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The thing to know about the decision-makers for the San Diego Mojo professional indoor volleyball team, they get in trouble. Hand slapped. Calls from the league. Sideways glances. Chats with the lawyers.
That sort of thing.
The reason: Owner Gary Jacobs and club president Billy Johnson are boundary-pushers who bake laughs in with the risk. Though they will tell you over and again that the product is exciting and addictive, they’re also grounded enough to know that’s probably not enough.
Jacobs, a UC San Diego graduate and Del Mar resident, bought the club in November. He reunited with Johnson, who has run the Mojo since October 2023. Together, the two understand the need to lure people in the door and create buzz outside of their home at Viejas Arena. San Diegans’ time is fractured, with so much to do in the sun and sand.
They need The Last Hockey Game on Earth.
From 2010-14, Jacobs and Johnson led the Las Vegas Wranglers, a minor-league team in a community that, at the time, had as much interest in the sport as they did in broke tourists.
But …
“There was a preacher who was predicting the rapture, which happened to be our opening day,” said Johnson, with a smile creeping onto his face. “We abandoned our opening day marketing campaign and turned to, ‘Come to the last day on Earth, full of doom and gloom.’
“We did very highly polished productions with live reports from the strip of casinos getting sucked into the sky and those types of things. Our entrance music was ‘It’s the End of the World as We Know it’ (by R.E.M.). We themed it up.”
They need Rod Blagojevich Prison Uniform Night.
The former governor of Illinois was impeached, jailed and convicted on federal charges. Everything, including the borderline bad-form stuff, is chatted up.
“We probably can’t do this today anywhere, but we dressed up in black and white-striped uniforms,” Johnson said. “The other team dressed up in orange chain-gang uniforms. We had bars on the penalty box. Johnny Cash was heavy on the playlist. A lot of ‘Shawshank Redemption’ stuff.
“Our goal judges, who I don’t think have forgiven me for this, wore powdered wigs and black robes.”
They need pro sports lockout jokes.
“We’re sitting around a table and we’re sick of talking about sales numbers and sponsorships and somebody throws out an idea and the next thing you know, we’re playing the world’s first Indoor outdoor hockey game, which we did in Vegas,” Johnson said.
“We opened up the building, turned up the air conditioning and made it snow inside. I got in trouble with that one. I was making fun of the labor dispute between the players and the NHL. There was lockout, so it was one of the very first outdoor games on Jan. 1. We just played an outdoor game indoors.
“We had the players come out wearing toques, as they call them in Canada. We had (a) Neal Diamond show up with skates. We had this trophy and the players acted like it was the Stanley Cup. They wanted to win that trophy.
“It was a cheesy bowling trophy someone had in their garage. It was decorated with a chain and a padlock to signify the lockout. That’s probably why I got the call. We did it again and the next year after that. When we had a theme, we turned it into as close to Broadway theater as we could.”
Jacobs and Johnson are not trying to diminish the product, pushing the talent and quality of Mojo games again and again. The Pro Volleyball Federation team opens its second season Jan. 9 at Orlando. The home opener, also against Orlando, is Jan. 16.
They know, however, that getting you in the door and talking about it the next day is the path to sparking interest for new audiences.
Be a little absurd to become top of mind.
Wash. Rinse. Cue the lunacy.
They once held a stick night when the stick got inducted in a national museum as the ultimate old-school toy. They bought 1,000 dowels at Home Depot and cut them into three pieces for 3,000 fans.
When Johnson promoted a Single-A affiliate of the current Cleveland Guardians in North Carolina, they gave away a car per inning.
“We compiled all these really bad used-car dealers and gave away each inning, probably the worst car in the lot,” Johnson explained. “Many of them didn’t run. Some would get pushed onto the field. I think some of the grass died because was a transmission leak.
“It was like a WKRP turkey-day thing that happened. The criticism was that we were mocking people without means. That never occurred to me. It was more of us mocking us for not having the ability to give a new car, so it was poking fun at ourselves.”
That’s why Johnson was once named to a list of top five Las Vegas characters of all time. He understands the game away from the game.
“If we get too close to the game, even if we’re superfans ourselves, we’ve still got to work at it,” he said. “That’s the only way it works.”
Jacobs, the majority owner of the Padres’ Single-A affiliate Lake Elsinore Storm, has created the vibrant, around-the edges experience that keeps fans coming back.
Be realistic. Build from there.
“I predict that 85% of the fans leaving my stadium have no idea if we won or what the score was, but they had a great time and they want to come back,” Jacobs said.
See, Jacobs gets in some trouble, too.
There was the time the Storm hosted an over-18 night, leaning into the adult audience.
“Baseball was concerned it wasn’t family-friendly,” Jacobs said. “We try to create excitement rather than the usual dance cam or stuff people always do.”
Then there’s the league rule they spurred.
“Whenever we came down to play the Padres (years ago), we’d say our attendance was 43,000 or whatever,” Jacobs said. “They said, no you can’t do that. It got a laugh, though. There are things we’ll push.”
Johnson also said it’s about knowing the community, which led to midnight hockey games by the Wranglers.
“We did a midnight game twice a year because of the way residents are there,” Jacobs said. “Half of them are shift workers in the casinos, so they can’t come to other games.”
Many newly arriving sports attempt to fight their way into the conversation. Few truly do.
“Humor’s a good shortcut,” Johnson said.
Consider this conversation. Jacobs mentioned an all-male dance team to accompany a female sport. Johnson chimed in: “Can we get firemen? People like firemen.”
I said, “I can see the Mojo calendar now.”
Johnson shot back: “You’re hired.”
Come for the laughs. Stay, they hope, for the volleyball.
Mojo owner working on new facility in Lake Elsinore
San Diego Mojo owner Gary Jacobs said he is working on the financing for a 520,000-square-foot indoor volleyball facility to serve clubs and players.
The building would be constructed in Lake Elsinore, next to the home of the Lake Elsinore Storm, the Padres’ Single-A affiliate. Jacobs also owns that team.
Jacobs says he hopes to strengthen roots in the region.
“They’re desperate for places to play,” Jacobs said. “We’re there to provide a path. If you think about other sports that come in, you play high school, play college and then what?”
— Bryce Miller
Originally Published:
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