've won this award before. You won it in 2019.
Okay, so. So thinking back to then and now, how do you balance consistency of delivering a really exciting game to experience with all the things you just mentioned for all the different audiences you mentioned, but also adding in new. New things all the time? And how do you keep fresh?
[00:02:59] Malcolm: It's a great question.
You know, I think that staff pushes very hard to keep things fresh. We literally just came from a lunch where we were talking about a. A season ticket member event that we do every year. And, you know, our fans, the feedback we get from surveys and whatnot at this event is that they love it, but we're a little bit, like, not tired of. It isn't the right word, but, like, we want to freshen it up. And so we strive to keep things fresh for us as the legend staff. And if it's fresh for us, then it will assuredly be fresh for the fans.
[00:03:34] Kelly Walker: Yeah, that makes sense.
[00:03:35] Malcolm: And then also, we aren't scared to fail. We aren't scared to try something and have it fall on its face, because there's been a lot of times where things are. Might fail, but a lot of other times those. Those similar ideas might become very successful, very fun, very engaging, and you know, pretty quickly when something's good or bad. But we're not afraid to try it.
[00:03:59] Kelly Walker: You don't know until you throw it out.
[00:04:00] Malcolm: That's certainly the case. And. And I think that all too often teams, individuals like we're. We're afraid to put ourselves out there.
And with the Legends, we strive to have a culture where we're not afraid to go try something that's a little bit off or a little bit wacky or a little bit different, because a lot of times that stuff's really worked out well.
[00:04:22] Kelly Walker: One example of that might be what I think when y' all won this award, one of the things on the cover photo was you and ice color. Right? So the ice and flying car and official review, those are some of the. Some of the.
The ideas. Right, so tell me about some of those.
[00:04:39] Malcolm: Yeah, these. Those are all things that were either new this season or something that we brought back from years past for the first time in a few years. And, you know, like, the. The ice bucket challenge was literally just how long can we sit in a bucket of ice? And the longer we sit in there, the more prizes or awards our fans get.
And it was. It's not hard to execute. It might be Painful. But it's not hard to execute. Right. There's ice, there's big garbage can. We can clean it out. Here we go. Let's do this thing.
But you've got to have a mentality of getting out there and being willing to try something and putting yourself in that position. You know, the flying car is something we did for years. We went away from it around 2020, and it came back this year and got huge positive reviews from folks and the folks at Kia, customers of Kia, random fans who were like, okay, when the car comes down after the game, can I get a closer look at the Telluride? Like, those are all great signs that something is working. And we've already got ideas for next season of, like, hey, how we can tweak some of those things to make them different and even better.
[00:05:54] Kelly Walker: Always something new to tweak.
[00:05:56] Malcolm: Yeah, we're just not afraid to get out there and try new things.
[00:05:58] Kelly Walker: Yeah. Speaking of changes, so there's also been some notable changes just in the. In the arena. Right. So here at Comerica center, like, the seating and what we see with the video boards and things.
[00:06:12] Malcolm: No doubt. And that's where winning an award like this is not an individual effort.
It's not just the staff.
It is everybody involved.
And I mean that from fans and partners.
And before the award was announced, we notified the city of Frisco and the Dallas Stars, because, like, that partnership in this building is a big part of that success.
The city has invested in their sports teams, no question, but they've invested in keeping some of these facilities, you know, top of the line, so that we can continue to serve and entertain our customers, both Frisco residents and those outside of Frisco. And, you know, the city helped us, the Dallas Stars, we all worked together over the past couple of years, and it came to fruition this past off season with new seats, new video boards, new sound is going in as we speak in the arena. You know, some. Some new design features, a new court. So these types of things keep things fresh for the fan base as well, from a comfort and some of the amenities.
[00:07:27] Kelly Walker: Okay, so that's what's happening inside. What about for the fans who aren't here in the building? There's some new media kind of upgrades and announcements coming. Coming along, too, Right?
[00:07:35] Malcolm: Yeah. No question. In this day and age, we want to provide that entertainment, certainly to our fans in the building. We want to be giving back to our community 365 days a year.
But we also have really leaned into the TV broadcast Streaming world.
Our partners at Urban Edge Network have been fantastic the past number of years in terms of getting our games out there. Huge audience reviews, which has been fantastic. Has opened up our product to a new audience, which is awesome. And then this past season, we also partnered with Tegna KFAA, the sister station of WFAA, and showcased, I think, almost 30 games on there, which again, is a fantastic linear partner, showcasing our games both home and away throughout the Metroplex. It's pretty cool when you walk into a restaurant or a sports bar and you know they're showing the Legends game.
[00:08:29] Kelly Walker: It is.
[00:08:31] Malcolm: And that's. That's work that is being done many months and in some cases years in advance to build to that point.
And so that's been a really fun project to watch that grow. And we have certainly plans to continue to grow it with some. Some new partners coming up.
[00:08:49] Kelly Walker: Awesome. That's exciting. I love it because with the setup of this league and the nature of players coming in and out. Right. Like, I think people would want to follow the team well after they can be in Frisco. Right. So I think it's cool too that people can see you guys in action from everywhere, for sure.
