Larry Prosi

If Larry Prosi isn’t the football fan’s favorite banker, he ought to be. On autumn Sundays, Prosi patrols the sidelines for the NFL at Qualcomm Stadium, making sure too many commercials don’t slow down the game. During the week, he’s the chief banking officer for 1st Pacific Bank of California.

“It’s my job to make sure the game starts on time and commercial breaks are kept to two minutes,” he says. “The whole intent is to keep the game moving.”

Prosi’s part-time position popped up when the NFL realized an average game was running three hours and 25 minutes. “The league wanted to get the game in as close to three hours as possible and they realized the commercial breaks, of which there are 20, were running about two minutes and 30 seconds.” In other words, the league was waiting for TV to come back to start the game. “So John Madden would be diagramming plays while the players were standing around,” Prosi explains.

The banker coordinates with officials to make sure the game starts two minutes after the start of the commercial break. “And if TV isn’t ready, that’s their problem,” he says.

Prosi has worked the San Diego Super Bowls in 1988, 1998 and 2003; he’s also an optimist. “If the Chargers went to a Super Bowl, I would go with them,” he adds.

Prosi says he’s noticed certain parallels between his football and banking jobs. “Time management is a discipline, and in football everything is done according to time,” he says. “There’s a structured format to football, and in banking you have to be disciplined and structured as well.”

The most recent 1st Pacific branch opened in El Cajon in February, and 1st Pacific in Murrieta added a loan production office this winter. Prosi says El Cajon is a dynamic market for potential growth, but that current loan demand in general is steady, rather than strong.

Prosi says the bank’s three-to-five-year plan envisions reaching an asset base of $500 million with seven offices or so.

Prosi was written up in Gameday magazine with a headline “Who is this guy?” But Prosi says he’s easy enough to spot at games; the on-field director wears a fluorescent green hat.