Menu
People and Pop Culture

Weekend Plans With Van Wagner's Chris Allphin: Hockey, French Toast, Family Time

Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment Senior VP/Team & Venue Services CHRIS ALLPHIN has worked with many professional sports teams on obtaining stadium deals and securing naming rights. He most recently assisted the Vikings with their new downtown Minneapolis facility, and orchestrated a 25-year partnership between the Braves and SunTrust Banks for the club’s new Cobb County ballpark. But even with a demanding travel schedule, the Poway, Calif., resident always finds time for his wife and three children. Allphin: “I’ve been on the road all week, so spending time with the kids is really important. They don’t share my enthusiasm for watching sports on TV, so I think I have turned into more of a casual viewer as time has gone on."

ICE, ICE BABY: Friday night is going to be a little ambitious because I will arrive back in San Diego around 8:00pm PT and there is a great men’s league pick-up ice hockey game in Escondido that my brother and I try to play in on Friday nights together. It is a beer league, nobody is making the NHL from that group, but it is a lot of fun and I can pretend that I’m better than I am

WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE: San Diego is a great food town. My favorite breakfast spot is a place called The Mission. Their cinnamon French toast has enough calories for the day, but it is well worth it. I love to grill but I have to give credit where credit is due. My wife does all the hard work and gives it to me in a tray and I stand and make sure that it doesn’t catch fire. San Diego has to be one of the best grill towns there is. You are outside 365 days a year, and is also has some great breweries. Between the good local craft brews and year-round outdoor access, I think you have to grill if you live there. A go-to place when friends come in from out of town to visit us is Stone Brewing. It is another great local San Diego establishment that is expanding quickly. It has a great food menu and also great beer.

BETTER MAN: My wife and I just got back from Austin City Limits in Texas. We rode bikes around, we ate well and we saw PEARL JAM. They are getting better with age. But a good night out for me -- I’m a big fan of what they have done downtown with the integration of Petco Park and the Gaslamp District -- is to catch a few innings of a game and to head out to one of the bars downtown.

BIRD IS THE WORD: I never workout on the weekends; I have a hard enough time doing it during the week. When you travel a lot, which I do, I really try to make the most out of those 48 hours that I am supposed to not be working. Occasionally, I will go out and play some golf, which I am terrible at, but as long as I can have some fun. Living in a great place like San Diego, we can basically get outside year round and we take full advantage of that. We can take the kids to the zoo or the beach; it is a lot of kid time. I have a work-in garage and my daughter and I have a full production of bird houses going for Christmas. We are making 10 different bird houses that take a lot of time and she is a demanding boss. The garage is a full Santa Workshop at this point. Friday is the first day of the L.A. Auto Show. So my son and I might make the trek up north on Sunday longing for the Porsche 911 that I will never buy.

PULSE CHECK: Twitter is pretty much my primary news source because of how fast and how targeted it is. I can follow diverse interests from Sharks hockey to USC football to people in politics and other writers that I follow. It is a pretty amazing tool. Every year on my birthday, my mom renews my subscription to The New Yorker, which I love. But as far as content goes, it is a really fast treadmill that I just can’t keep up on. Every week there is another three or four 10,000-word articles, so I do my best. I pick and choose. I would say most of my reading time happens on airplanes. I’m a big checklist guy. I am not stressed out by having a lot of work to do, but not having a plan to deal with having a lot of work. So on Sunday nights I will usually look over my schedule, make a quick list, figure out how I am going to attack Monday morning.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 18, 2024

Sports Business Awards nominees unveiled; NWSL's historic opening weekend and takeaways from CFP deal

ESPN’s Jay Bilas, BTN’s Meghan McKeown, and a deep dive into AppleTV+’s The Dynasty

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast from the New York Post and Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Jay Bilas talks all things NCAA. Big Ten Network’s Meghan McKeown shares her insight into the Caitlin Clark craze. The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn chats all things Bean Town. And SBJ’s Xavier Hunter drops in to share his findings on how the NWSL is making a social media push.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2014/11/21/People-and-Pop-Culture/Weekend.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2014/11/21/People-and-Pop-Culture/Weekend.aspx

CLOSE