[00:09:08] Malcolm: You know, and the league covers the entire United states. Right. There's 30 teams across the entire country. And so, you know, it's giving Frisco exposure across the entire country in media markets like la, from LA to New York and everywhere in between.
[00:09:24] Kelly Walker: So I've been around the Legends for a few years and one of the things I've loved is, like you said it earlier, the community aspect. So I think, I don't know, you guys work might work more on the off the court, off season stuff your team. Right. Than in season, I feel, because of all the community activities you guys have.
So is it right that you guys had 150 events over the last year, like 70 of those being clinics, basketball?
[00:09:50] Malcolm: Yeah, I think that's probably light. I know that's what we put out there, but yeah, we do a ton. And it's all part of our mentality that a sports team shouldn't just be the home games or the games in general. A sports team should be an opportunity, a platform to do far bigger things out in the world, out in our local community.
And look, that 150 assuredly doesn't include any of our B2B events or networking events. At the end of the day, it probably pushes close to, if not past 200. And when you think about that, if we're pushing 200 events out of a 365 day year. Like that's a lot.
[00:10:31] Kelly Walker: Right.
[00:10:32] Malcolm: And we love it. We think that that's what we should be doing all the time.
We don't have a season as far as how we see things. Right. There is a season of games, but we don't have a legends season. We just keep going year round. And you know, that stems from, you know, a thought process that our partners, our fans, if I was in their shoes, and maybe in some ways I am, but if I was in their shoes, I would want to be partnered with someone who had activations in entertainment 365 days a year.
[00:11:11] Malcolm: And so we've tried to build a model that mirrors that.
[00:11:14] Kelly Walker: Yeah, it has to be more than this number. When you consider you have breakfast events, you have happy hour events, you have little spurs of other groups. So it's, it's non stop. But then plus all the kids events and things. And then not even to mention your food banks and the, and the donations, you guys, as a staff and as a team. But then you ask the community to provide donations and this says more than 38,000 meals provided for families.
[00:11:42] Malcolm: Yeah, it's, it's been a lot of fun.
[00:11:47] Malcolm: And that's again, that's where a sports team has a chance to give back to the community at large.
And we, I say this to our staff, I say this to our players. Even if all the legends were was throwing an orange ball through an orange ring, it's a pretty shallow existence. And we want to be much more than that.
And the players, even as people, they want to be much more than that. And so these opportunities in the community to fundraise, to give back, to find ways to engage in positive ways, that's a well rounded experience for a person.
And I strongly believe that's a well rounded experience for a franchise as well. And that's certainly what we want to be.
[00:12:38] Kelly Walker: Not to mention all the nonprofits that you spotlight just by putting, you know, putting their name on a jersey for a home game and then you name the home game around awareness for that. What are some of the. I mean, I think you have long standing nonprofits that you work with, but what are some of the most sought after nonprofit nights that you guys.
[00:12:57] Malcolm: Oh, certainly Military Appreciation night's always a big one, right? Salvation army is always a big one.
Frisco ISD has been a great, long standing partner. Boys and Girls Club has been a great, long standing partner.
You know, pediatric cancer, we've had a few different charities that fall within that. That area. But that's always a very emotional night.
You know, a lot of teams in our league, a lot of teams in sports, will do a handful of nights a year where they're given back to a charity or a nonprofit cause like this.
And I think that them doing a Campbell of nights a year is fantastic.
However, I always ask myself, if it's meaningful enough to do a few times, why wouldn't it be meaningful enough to do every time?
And literally, I had one team that questioned us about it because, like, well, it hurts your replica jersey sales or your brand recognition.
And I just don't think that that's what the calling of sports is.
I think that the calling should be far bigger than that. I think that seeing the look on kids and their families who are fighting cancer, the look on their faces when they see jerseys that honor them, is far more important than an infinite number of replica jersey sales.
[00:14:26] Malcolm: And I just keep coming back to the only reason not to do every game is the workload.
And that's something that as a. As a staff, the culture within our staff, we try very hard to never have the mentality of we don't want to do something because it's too much work.
Well, that's what we're here to do, and we will do the work.
And we will honor many different causes in that process.
There's been countless teams that have come to us and said, how do you do that? Not why, because I think they understand.
[00:15:00] Kelly Walker: The why, but it's the how.
[00:15:02] Malcolm: But, like, how do you process that so many times?
And it's work, but it's meaningful work. It's work that impacts and changes lives. And I mean this in the best of ways.
Whether we score two more points than the other team or not might change the lives of a player who made the game winning shot, but it in all likelihood doesn't impact the lives of our fans, of our community and the nonprofits that we support. But all these other things can impact infinitely more people.
[00:15:39] Kelly Walker: Absolutely. That's great. Well said.
Your HBCU game, that is that preseason or we do.
[00:15:46] Malcolm: We do two different versions there. We do a preseason game at Paul Quinn College, which has been fantastic.
[00:15:52] Kelly Walker: Is that a repeat now? That's kind of.
[00:15:53] Malcolm: This will be the third year coming up. We've done it twice, and it's historic to a certain degree, as we're the only team under the NBA umbrella to ever play the game at an hbcu.
