Len McNamara isn't sure how many years in total he has been involved with the Prince George Spruce Kings organization. He does know, however, that he's part of the B.C. Hockey League franchise once again, and also that he's happy to be back.
The Spruce Kings announced on Friday the hiring of McNamara as the team's new business director. He takes over from Lu Verticchio, who is retiring.
McNamara's previous roles with the Spruce Kings include assistant coach, head coach and general manager. His first job with the club was in 1982 and his most recent stint with the Kings - as per Prince George Citizen records - ran from 2003 to 2005 when he was brought in as general manager to help solidify the on-ice product and off-ice finances. Those years marked his 16th and 17th with the Spruce Kings and he stepped aside when Ed Dempsey was given full control as director of hockey operations. At that time, McNamara was pulling double duty as director of athletics and recreation at the University of Northern British Columbia.
McNamara has not signed a contract with the Kings. His duties, he said, will be to look after "the major stuff" off the ice, primarily making sure the team's financial position is healthy.
"I think everyone knows the house lottery is No. 1, and the 50/50 draws that they do," he said. "Also the advertising, whether it's rink boards or stuff that's in the rink or promotional stuff - those types of things. But I think they want a little bit more emphasis into fan attendance and putting some efforts into building alumni. At least those are my ideas. There are a lot of things I wish we had done back in the day that we just didn't get done. Some of them are still on the table and hopefully we can tackle them.
"So in a nutshell it's revenue generation but to me it's building the community involvement with the team," he added. "That's sort of the way I look at it."
McNamara's employment history also includes time as executive director of the Prince George Youth Soccer Association. Currently, he's a relatively new real estate agent and he's comfortable with the idea of continuing to sell homes while he looks after his Spruce Kings' responsibilities as well.
"I hate to say this, but I'm not really, really busy with the real estate," he said. "It takes a bit of time (to establish yourself) and I thought this might fill a bit of time and hopefully it will help my real estate. They keep telling me real estate is all about meeting people so this will definitely get me out of the office and out and about meeting sponsors and people and all those types of things. I'm hoping I didn't bite too much off but the only way to find out is to do it."
Tom Bohmer, president of the Spruce Kings, sees McNamara as the ideal person to fill the shoes of Verticchio.
"Over the last three or four years we've grown to a business that exceeds over $1 million in revenue with our house and various other lotteries, along with the hockey side of things," Bohmer said in a Friday media release. "We do a great job of being in the community, but I think we have to be pushed to be better and we need a single point of contact to lead that charge. Len puts us in a position where we can continue to be strong members of the community and give back, which is important for the growth of the Spruce Kings."
Bohmer thanked Verticchio for his service to the organization.
"We challenged Lu at the outset to grow revenues, such as naming rights for the building, as well as to grow our presence in the community, which he handled very professionally and gave us a great foundation for moving into the future," Bohmer said.
Verticchio was hired in 2014. During his term, the team's home rink changed names from the Prince George Coliseum to Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
