The 20-month job search of the "middle-age Hausers," two longtime Palace Sports & Entertainment execs, was profiled by Tom Walsh of the DETROIT FREE PRESS. DAN HAUSER, now 76ers Senior VP/Corporate Sponsorships, and his wife MARILYN HAUSER, now Prudential Center VP, "logged nearly 60 combined years of service" with the Pistons and PS&E. But in January '12 they were "dismissed, along with several other PS&E managers, as the Pistons’ new owner TOM GORES installed a new executive team." Dan, who most recently served as PS&E Exec VP/Corporate Sponsorships, said that his severance payment was "fair and pointedly refused to utter a negative word about his former employer." Marilyn, who most recently served as PS&E Exec VP/Booking & Marketing, said, "I still was not ready for it. We loved being at the Palace." Walsh notes Dan "had a brain aneurysm" in the month of his dismissal from PS&E, and after an "initial surgery in January another operation was needed in February." It would be "six months before he could drive a car," but doctors by mid-summer "gave Dan the OK to go back to work, or at least to start looking for work." Dan then attended and spoke at a conference this May, at which soon-to-be 76ers CEO SCOTT O'NEIL "was one of the organizers." When O'Neil was named to his current position in July, he "started talking" to Dan, who was hired by the Sixers last month. Then after 76ers Majority Owner JOSH HARRIS purchased the Devils and the Prudential Center this August, O'Neil hired Marilyn to her current position. The Hausers are now "renting a condo in downtown Philadelphia, Marilyn's childhood hometown, and Marilyn has a one-hour commute by train to the Prudential Center." Dan said, "I feel like I’m walking back in time 25 years, with the incredible growth plans they have with the two teams and the venues" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 10/27).
