Welcome to the first installment of my bi-monthly column where I will interview a local Long Beach sports professional. That lucky individual will be barraged with wide-ranging questions about life in Long Beach, working in sports and a number of other rather personal and awkward requests. The individual who I am bestowing this honor upon first is a close friend and comrade and I’m proud to call him the only guy I know from Philly.
Jason Delp is a Long Beach resident, ok, technically he lives in Signal Hill but it’s practically the same thing. Delp has been an employee of AEG at the Home Depot Center in Carson for the past two years and he works in the premium seating department. His responsibilities include suite and premium seating sales and servicing, along with occasionally hooking his friends up with tickets (Don’t worry Jas’, it’s our secret). So if you like the NBA, MLS, MLL, WNBA or any other acronym give him a buzz and I’m sure he can take care of your seating needs.
Evan: Let me first start by asking you, as a person born and raised in Philadelphia, what are the differences you notice between a Philly sports fan, and one from Long Beach?
Delp: Well, no offense, but there are real sports fans in Philadelphia. I think Philly fans get a bad rap. I mean who else throws snow balls and Santa Claus during a game, or boos Donovan McNabb when he got drafted and chases every good player we’ve ever had out of town. You really have to love your sports teams to treat them that way. If you go your whole lifetime without seeing a championship in any sport then you’re bound to have a little bit of hostility built up inside. I’m 25 and in my entire life the city of Philadelphia has won one championship (1983 Philadelphia 76ers). There are only two things that Philadelphia fans want and that is to have a winning team and a gutsy bunch of players who work hard and give it their all.
Evan: So Allen Iverson must be a favorite of yours, I mean, talk about a guy that gave 110% in practice every day.
Delp: Yes, of course. I mean we love our athletes that show up late for playoff games and blame in on traffic, even though they were spotted at an Applebee’s just an hour and a half before that. Things like that really inspires a lot of hope for us Philly fans and we respect and love those types of athletes.
Evan: Have you ever had Applebee’s Bacon & Cheese Sliders? They’re to die for!
Delp: Can’t say I have. I’ll take your word for it.
Evan: So, why don’t you tell all 9 of the readers out there, what brought you to Long Beach from Philly.
Delp: That would be the Long Beach Armada of the Golden Baseball League. They are the independent, minor league baseball team that plays at Blair Field. They offered me a job to work in their sales department and I flew out from Pennsylvania with little more than a duffel bag to being work.
Evan: Surely you had some type of sports experience prior to being brought on with the Armada. Could you elaborate a little on that a bit?
Delp: Yeah, I was a communications intern for the Philadelphia 76ers and I worked with the media doing written translation of the pre and post-game press conferences. I got the opportunity to be around a lot of Allen Iverson press conferences and that was really challenging. Overall we could only use about 50% of the quotes that Iverson gave and we were on tight deadlines to get that information to the media. As a 21-year-old kid, it was difficult trying to transcribe some of the quotes in a short period of time. In fact, I remember Stephen A. Smith yelling at me one time, “BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH!” asking for a quote sheet
Evan: Stephen A. Smith raising his voice? Really?
Delp: Yeah, tough to imagine him doing that huh? Something that people might not know about Stephen A. Smith is how tall he is. He’s a lot taller than you’d think. I mean, I’m a big guy. I’m 6’2 and he had at least 2 inches on me. When I saw him on TV I thought he’d be this little guy with a Napoleon complex, so I was surprised the first time I met him.
Evan: Ok. A game of one-on-one to 11, win by 2, with you pitted against Stephen A. Who wins?
Delp: Wow. I think he takes me. I mean the guy talks about basketball non-stop, so you gotta think that he’s got a little bit of game. I’m going to say he beats me, but that I force overtime. Final score 12-9.
Evan: So tell me, in one word, what does Rocky Balboa mean to you?
Delp: Everything. The man is a legend in Philadelphia. I was fortunate enough to see the man, the myth, the legend at the Vazquez vs. Marquez fight last weekend at the Home Depot Center and I got weak in the knees. Very few people in Philadelphia can tell you about what is inside the Art Museum there, but I guarantee everyone knows about the Rocky statue outside. We really love and immortalize a fictional character. He’s held in as higher-esteem than any real professional athlete that we have ever had.
Evan: Ok, so was working in the most minor of minor league baseball for the Armada a dream of yours, or was it simply a matter of opportunity?
Delp: Um. Well it got me out of working at a pizza place in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Enough said, I guess.
Evan: I hear it’s beautiful out there.
Delp: (laughter) Yeah, I got the job with the Armada in February, and I thought a pizza place in snowy Pennsylvania, or sunshine and baseball in Southern California. In the end, it wasn’t a difficult decision for me.
