Features

People on the move: Yorkshire CCC, Coachella Valley Arena and more

Yorkshire County Cricket Club has appointed Lord Kamlesh Patel of Bradford as director and chair of the club following the resignation of former chairman Roger Hutton in the wake of the racism row over the treatment of former player Azeem Rafiq.

Following Hutton’s resignation, Hanif Malik OBE and Stephen Willis also stepped down from the board. It came after Yorkshire’s Headingley stadium was barred from hosting international or major matches by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

An internal investigation undertaken by Yorkshire found Rafiq was a victim of “racial harassment and bullying”, but the club said it would take no disciplinary action. The club’s handling of the situation had already led to publishing group Emerald pulling out of its naming rights agreement with Headingley.

Oak View Group has announced the appointment of four executives (pictured) at its under-construction Coachella Valley Arena.

Shannon Miller has joined as vice-president of branding and community relations, Phillip Ransford becomes vice-president of operations, Rich Franklin has been named senior director of corporate partnerships, and Arturo Aviles will serve as community engagement manager.

The arena, which will serve as the home of the Seattle Kraken’s AHL affiliate team, is due to open in late 2022. The arena will have a capacity of 11,000-plus and will be located in California’s Riverside County on land owned by the Berger Foundation.

The VenuesWest board, which oversees sport and entertainment venues in the state of Western Australia, has welcomed Chris Massey and Guy Houston as new members.

Massey has been appointed as the University of Western Australia nominee, while Houston brings decades of experience in communications, politics and government affairs. Massey has been appointed for an 18-month term, with Houston to serve for two years.

VenuesWest manages venues such as Optus Stadium, RAC Arena and HBF Park.

Dan Craig has retired from his role as vice-president of facilities operations for the NHL.

Craig started the role in 1997, when he built a rink on top of an Olympic swimming pool in Tokyo for a pair of regular-season games between the Vancouver Canucks and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

He led the league through its first-regular season outdoor game in 2003 and was in charge of building rinks for outdoor games at venues such as Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, Dodger Stadium, The Cotton Bowl, Michigan Stadium and Notre Dame Stadium. The final outdoor rink he supplied was for the league’s game at Lake Tahoe earlier this year.

Patrick McCullough, corporate vice-president of NCR Presales, has joined the MyVenue board as an independent director.

MyVenue is based in Adelaide, Australia and Denver, USA. It develops next-generation point of sale solutions for the event-driven venue and hospitality markets.

Sports Fusion, which develops systems and applications for the sports and leisure industries, has announced a number of appointments and promotions.

Robert Spalton will be promoted to the newly created post of managing director and Molly Haskins will become director of operations. They will be joined by Andrew Falvey who joins as director of development.

Do you have news of an appointment that we should know about? Get in touch by emailing news.editor@thestadiumbusiness.com and we’ll include it in our next round-up.

Images: Oak View Group