Global Entertainment hires interim director

The temporary head hopes to get the center's top job on a permanent basis.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The company managing the city-owned Chevrolet Centre named an official with a Tulsa, Okla., parks system as the building's interim executive director.
Tommy Scott, 30, the former public relations manager for Tulsa's River Parks Authority, said he wants to have the "interim" tag removed from his new title.
Scott is among a number of "excellent" candidates for the job, and could be the permanent director after a national search, said Tom Sadler, president of Global Entertainment Corp.'s facility management division. Global, a Phoenix company, manages the Chevrolet Centre for the city.
Mayor Jay Williams said local candidates will be included in the search.
Scott has never run an arena like the Chevrolet Centre. But Sadler said Global likes his work and has been recruiting him for some time.
Global had planned to hire Scott away from Tulsa for the past few months, Sadler said, and have him run one of the facilities the company manages when the Youngstown spot became vacant.
The top job at the Chevrolet Centre became available when Matthew Hufnagel resigned earlier this month as its general manager.
He left after Global conducted a review of the center's receipts and found 700 missing in on-site parking receipts.
Scott has spent the past few days at the center. He is leaving today for a vacation and will return after Jan. 1.
Career background
Scott spent more than eight years with the River Parks Authority in Tulsa.
He started as its public events coordinator and was promoted in December 2004 to its public relations manager. In that capacity, Scott handled fundraising efforts that raised about 150,000 for the facility annually.
His other duties included the development of a public relations effort, organizing policies, procedures and contracts for public use of the parks' properties, preparing budgets and monitoring revenues and expenditures for facilities.
The Tulsa system includes a 16-acre festival park and a 3,000-seat amphitheater. Most of the events listed on the authority's Web site for this year are free concerts, movies, festivals and foot races.
Scott has a bachelor of science degree in leisure studies from Oklahoma State University.
Financial challenges
The Chevrolet Centre finished its first fiscal year in September with a 23,653 deficit on paper. That deficit doesn't include a disputed 140,850 payment Global made to Blue Line LLC, the owner of the Youngstown SteelHounds minor league hockey team, for the sale of club seats. Global recently sent Blue Line an invoice for that money.
Global had initially estimated a 1.15 million profit for the center's first year, and reduced it to 652,264 this past January. The company estimates a 629,953 profit for the center's second fiscal year.
Scott said he understands the challenges facing him running the center.
"I'm going to give 110 percent to make the center a gem for the community," he said. "The Chevrolet Centre is poised to do good things for the city."
skolnick@vindy.com