MOLINE, IL (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Forty year old Scott Mullen, the Illinois Quad-City Civic Center Authority's selection to replace Steve Hyman as executive director of The Mark of the Quad Cities, was introduced to the public Friday. Mullen was most recently G.M. at Nassau Coliseum.
Hyman had been executive director of the Mark since it's beginning, and has left the position to oversee construction of a new arena in Hoffman Estates, IL.
A combination of New York know-how and Midwestern roots has won a Dubuque, Iowa, and Galena, Ill., native the job as new executive director of The Mark of the Quad-Cities, Moline.
According to the Quad-City Times Scott Mullen, who was introduced as the new executive director of the facility Friday afternoon, has for the past five years been the general manager of the Nassau Coliseum, an 18,000-seat arena in Long Island, N.Y.
“He’s gone into New York, which is a very tough market, up against Madison Square Garden,” said Pryce Boeye, chairman of the Illinois Quad-City Civic Center Authority, which operates The Mark. “Nassau was lagging behind in that market and he took them from the bottom of the market to the top.”
Nassau Coliseum serves as home to the NHL’s New York Islanders, as well as an Arena Football League and a National Lacrosse League team. Mullen said the coliseum hosted 185 events last year, including 26 concerts.
As the top executive of the arena, he said he’ll bring an extensive network of industry contacts to bring more shows to The Mark.
Long Island native Billy Joel, “whose band is almost like our house band there,” is a distinct possibility, Mullen said. And he’s trying hard for U2, which is likely to hit secondary markets after the band’s European tour is completed.
Mullen said the biggest draw to the job was the opportunity to return to the Midwest. He spent his first 10 years in Galena, followed by seven years in Dubuque, where his father was a high school athletic director.
His resume includes work at the Hersheypark Sports and Entertainment Complex, Hershey, Pa.; Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum and Expo Center, Phoenix; Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center, Long Beach, Calif.; Bender Arena, Washington, D.C.; and Philadelphia Civic Center and Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia.
Boeye said a salary has yet to be set for Mullen, but that it would be “very close to the former director’s.” Steve Hyman left The Mark, which he had managed since its opening in 1992, for construction of a new arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill.
Mullen, who applied and was turned down for a job 10 years ago at The Mark, said it was an ideal situation for him.
“The good thing about this position is that it gives me the best of both worlds,” he said. “It gives me an opportunity to raise my family in a place where I’m comfortable and where I grew up, and at the same time I’m in a big-time building. It’s a much respected building in the industry.” –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
