Dynamo President of Business Operations JOHN WALKER, who joined the team in November after three years with the Grizzlies, knows how big of a deal it is that Rockets G JAMES HARDEN has bought into the organization's ownership. Walker said the day Harden was introduced was “unlike any other day I’ve ever had,” but no days are easy when you’re running an MLS team. Today is no exception, as the Dynamo will host Liga MX Club America in the inaugural Leagues Cup. Walker took some time to walk THE DAILY through his matchday.
6:15am: I get up early and try to get a 45-minute workout in before helping get the kids ready for school, or camp now that it’s summer. I’ll try to be leaving the house by 7:30-8:00 so I can get into the office by 8:30.
8:30am: Unless I’m in meetings, I’m on social media and checking emails and texts literally all day long. Every day brings different things. Some days are more meetings, some are more planning days. I like to go where the action is, so if there’s an internal meeting or something going on, that’s where I’ll be. I’ll be reviewing our ’20 marketing and strategic plans.
12:00pm: If I can, I’ll break for lunch, but it doesn’t always work out that I have time. It could be as early as noon or as late as 1:30-2:00.
Walker (l) regularly checks in with his staff to go over upcoming projects or address any concernsHOUSTON DYNAMO
1:00pm: I do one-on-one meetings with a lot of our top execs, our CMO, our legal counsel, CRO, stadium GM, throughout each week. It might be face to face, it might be a phone call, it might even be a text, however we need to do it. Every day I’ll check in with all of them, but I try to do at least one bigger check-in with someone per day. Again, depending on meetings, I’m usually in the office until around 6:00-6:30 on a normal day. On match days, I check in with our GM to see how we’re looking, if we have any injuries, what the lineup will be. I’m still kind of new to soccer, so I’ll ask what I should be looking for strategy-wise to help learn more about the game itself.
6:00pm: I like to get to the stadium at least an hour and a half early, just to give myself time to do some things before the game. I’ll walk across the street to a pub where our fans are at, usually either King’s Court or Pitch 25, which is actually owned by one of our former players, BRIAN CHING. After that I’ll do one or two laps around the stadium, say hello to some of the staff and check on things, whether anything needs to be addressed before game time.
7:30pm: We really use our matches as prospecting tools. During the match itself, I’m usually hosting partners or owners, so I’ll spend the first half with them in the suites. Around halftime I’ll make my way down to the Audi Sport Club to greet some of the attendees. I’ll watch the second half either from the suites, press box or our pitch-side patio. And around the 80th minute I’ll work my way into the locker area to greet the players, coaches and staff as they come off the field. Once the game is over, I’ll have some of our stadium and event staff report back to me to see how things went. It's not a full debriefing but just checking in on things.
On non-gamedays...: I like to get home as early as I can to spend some time with my kids. Sometimes they have swim or soccer practices, and I’ll go to those with them. They’re becoming bigger soccer fans, although the kids are sort of young so they don’t fully get into it. I love to watch with them sometimes, though. If we all settle in to watch TV together, it’s typically something we can all watch, something like “America’s Got Talent” or “So You Think You Can Dance," just so we can still spend that time all together. If we’re doing that and we have a match on, I’ll be watching somehow, usually on my phone or something. The kids will go down before my wife and I do, but I usually try to be asleep by 10:30-11:00.
