Nick Piccone
When Ed Snider passed away, it felt like he took a part of Philly with him. He’ll always be a legend in this city – with good reason – and the public celebration of his life last week proves it.
It’s been over a month since Mr. Snider’s passing, and now many people are beginning to wonder aloud who exactly will be calling the shots. The two people closest to Snider in terms of business – Comcast-Spectacor president, Dave Scott, who’s been running the conglomerate for two years, and Brian Roberts, Comcast Corporation’s chief executive officer – seemed to be in the position to take over. And, as fate would have it, both have.
While Flyers president, Paul Holmgren, and executive vice president and general manager, Ron Hextall, will continue to run hockey operations, they’ll still have to answer to Scott and Roberts when it comes to going above the budget they’ve been given.
But outside of that budget, should those circumstances arise, things will go directly to the top: Comcast-Spectacor president Dave Scott will call the shots should something need further approval. Those inquiries previously went to Mr. Snider, although Scott was hand-selected by Snider to run Comcast-Spectacor back in 2014. Brian Roberts, the chief executive officer of Comcast Corporation — yes, the guy who is in charge of all the cable and stuff — has a role in all of this too.
“I think it’ll be handled the same way,” Holmgren said. “We have a budget that we agreed on with Mr. Snider or Brian Roberts, whoever. I mean, obviously we dealt with Mr. Snider in the past but I’m sure Brian was aware of what was going on. Dave Scott, who’s been part of the organization for the past two years, he’s been involved a lot this year in what we’re doing. So where we talk about budgets, we have our budget that we move forward with and [Hextall] knows the parameters. If there’s something that maybe doesn’t fit in what we have budgeted for, then we’ll probably have another meeting.”
“If the money’s in the budget, then we’re fine. If it’s not in the budget, then we talk about what we’re gonna do with Dave and with Brian.”
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“I know from talking with Brian Roberts that he wants to win,” Holmgren said. “He wants to win in the worst way. And Dave Scott, I’m getting to know. I think Dave is enjoying – well, he even made the comment there that being owner of a hockey team is a lot more fun than doing cable TV stuff. And it is.
“So we hope that in time he becomes more invested in the hockey team and learns the game more. I’ve spent a great deal of time with Dave over the last couple years, just talking about the game. Because to his credit, he knows he doesn’t know a lot about it, but he’s willing to listen and learn and watch, so I think it’s going to be great moving forward. So no, I don’t think there’ll be any change. We’re trying to win.”
Will the Flyers continue to be fiscally responsible under Hextall? Or will Scott and Roberts venture back to the old ways of doing things and open the checkbook for superstars and not put much emphasis on the farm system? Only time will tell.