[00:16:05] Kelly Walker: Only.
[00:16:05] Malcolm: The only.
[00:16:06] Kelly Walker: Even after doing it, the only?
[00:16:10] Malcolm: And various factions of the NBA have come to us and said we want to see more teams do this, how can we encourage it? And we've explained why we do it, how we do it, but it's pretty cool.
And then we also do an HBCU night during the season where we honor a whole bunch of different universities and colleges and speakers and we'll even do a pre game mentoring session with students or some of our partners get to engage with those, those college kids and provide some words of wisdom as to how they can get into various careers. And even, you know, the kids have gotten some internships through that process.
[00:16:45] Kelly Walker: That's great. So, so speaking of internships, your, your community networking, right. Your businesses and your partners in the community that they really kind of buy into the family aspect here. And sure, it's like season tickets, right. They're going to come to the games, but they're here year round doing, hearing you speak, hearing you bring people in to speak on a weekly monthly basis.
What are some of the success stories that you guys value from those?
[00:17:14] Malcolm: The success stories? There can be many different ways.
We've had people come who are looking for opportunities with work. Right?
[00:17:24] Kelly Walker: Right.
[00:17:24] Malcolm: Season ticket members who are in between opportunities and for them to find that next job for any listeners who've been without a job, that's a massive lift. Right. The massive load off when you find that opportunity. There's also many different companies who find other business partners at those events that they build relationships with and end up doing lots of business together. And those are huge wins.
But there's also opportunities that just come from building a relationship which as I tell folks, the biggest business opportunities aren't done over one cup of coffee.
They're done in relationships over many, many months and many years in a lot of cases. But when that moment comes, it's because there's a comfort level. You can pick up the phone, you can call that person and they answer the phone and you can get right to the opportunity.
[00:18:24] Kelly Walker: You've already done the time investing and building the relationship. You know them, they know you. You're not only asking for a favor.
[00:18:31] Malcolm: There's been lots of examples of all of those different areas of successes at these events. A lot of folks have asked us, why do you do these events?
And it's really, it was a service that some of our legends partners asked for.
They wanted to be have an opportunity to share Rolodexes, so to speak. And I was like, well, instead of us just giving you this business card of this other person, why don't we host events to put everyone in the same room. These are folks who want to make a difference in the community. These are folks who want to give back. These are folks who in large part own businesses. So they have a lot of different commonalities.
They can be from different backgrounds, different parts of the country, different races, different everything, but they have a lot of commonalities as well. So we put these people in the same room and magic happens.
[00:19:21] Kelly Walker: It's great. I'm a season ticket member of a couple different teams in this city and nobody does it like you guys.
[00:19:27] Malcolm: Oh, thank you.
[00:19:27] Kelly Walker: Nobody does.
[00:19:28] Malcolm: Thank you.
[00:19:28] Kelly Walker: I mentioned, you know, picture of you in the ice at the beginning talking about the award. I love that there's like a collage and that there's Byron on the mic and kids, a boy and a girl cheering because there's a lot for, for both boys and girls to come here and watch. Both of my boy and my girl grew up here. And, you know, while one was watching the dancers, most of the time, you know, Jack has been playing basketball and even was a team attendant for you guys already. And it really is a family and a community.
Just, it's way more than a team.
[00:20:01] Malcolm: That's the way we want it to be.
[00:20:02] Kelly Walker: Just for people that haven't been here before, like, you know, give your, your, your last spiel as we wrap up here. You haven't been to a Texas Legends game.
What do you expect? Why do you show up here?
[00:20:12] Malcolm: Why do you show up? I'll just tell you that from my own experience, the family unit, getting everyone together to do something is hard, especially as kids get a little bit older and they have a wide variety of interests. You mentioned your son and your daughter. I can certainly relate. To be able to have something that your entire family unit can go to and share in the experience and have everyone have a good time. But the reason they had a good time might be different for all 3, 4, 5, 6 members of the family, however many there may be. They may have all different reasons why they had a good time. But at the end of the night, to me, the highlight for that family unit is after the game, they're getting back together as a group, they're getting into the car together and they're sharing their stories of their experience.
And to be able to see, you know, all members of that family unit have smiles on their faces and have different stories to tell, but they did it together.
[00:21:19] Malcolm: And that's at the end of the day, that's so much more meaningful than anything else.
[00:21:25] Kelly Walker: That's great. Well, I know you're busy. We just talked about all the things you all are doing. It's July off season, but you don't really get that.
[00:21:32] Malcolm: Oh, we got an event tomorrow morning. We're excited.
[00:21:34] Kelly Walker: I know. I saw the email, I think, before I walked over here. But thanks for sitting down.
[00:21:38] Malcolm: Anytime.
[00:21:39] Kelly Walker: Your team is always working hard, so appreciate your time and congrats on the Franchise of the Year award.
[00:21:45] Malcolm: Kelly, thank you so much. And let us know what we can do for you.
[00:21:49] Kelly Walker: Thanks for joining us for this episode of Hustle and Pro. Subscribe on YouTube and check us out on Instagram and we'll see you next episode.