Evan: You were with the Armada for the inaugural season and part of season two. What did you take away from your experience with the Armada that you would want a budding sport professional to know?
Delp: I think that everyone should have to work in minor league sports before they get a job working at a higher level. If you want to know what stress is and experience all the challenges of working in sports than the minor leagues provide the best opportunity. Because staffing is so short, each employee winds up covering so many different roles for the organization. For example, one day I’m hitting the phones trying to sell out a July 4th game and then later that afternoon I’m in a mascot costume dancing in a Vons parking lot. Then the next day after you’ve worked all day making sure the event is a sell-out, you’re walking through the stadium picking up the trash left over from the patrons. It was really a humbling experience and it definitely helped prepare me for my current position. Not the picking up trash part, but the challenges of having so many unique responsibilities.
Evan: Aside from perfecting your mascot dance routine, what were some of the highlights you experienced with the Armada?
Delp: Well having a number of sellouts, and setting the attendance record at Blair Field was a really big accomplishment. To go from having a team that no one had ever heard of, to a capacity crowd was really cool. We were able to do something in our first season that had never been accomplished in years of Dirtbag baseball, so I was proud to take that away with me. Also, people still remember me as Bingo Boy which was, not necessarily a highlight, but it was definitely memorable.
Evan: Ok, so now you’re with AEG and you work at the Home Depot Center. Now I have to ask, have you made any appearances as Bingo Boy at the Home Depot Center? Or does the HDC already have their own clown-like shenanigans going on in the crowd?
Delp: I can’t compete with some of the hawkers we got in the stands at the Home Depot Center. I wish I could remember the name of one of our candy salesmen. He has this whole routine and he would definitely put Bingo Boy to shame.
Evan: Two of the tenants at the Home Depot Center are Major League Soccer teams; you got the Los Angeles Galaxy and Chivas. With that being said, just how hot exactly is David Beckham?
Delp: I swooned (laughs). I won’t lie; he’s a good looking dude. He’s definitely brought in more of a female audience to the games and he certainly has helped me sell tickets. It’s a nice incentive when I can tell my clients that they can sit close enough to him that they’ll be able to smell his cologne.
Evan: Do you feel that “Becks’” first full season in the MLS is going to help grab more attention for the league, or did we all get it out of our system at the tail end of last season?
Delp: I think that there is still a want and a need for people to see David Beckham perform. He came to the MLS last year after not having much time off. He had an injured ankle and he really didn’t play up to his full capability. As an athlete, I’m sure he needed some time to rest and recover, but he was tough out there and he played despite the injury. From everything that I’ve seen so far in the pre-season he looks phenomenal. In his last game in Hawaii against Sydney FC he had two assists. He set up his teammates perfectly to the point where all they had to do was put there foot out and it was an easy goal. I don’t think the U.S. is going to convert to a soccer nation because of him, but he definitely brings a level of excitement to the field that the MLS hasn’t had before.
Evan: What about Chivas? Is a rivalry starting to build at the HDC between the two teams? Kinda like the Lakers and Clippers?
Delp: Yeah, a lot of people don’t realize that Chivas had a really strong squad last year. They finished with a better record than the Galaxy. They actually had the best record in the Western Conference, but had an early round exit from the playoffs. They have a great young team and a lot of their young guys are getting attention overseas, but have decided to come back and compete for Chivas and it’s going to be a great year for that franchise.
Evan: Your prediction, who finishes with the better record this year? Chivas or the Galaxy?
Delp: Just seeing what the Galaxy has been able to do against stiff international competition, I would have to lean towards them. They have played some really good pre-season competition and I think they are set for a big year too.
Evan: Great. Finally is there any senseless self-promotion that you want to share with the readers?
Delp: Well, I would love to expose more people to the Home Depot Center. We offer so much more than just soccer. Whether it’s an event like the X-Games or concerts like KROQ’s L.A. Invasion, boxing, tennis or Major League Lacrosse the Home Depot Center is a great facility. A lot of people can’t even tell me where the Home Depot Center is, but once they get out to an event there; they are really pleased with what they see. It’s great for Long Beach residents since it’s just up the I-405 in Carson, so it’s closer than Staples Center or the Arrowhead Pond and we constantly are having different sporting events going on.
Evan: Jason thanks for joining me and sharing your experiences. I look forward to receiving that suite you promised me at Staples Center for the Lakers’ Playoffs this summer.
Delp: Really, I thought you wanted courtside seats instead?
Jason Delp can be reached at the Home Depot Center Premium Ticketing Department by calling (310) 630-2011 or by email. For more information about the Home Depot Center and the events they host, visit the website here.