A major management change for money-losing BC Pavilion Corp. (PavCo) has been announced in a staff memo seen by Business in Vancouver.
CEO Dana Hayden told staff yesterday about the departure of BC Place stadium general manager Howard Crosley, a week after the BC Liberals were re-elected.
Crosley's position will not be replaced. Instead, Vancouver Convention Centre general manager Ken Cretney's duties were expanded and he was named PavCo's chief operating officer.
Crosley was hired in 1998 and oversaw the stadium during the 2010 Winter Olympics and the subsequent $514 million renovation.
His tenure was not without controversy. In November 2006, a janitorial contractor collapsed and died later in hospital. The incident was not reported to WorkSafeBC for nearly two years. More headlines were made when the stadium's original inflated fabric roof ripped and collapsed after a minor snowstorm in January 2007. An engineer's report published a year later confirmed the roof was not heated to prevent the buildup of snow.
According to PavCo's financial report for the 2011-12 fiscal year, Crosley was paid $195,057 in salary, $38,440 bonus, $19,596 pension, $13,214 benefits and $4,080 in other compensation for a total pay packet of $270,387.
Cretney's total pay packet for 2012 was $357,861.
He was paid $214,283 in 2010 and $254,372 in 2011.
The rest of the BC Place management team remains intact, including assistant general manager Kathy deLisser, director of sales and marketing Graham Ramsay and communications manager Duncan Blomfield.
Ramsay and Vancouver Convention Centre vice-president of sales and marketing Claire Smith will report directly to Hayden.
"By making these changes, we will better link our strategies with execution, and ensure that we engage our key stakeholders in a positive way," said Hayden's memo. "I understand these changes will take some time to embed, but I am excited to work with such a bright, creative team. For the vast majority of staff, these changes should be relatively seamless. I am confident that together we will continue to improve the position of PavCo over the months to come."
Hayden did not respond to BIV's request for comment on whether Crosley resigned or was fired. "It is not appropriate to discuss staff departures as they are personnel matters," PavCo director of communications and stakeholder relations Kate Hunter told BIV via email.
Changes to the board of directors are also expected soon, after chair Peter Fassbender and director Suzanne Anton were both elected as Liberal MLAs in Surrey-Fleetwood and Vancouver-Fraserview, respectively.
PavCo anticipates $87.05 million in operational losses at BC Place through 2015-16. During the election campaign, NDP leader Adrian Dix had proposed privatizing the stadium and convention centre, which are carrying a combined $1.4 billion debt.
