Blazers complete business-side shuffle

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The reorganization of the Kamloops Blazers, at least on the business side,
is complete.
Tom Gaglardi, the WHL franchise’s Vancouver-based majority owner, said
following a Wednesday news conference in the Blazers’ dressing room that the
pieces all are in place.
“We’ve got our team in place now. . . . I’m impressed with everybody,
otherwise we wouldn’t be (staying) with them,” Gaglardi said. “I think we’ve
demonstrated that we aren’t averse to change that we deem necessary.
“I really like the team . . . these are capable people.”
Among the announcements made yesterday:
l Dave Chyzowski, the director of marketing, has had his title changed to
director of sales and marketing.
l Karen Hibbert remains as box office administrator.
l Tracy McDonald, who has been the office assistant, now is office
administrator and retail store manager.
l Angie Mercuri, the office manager, has been promoted to executive director
of business operations.
l Greg (Spike) Wallace is community and sponsorship co-ordinator, after
being the alumni and community liaison.
l Shane Zulyniak, who was the assistant general manager/assistant coach last
season, now is director of sales and corporate sponsorship.
What this means is that Craig Bonner, the vice-president and general
manager, will run the hockey side, while Mercuri will be responsible for the
business operation. Both will report to Gaglardi.
“If Angie’s work crosses over into hockey, then she’ll take direction from
Craig,” Gaglardi explained. “He’s a vice-president and Angie’s not at that
level. It’s the model I talked about . . . having full separation. I don’t
want to saddle Craig with business.”
With the team in place, the focus now will be on selling, especially
tickets.
“We’re behind a bit,” Gaglardi said when asked about season tickets.
“Talking to the staff, I think there are a lot of people waiting to find out
what our coaching staff will look like. That’s my take on it. But we’re a
little behind last year.”
Gaglardi said the organization is “committed” to turning around what he
called “a nine-year decline . . . an erosion” in ticket sales.
“We are going to roll up our sleeves and get involved in the community and I
don’t think that’s been done in any serious manner for many years,” he said.
The Blazers sent out season-ticket renewal letters over a month ago.
Recipients noticed a price increase because season tickets now include the
first two playoff games.
“There have been some comments,” Gaglardi said, adding that such a move had
“never been done here. “
“The league,” he added, “recommended it five years ago to every club and has
every year since. It’s an odd occasion to me that people will buy a season
ticket and not buy a playoff package in the first round; it doesn’t make any
sense.”
Gaglardi said that rather than “scurry around” late in the season and try to
sell first-round playoff tickets, they simply would add them to
season-ticket packages. At the same time, they are allowing season-ticket
holders to lock in at one price for up to three seasons.
“Season-ticket holders will pay the same price for up to three years at last
year’s rate,” Gaglardi said. If the Blazers don’t make the playoffs, fans
can get their money back or have it applied to their season-ticket account.
“I think it’s a pretty simple and fair proposition,” Gaglardi said.
As for the few comments he has heard, he said: “I think change is always
tough for people.”
At the same time, the Blazers have upped single-game tickets by $1. A
regular adult walk-up ticket now will cost $17.
“We looked at the differences around the league between season-ticket prices
and what we called casual sales,” Gaglardi said. “We’ve widened that gap
similar to what we see around the league.”
Gaglardi said it’s all part of providing people with incentives “to buy
season tickets . . . it wasn’t to penalize casual people; we just didn’t see
the proper spread in our pricing structure so we revamped our entire
structure.”
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca