Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 5, 1993 TAG: 9312050036
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Carey Harveycutter's days would leave most folks panting in the dust - something akin to dragging through the desert on all fours.
But Harveycutter, director of the Salem Civic Center, pulls off an administrative juggling act with ease. If there is any tension, any worry, it's hidden behind his laughter and cheeky humor.
Take one Thursday last month, three weeks and two days before next Saturday's Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, the NCAA Division III title football game that Salem snagged this year from Bradenton, Fla.
Sesame Street is unloading props in the arena. The lobby is filled with the smell of cotton candy and the sound of helium "phhhttting" into balloons.
Harveycutter is in his office with a phone receiver tucked between his ear and shoulder. "It's ESPN," he whispers. "They're bringing 30 people to the Stagg Bowl."
As civic center director, the Salem football stadium - located on civic center grounds - falls into Harveycutter's purview. Hence, his role as Stagg Bowl director. For months, he and a multijurisdictional committee of 60 people have been plotting every plan and move, right down to the nonalcoholic mimosas at a game day brunch.
Harveycutter checks his watch and quickly reviews the day's schedule: 10 o'clock meeting at City Hall with the Stagg Bowl's host committee; 11 o'clock presentation at the civic center to a group of Liberty University students enrolled in the school's sports management program; 1:30 meeting with an architect to scan blueprints of a future project; 2 o'clock meeting with a representative of Holiday Ford to discuss Christmas party plans.
In between, there will be bantering with the Sesame Street crew and management, a flag salesman who pops in off the street and begs for a few minutes of Harveycutter's time, a quick lunch and a mound of phone calls to return.
"This is a good place to find out what you don't want to do for a living," he says.
Only once does he lose his cherubic demeanor.
The phones are jangling. No one is answering them. Seven lights - blinking.
Harveycutter himself is on the phone. He puts his caller on hold and picks up one ringing line. It is a woman complaining that she's been on hold for several minutes.
And Harveycutter can't stand to keep a customer waiting.
The woman asks about Sesame Street tickets.
"The best seats are 10 dollars; children 8.50; and there's no charge at all for children under 2," he repeats, for the fourth time in the span of 30 minutes.
He buzzes an employee, tersely admonishes him or her, then glances up, face reddened. Slowly, a smile creeps to his face.
"I'm allowed one blow-up, aren't I?" he asks, laughing.
In this madhouse of a business, one blow-up would seem not enough. But after 25 years of revelling in it, Harveycutter, 41, is clearly at home.
Without the chaos, the carnival atmosphere, one gets the impression that Harveycutter would be bored.
He would be, says Forest Jones, Salem's assistant city manager. "That's his personality. He's always got to be doing something.
"And we're smart enough to tell him what we want and get out of his way and let him do it."
Carey Harveycutter has always had a bit of hucksterism in his blood.
At age 9, he was selling tickets, cleaning seats and stuffing programs at Municipal Field for the old Salem Rebels baseball team. By his sophomore year in high school, he also was working the Rebels hockey games as a statistician.
"I've always done something to support sports," he said. "I was never that good a participant."
Harveycutter, still in high school, joined the staff of what was then the Salem-Roanoke County Civic Center in 1968 as an office runner. Several years later, he was named assistant promotions director.
When the county relinquished its share of the civic center in 1983, giving Salem sole ownership, Harveycutter was named administrator of the facility.
His title has since changed to director, in part to reflect his growing responsibilities.
Part of the growth has come from sheer expansion of civic center facilities - primarily the 1985 construction of a $2.5 million football stadium. Part has come from expanded use of civic center grounds - the Salem Fair, for example. And part is Harveycutter's unabashed chutzpah for going after events, even the long shots.
The Stagg Bowl was one.
It first came to the city's attention in early 1991. Dan Wooldridge, commissioner of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, approached Harveycutter and Jones and asked if Salem would be interested in hosting the event.
The idea was proposed to City Council. Council responded favorably. And by December 1991, Jones, Harveycutter and Scott Sampson, a civic center employee who manages the stadium, were flying to Bradenton, Fla. - then in the second year of its three-year contract as the Stagg Bowl's host city - to attend the bowl game.
This past February, armed with a slick 8 1/2-minute video about the city and its sports interest, Jones, Harveycutter and Joe Yates - Salem's director of planning and economic development - traveled to Florida to make a formal presentation to the NCAA Division III football committee. A week later, the NCAA informed Salem officials that it had selected the city over Bradenton.
"We're willing to look at most anything," Harveycutter said. "All people can do is say no. But if they say yes, you get prestigious events that highlight the whole community."
The Stagg Bowl has mushroomed into a Roanoke Valley-wide mega-event involving people from Salem, Roanoke and Roanoke County. Ticket sales have topped the 3,800 mark. The stadium seats 8,000.
Harveycutter is concerned about selling the Roanoke Valley on Division III football.
"People have to realize exactly what it is and what it means," he said. "It's a large undertaking. People don't really know how big it is. We have to get that word out."
Willard Scott, who did his "Today" show weather spots from the Salem Civic Center on Nov. 12, declined to lend a plug. He refused a request to wear a Stagg Bowl cap on the air.
Carey Harveycutter does not do ice.
Ice is costly, he says. He turned down an opportunity for Roanoke Express hockey.
Harveycutter does do dirt, though, at least three times a year.
The Roanoke Valley Horse Show. The rodeo. The tractor pull.
And boxing? Harveycutter had sworn off it after the Mark Gastineau - football-player-turned-boxer - debacle. (Gastineau's boxing debut was wrought with suspicion, after his opponent claimed to have taken a dive 12 seconds into the fight.)
Now, boxing is no longer a Harveycutter "don't."
"Anything for a buck," he says.
Yet, not every event, no matter how large or small, holds the promise of big bucks.
As in the "Peking Circus."
Harveycutter booked it to run for several days in August of last year. The circus looked great, he said, with tremendous feats and an all-Chinese cast.
"It lost $22,000," he said. "Just goes to show you that things that look great may not attract people."
The civic center operates as a department of the city of Salem. Harveycutter's position is not tenured. Like any other employee, "I'm subject to dismissal," he partially jokes, as if knowing the odds of that happening are slim.
Harveycutter has a reputation for working long and working hard. He wears many hats, says Judy Griensenbrock, executive director of the Salem-Roanoke County Chamber of Commerce, "and he wears them all well."
Jones credits Harveycutter with waking a sleeping giant.
"He took that civic center after we got sole ownership and made it into a very viable entity," Jones said. "He found the niche in an established market. Because of his hard-driving mentality, it's successful."
Harveycutter has power unprecedented among managers of civic center-type facilities in other localities. It is power that Roanoke City Councilman Delvis "Mac" McCadden envies.
"I am kind of envious of the power that Salem gives their civic center manager," said McCadden, who heads Cycle Roanoke Valley Inc., the group planning the stage of the Tour DuPont cycling event that will run through the valley next year.
"Carey has an opportunity to go out and brainchild more than our civic center managers here. I admire the way he takes on the task."
McCadden met Harveycutter 20 years ago. He says he was struck by how hardworking Harveycutter was, even then. McCadden has been an admirer ever since.
McCadden said he would not have been co-chairman of the sports committee of the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau unless Harveycutter agreed to serve as the other co-chairman. Harveycutter agreed.
"In terms of logistics of operations, he is as good as I've seen," McCadden said. "His knowledge and expertise on how to put on a show is unparalleled in this area."
Early on, McCadden knew he wanted the Roanoke Valley stage of the Tour DuPont to start at the Salem Civic Center.
"I wanted all three jurisdictions involved," he said. "And I knew that by starting it there, it was going to be handled right. Carey's being there had a lot to do with our decision to start it there."
Ed Rock, president of the International Association of Fairs and Expositions, tapped Harveycutter as chairman of the association's sponsorship committee next year.
"He's very well-respected in the industry among both arena management and fair management," Rock said. "He's one of the good guys in the industry."
Harveycutter's name seems almost tailor-made for his profession. Lively. Fun. Not easily forgotten.
But often confused.
"Half the people call me Harvey," he says.
Carey Harveycutter is in Las Vegas, conventioneering with about 4,000 members of a fair association.
He is weary, he says through the telephone. The trip was tiring, lengthened by mechanical difficulties on a connecting flight.
It is Monday. Harveycutter will return to Salem on Wednesday night. Thursday, he'll go into the office and prepare for the evening's Billy Ray Cyrus concert.
Friday, he'll oversee preparations for a Virginia High School League girls' basketball tournament. Saturday, he'll fly out to Washington, Pa., to attend one of the Stagg Bowl semifinals.
Somewhere between hops, Harveycutter will squeeze in some quality time with his wife, Judy, and their three daughters.
Today, his return begins a week highlighted by the Stagg Bowl.
There are Stagg Bowl luncheons, brunches and receptions that Harveycutter must ensure run smoothly. Players and coaches arrive Thursday. Harveycutter will be on hand to see that they are properly and hospitably taken care of.
Weather is the least of his concerns. That is something even he cannot control.
So what if it rains - or snows, he says.
"We'll get wet."
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by CNB