sound run as planned, with just one hitch: the Boston Bruins
logo ‡gures heavily, but the Canucks are playing Washing-
ton tonight.
"That's why we do rehearsal," Ryan Nicholas, senior
director of game entertainment and content, says with a
chuckle. "Most of the time" his job comes with a hectic work
environment, he adds.
Asked for some horror stories, Nicholas shares a few
from his ‡ve years with the team. "We've had some issues
before where a projector has lost sync with everything else,"
he recalls. "The whole show is doing something, and the ice
is doing something completely di•erent. Or a loading screen
is [projected] on the ice. That happened a long time ago.
"But luckily that's few and far between," Nicholas says.
"A lot of things we notice but a fan wouldn't notice, because
their senses are being bombarded. So to us it's, oh, that's a
half-second out, whereas a fan isn't going to see that."
N O T M I S S I N G T H E A R A M A R K
While the content side of the experience is a work in prog-
ress, Stipec has developed the team's food program since he
‡rst arrived at the organization in 2014 as VP of hospitality.
The Canucks cut ties with food and beverage giant Aramark
Corp. at that time, giving him free rein.
The result is one of the only arenas in the
NHL that self-
operate hospitality. Luckily, Stipec's ‡rst hire, executive
chef Robert Bartley, came from one of the few venues to
do the same, Toronto's Scotiabank Arena (formerly the Air
Canada Centre).
"We had the opportunity of interviewing close to
5,000 people and hiring about 2,000," Bartley says. "So it
was a lot of heavy lifting at the beginning but very cool to
have the opportunity to start something completely from
scratch. And listening to our ownership, it makes a lot of
sense to have the hospitality department all under the same
umbrella as the ticketing department, as the hockey team.
That way you have one vision, even through hot dogs."
As for that arena staple, Bartley likes to keep things fairly
simple, even as the menus around the arena explore every-
thing from hand-rolled sushi to prime rib. "The ‡rst year
was about making the hot dog hot and making the beer
cold," he says. "Then it was about building an infrastruc-
ture that we could grow and develop on. But we have to do
the basics right."
That's what it comes down to for Stipec, too. As compli-
cated as running a huge venue like Rogers Arena can be,
it's also about the little things. Once the gates have opened
an hour before game time, Stipec tries to do as he says and
create a moment. He heads up to the 300 level—where the
cheap seats are—and seeks out a couple of young fans.
"I like to ask them three questions about the team, and
if they get them right, I give them one of these," he says,
brandishing two game-used pucks. "I feel like it's some-
thing they'll remember."
n
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