The swapping of
Ed Snider stories included this facilities-related nugget from the early 1990s, when both the Flyers and Sixers were poised to build arenas in Greater Philadelphia.
Jim Riordan, director of Florida Atlantic University’s sports management MBA program, recalled the situation after Snider, who owned the Flyers and at one time both the Spectrum and Wells Fargo Center, died April 11.
It was during Riordan’s stint working for SMG, from 1989 to 1994, that Snider started making plans to build a new arena to replace the aging Spectrum. At the same time, the Sixers, then owned by Harold Katz and a tenant at the Spectrum, started exploring the possibility of building their own arena in Camden, N.J., across the Delaware River.
Snider, after catching wind of Katz’s initiative, made a move to stop the Sixers in their tracks. He signed long-term deals tied to the new arena with the Harlem Globetrotters, plus Feld Entertainment and the old VEE Corp., two companies that ran Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Disney on Ice and Sesame Street Live, among other productions.
A few of the many facilities execs who worked for Ed Snider in Philadelphia:
| Hank Abate |
SVP of arenas and stadiums, Spectra Venue Management |
| Matt Brown |
Managing director, Greensboro Coliseum |
| Bob Newman |
President, AEG Facilities |
| Tim Ryan |
President and CEO, Honda Center |
| Peter Sullivan |
GM, University of Phoenix Stadium |
| Dana Warg |
President, Joe Louis Arena |
| Wes Wesley |
CEO, SMG |
Source: SportsBusiness Journal research
The Spectrum already had a lock on arena concert tours through Snider’s strong ties to
Electric Factory Concerts, Philadelphia’s leading promoter of live music, which kept the arena thriving.
As a result of Spectacor signing those multiyear agreements, and locking up all those touring events, the Sixers would have had a huge hole to fill at their new venue for dates beyond their roughly 45 home games. The club eventually dropped its arena plan, Riordan said.
“Snider cemented those relationships,” he said. “It was a brilliant move.”
Peter Luukko, executive chairman for the Florida Panthers and their parent firm, Sunrise Sports & Entertainment, confirmed Riordan’s story. In 1993, Snider named Luukko president of the Spectrum, which included developing Wells Fargo Center in Philly in tandem with John Page, now president of the arena.
“I was in the middle of all that stuff,” said Luukko, who was Comcast Spectacor president and COO until December 2013. “We renewed deals with everybody,” expanding out to the new arena.
In 1996, when the new arena opened as CoreStates Center, Snider bought the Sixers from Katz in a joint venture with Comcast. Comcast Spectacor was formed with Snider’s group at the sports complex maintaining control of the operation. Snider sold the Sixers in 2011.
> BROAD (STREET) REACH: The family tree of facility managers rooted to Snider’s arenas and facility operations firms SMG and Spectra Venue Management reflects his vast influence in the venue management industry. The list of those who worked for Snider (see chart) reads like a who’s who of sports and entertainment executives. Many went on to run major league facilities outside of the South Philly Sports Complex.
Others, such as Riordan, eventually steered their way to academia. At age 22, Riordan was hired as director of security and event services for Spectaguard, the name of the Spectrum’s security firm. He held that job from 1983 until 1987 before spending two years in the MBA program at St John’s University. Riordan later worked five years for Spectacor Management Group, which included operational roles at Nassau Coliseum and Richmond Coliseum.
> ‘AS ANY OTHER FATHER’: Apart from being a shrewd businessman, Snider showed a softer side to his employees, through the summer get-togethers he threw at a local country club to the annual end-of-year holiday parties, as a reward for hard work, said Matt Brown, who worked for SMG and now runs Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina.
“He would often bring his youngest daughter, Sarena, to see family shows at the Philadelphia Civic Center, and our staff would be excited to have him as our guest,” Brown said. “Aside from our concern about where to park his white Rolls-Royce near the front entrance, he wanted to be treated as any other father with his daughter while she enjoyed ‘Sesame Street.’”
Don Muret can be reached at dmuret@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @breakground.
