Execs among the company spent several months reviewing how the Oilers are runGETTY IMAGES
Oilers Entertainment Group has "laid off about 30 workers under a 'new vision' focused on its sports and entertainment operations that stops work on global expansion," according to Gordon Kent of the EDMONTON JOURNAL. A late-April staff memo lists 20 people who were "let go from such areas as security, ticketing, communications, IT and administration." The memo said that execs "spent several months reviewing OEG's vision" and decided to "focus on their core business" of running the Oilers and the WHL Edmonton Oil Kings, live entertainment, Rogers Place and the mixed-used development Ice District. OEG in a statement said, "These are the things that will drive revenue and results for the company and ensure we are successful moving forward. What that also means, for the foreseeable future, we have ceased our efforts related to new business or global expansion." Meanwhile, Kent notes tenants will "start moving into the Ice District's 66-storey Stantec Tower this fall, while the 54-storey JW Marriott hotel-Legends condominium tower, which held a topping-off ceremony last week, is scheduled to open next year." Most of the public plaza "will also be ready" in '19 (EDMONTON JOURNAL, 5/17).
