SMG is an organization that manages stadiums and arenas around the United States. They were brought in to take over management duties at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum complex in 1997, and after the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Authority voted to discontinue running the complex. (A political move by Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente to oust long-time Coliseum President and Peerless Coffee boss George Vukasin.)
Since then, SMG's performance has been less than stellar. First, the initial manager of the Coliseum for SMG, Sally Roach, told me she didn't have the facility drawings -- the kind a fire marshall would ask for -- we needed for Oakland's Super Bowl Bid; I didn't believe her, so I found a guy who "ratted out" Roach. A man by the name of Matt Veil, who called me to explain that they did have the drawing and he would get them to me. In other words, Sally and SMG were trying to throw a monkey wrench into our Super Bowl Bid effort and were caught red-handed.
Second, I've long accused SMG of deferring maintenance to be done on the facility just to earn money. For example, luxury box carpet is generally dirty. Baseboards are terrible. And the West Side boxes are in terrible condition. Indeed, SMG's contract is "perfomance based" and provides an incentive for them to do so.
Here's a great example of how SMG's lowballing of resources creates problems. The Sports Business Daily learned that SMG issued an appology for how it understaffed the Monday Night Football game pitting the Oakland Raiders against the San Diego Chargers. The result can be seen in this video below:
This crowd formed and remained for some time. Why SMG would understaff the first football game and a Monday Night Football contest is not known. I personally believe the Coliseum Authority should go back to running the facility itself.
Since then, SMG's performance has been less than stellar. First, the initial manager of the Coliseum for SMG, Sally Roach, told me she didn't have the facility drawings -- the kind a fire marshall would ask for -- we needed for Oakland's Super Bowl Bid; I didn't believe her, so I found a guy who "ratted out" Roach. A man by the name of Matt Veil, who called me to explain that they did have the drawing and he would get them to me. In other words, Sally and SMG were trying to throw a monkey wrench into our Super Bowl Bid effort and were caught red-handed.
Second, I've long accused SMG of deferring maintenance to be done on the facility just to earn money. For example, luxury box carpet is generally dirty. Baseboards are terrible. And the West Side boxes are in terrible condition. Indeed, SMG's contract is "perfomance based" and provides an incentive for them to do so.
Here's a great example of how SMG's lowballing of resources creates problems. The Sports Business Daily learned that SMG issued an appology for how it understaffed the Monday Night Football game pitting the Oakland Raiders against the San Diego Chargers. The result can be seen in this video below:
This crowd formed and remained for some time. Why SMG would understaff the first football game and a Monday Night Football contest is not known. I personally believe the Coliseum Authority should go back to running the facility itself.
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