Valerie Camillo Leaves Comcast Spectacor
In a report by Anthony Sanfilippo that has since been confirmed by several others, Valerie Camillo will be leaving Comcast Spectacor to come on July 1st.
It’s a bit of a plot twist. With the total cleansing of hockey ops commenced it’s long been assumed that the business ops side of things would be largely left alone. Camillo is the head of business operations, which makes her a very important piece of the organizational puzzle. Even if she doesn’t have much to do with putting a Stanley Cup contender on the ice.
For that reason, I’d actually call the Camillo exit a piece of bad news. On the whole, her tenure there was a mixed bag that I don’t feel a particular need to relitigate. But she did a thankless job marketing a bad team to a depressed and hopeless fanbase. With this front office turnaround, there was finally something optimistic to market.
For her sake, I’d have liked to see her get that opportunity to reap some fruit out of some otherwise extremely dingy labor. Moreover, she already had the marketing plan and business ops strategies determined, I’m almost certain. That would mean both Keith Jones and Danny Briere had little to consider, other than building a Stanley Cup contender in 3 years.
This exit changes things. The bridge between hockey ops and business ops closing was the foremost goal of the Flyers franchise when they fired Chuck and built this new front office. If they want to salvage that mission, they’ll need to find a new head of business ops that works with the guys in hockey ops–namely, Keith and Danny.
That means more on their plates, other than building a Stanley Cup contender in 3 years. It feels like unnecessary work.
For that reason, I’m convinced there’s more to the story here. But I’m not sure what “more” looks like. Was there a business conflict we were unaware of? Is Valerie stepping down for personal reasons?
Or perhaps Dan Hilferty wants to change more of the organization than what was otherwise conceived. Not too long ago, he was a silent partner to Dave Scott. In very short order, the entire front office has changed around him.
There’s some type of intrigue here, to be sure. But it’s too early to tell what exactly is going on. We, of course, will provide updates as we get them.
Mandatory Credit: Courtesy of Philadelphia Flyers
