Snider’s influence felt in all facets of sports business

Ed Snider’s death last week reverberated across all sectors of sports and entertainment.

Snider, who died April 11 at the age of 83, owned sports teams and arenas, founded two of the first regional sports television networks and all-sports radio stations, and formed facility-related businesses in food service, ticketing, sports marketing, crowd management and merchandise.

Snider’s emotions were always on display when it came to his Philadelphia Flyers. Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

Among those recalling Snider’s achievements and the profound effect he had both on his employees and the city of Philadelphia, those who worked for the Flyers’ owner recall a shrewd entrepreneur who created a new model for privately managing arenas and stadiums and turning them into profitable enterprises.

It all started at the old Spectrum in Philadelphia, an arena that opened in 1967 as the new home of the Flyers and 76ers. Snider bought the arena out of bankruptcy in 1972 after partnering to build it. Until then, many arenas were built with public money and run by municipalities.

After taking over both the arena and the Flyers, Snider formed Spectacor as a holding company for both properties. Over the next four decades, the Spectrum became known as “America’s Showplace,” a thriving arena for sports, concerts and family shows.

Ed Rubinstein, CEO of Arena Network, worked at the Spectrum for 14 years. From 1983 to 1988, he was the Spectrum’s general manager and saw firsthand Snider’s ability to make deals that kept his arena as busy as any in the country.

Back then, teams that ran arenas kept a greater portion of event-related revenue, which today is often split among acts, promoters and booking agents, Rubinstein said.

“The Spectrum was like an ATM machine,” he said. “It printed money. That was back in the days when buildings were allowed to make money.”

With Snider’s leadership and vision, the Spectrum signed long-term deals with event promoters such as Larry Magid’s Electric Factory Concerts to supply steady revenue streams and protect his interests. The arena became so successful that other teams contacted Snider to pick his brain and find out his trade secrets.

Snider (left) is joined by Keith Allen, the Flyers’ first coach. Photo by: COMCAST SPECTACOR

Those conversations ultimately led to Snider forming SMG in the late 1970s to manage publicly owned facilities.
“Philadelphia became the hot spot for venue management,” Rubinstein said. “People were coming to us and asking us how we did this and made money from it. We were giving out that information for free and finally figured out we should be charging for it.”

Two decades later, Snider sold a majority share of Spectacor to Comcast, forming Comcast Spectacor, becoming chairman of a company that expanded beyond arena operations to include food service, ticketing and sports marketing.

Snider’s operations also became a proving ground for facility managers such as Rubinstein, Tony Tavares, Rich Krezwick and Peter Luukko, among many others. All got their start working at the Spectrum or for SMG running facilities such as the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Superdome and old Three Rivers Stadium.

On his own, Tavares came up through the ranks of the organization over a 10-year period to become president of SMG before he took over as president of the NHL expansion Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and, later, president of Disney Sports. Tavares now runs ProEminent Sports, a consulting firm.

“He was the most impactful person in my career,” Tavares said of Snider. “He was a brilliant businessman, the only person I can think of that didn’t make his fortune elsewhere. He did it from getting into sports business, which is completely different than others. He took a bankrupt [arena] and turned it into a successful operation, which ultimately led to building Wells Fargo Center, starting Comcast Spectacor and buying the Sixers. It all came with that initial investment in the Flyers.”

The Flyers, part of the NHL’s first wave of expansion, were Snider’s baby. He was a fierce supporter of the team, and his emotions were often on full display for Philly fans cheering the rough-and-tumble days of the “Broad Street Bullies,” the hockey bunch that won back-to-back Stanley Cups in the 1970s.

Krezwick, now AEG Europe’s senior vice president of facilities, played high school and college hockey in Philadelphia before working for SMG. He recalls attending Flyers games at the Spectrum and searching for Snider in the owner’s box to catch his reaction to a penalty against the home team or a fight on the ice.

Snider was a fierce supporter of Flyers, part of the NHL's first wave of expansion in 1967 Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

“He was front and center, a great promoter and the face of the team,” Krezwick said. “I put him at the top of the list of mentors. I have great memories and admiration for how he handled things, and us, in the early years. From what I hear, nothing changed until the day he said goodbye.”

Snider was a superstitious sort, said John Page, president of Wells Fargo Center. After a road playoff victory, for the following game, Snider would wear the same socks and tie and go to the same restaurant for the pregame meal. Those routines spoke to his passion for hockey, Page said.

“But more than that, he had an innate knowledge of the business,” Page said. “He was in it since 1967 … and his learnings were a blessing for all of us.”

Page and Luukko led the development of Wells Fargo Center, an arena privately funded by Snider that opened in 1996. Similar to when Snider put up his home mortgage as collateral for buying the Flyers, Snider leveraged the team as part of his personal guarantee to finance construction of the new facility, a $210 million investment, according to Luukko.

“History repeated itself,” Luukko said. “At that point in his life, he didn’t have to do that, but after he started all those other companies, he took the ultimate risk, and it paid off again.”