‘Sports czar’ is helping San Jose take advantage of the Super Bowl, March Madness and World Cup coming to Silicon Valley in 2026

After Santa Clara County hosted the Super Bowl in 2016, San Jose elected officials couldnt help but feel Silicon Valley had left points on the board.For what was supposed to be a momentous occasion for the South Bay with media day and the big game bookending Super Bowl week, San Francisco saw the lions share of the economic activity.Related ArticlesWould a home Super Bowl benefit 49ers chances? History suggests yesSan Jose focusing on resident, fan experiences with Super Bowl, March Madness and World Cup approachingSanta Clara says Super Bowl LX will cost $6.3 millionWhy Taylor Swift doing Super Bowl LX at Levis Stadium seems plausibleDespite the missed opportunities in 2016, San Jose and Santa Clara County have an even greater opportunity to see an influx of cash in 2026 with three major sporting events Super Bowl LX, NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament and FIFA World Cup coming to the region and bringing potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in spending.With Santa Claras Levis Stadium being the first venue to host both a Super Bowl and FIFA World Cup match in the same calendar year, San Jose public officials looked to fix the mistakes of the past and make a more concerted effort to plan for the marquee events by hiring a temporary sports czar to capitalize on the short-term economic boon and opportunity to showcase the city for future growth.Tommy OHare, who skated on the U.S.

short-track relay speed-skating team in the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics and most recently served as the general manager of ClipperVision, the direct-to-consumer streaming platform for the L.A.

Clippers, joined the city earlier this year and sat down for an interview with Bay Area News Group to discuss his role.Q: How would you describe your position?A: My position really came about from a feeling related to the Super Bowl in 2016 and just making sure that theres significant activity in the South Bay for people of all ages and all backgrounds, so they could really have a Super Bowl experience, a March Madness experience and a World Cup experience, even in situations where they cant pay for a ticket.

Thats really what were focused on and how can we provide a great sports experience for all these people.

Thats our guiding North Star for everything that we do, as well as using it as a platform to really elevate San Jose in the future beyond 2026.Q: What would you say are the most significant challenges with planning around these marquee events?A: Theres not a ton of time and these big sports events involve a lot of planning that goes into it.

There are obviously funding issues that arise and so leveraging the corporate community and raising funds from the corporate community is another constraint that we have.

There are also questions like how can we provide an experience without being a rights holder, so theres not a feeling like weve ambushed the sports providers who are out there.Q: Many city officials and South Bay residents groan at the frequent cutaway shot of the Golden Gate Bridge when there is a televised event at Levis Stadium.

What is San Jose doing to become more visible and emerge out of the shadow of San Francisco?A: Putting on the big events downtown, really feeling like were throwing the party in downtown San Jose and for the World Cup a bit more throughout San Jose.

There are a lot of things that I think are going to come out soon about the spectacle-type things that were trying to do to feature San Jose.

I think were really trying to find a good blend of combining sports, technology and the culture of San Jose and creating some features to get the national media to write about San Jose, get the national broadcasters to feature San Jose and also feature some beauty shots.Q: With San Jose competing with San Francisco for business around these events, how would you define success?A: We have big goals that we really want to reach in terms of the amount of foot traffic that comes into the city.

We have goals around the number of hotel nights that are booked.

We have goals around flight capacity and things like that and we think that those are a good measure of success for what weve done.

We also really want to make sure theres some stuff that is a little harder to quantify, like how do we make sure San Jose feels like its an easy place for these sports properties to do business with.

Then we have goals around like what have we done that we feel really propels San Jose forward.

That could be things like new art installations, new soccer fields, new soccer programs, creating positive sentiment about the sports events, so that the community feels good about this and they want us to bring these back.Q: The NFL season has kicked off, meaning that the Super Bowl is less than six months away.

Where do the planning efforts stand around the marquee events and how prepared do you feel?A: When I started in this position, which was just at the very end of January, we worked really hard quickly to put together what is our strategy that we want to have for Super Bowl, March Madness and the World Cup.

Theres some objective criteria that goes across all those events because we dont want to have to recreate the wheel for every single one.

Between the mayors office and the city managers office and our external constituents, we all got on the same page with what the strategy was ...

weve really been in the execution phase of our strategy since March and that involves contracting with the vendors, making sure that we have spaces reserved, working on the permits, working on the fundraising that goes along with all this and really pushing ourselves early on to come up with some announcements that will come out soon about what were going to do around Super Bowl.

Time and more money would always be helpful, but given you know how much time weve had since I started, I think were in a good position.Q: At the time of your hire, city officials mentioned that 2026 presented an opportunity to showcase the city for future tourism and growth.

Can you speak to the citys efforts in creating a favorable experience and from your time here thus far, what do you think are San Joses biggest assets in terms of selling itself as a destination for other future events?A: Ive been really impressed with San Jose since Ive been working for the city.

I think we have great infrastructure.

I think what really plays the best and to its advantage is the location: the city is close to the airport, its super easy to fly into San Jose and its super easy to get from the airport to the hotels.

We have a great restaurant and food scene in San Jose, theres the distance that we are to Levis, as well as the ease that you have in taking public transportation to San Francisco.

...

we are also the capital of Silicon Valley.

We have access to all this great technology, and sports and technology really go hand-in-hand.

Almost every technology company that gets started quickly wants to get into sports because it pushes the envelope for what their technology can do.

So we have a lot of access to great companies and their knowledge for technology to help us put on a great show in the city of San Jose and a great corporate community to work with, both for fundraising and as well as the knowledge base to help us put on the events.Tommy OHare ProfilePosition: Sports and Special Events DirectorAge: 48Birthplace: St.

LouisResidence: SausalitoEducation: B.S.

in corporate finance, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, Juris Doctorate, Saint Louis University5 things to knowEnjoys all sports and would have loved to be a baseball player, but said he didnt have the talentMoved away from home at 15 to pursue skatingMarried since 2001 and has three children: a 15-year-old daughter and two sons, 11 and 7.

His youngest son has a genetic condition called CHARGE syndrome.Despite being an Olympian speed skater, he has not pushed his kids into it he thinks its important for them to find an activity outside of school that they are passionate about and can focus onLived and worked in Spain for three years.

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