Stephen Sylvanie / Special to the Sun
Former Las Vegas Wranglers goaltender Marc Magliarditi, left, his son and Wranglers General Manager Billy Johnson after being presented a plaque in recognition of his induction into the ECHL Hall of Fame in January 2013.
Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015 | 3:29 p.m.
When Billy Johnson announced in late December that he was leaving the Las Vegas Wranglers, he promised that he would be working in a different scope.
Turns out it is a stethoscope.
Having left Las Vegas’s pro hockey team after more than a decade as its president and COO, Johnson has taken the position as director of the University Medical Center Foundation.
The UMC Foundation is the nonprofit division that raises donations for the medical center on West Charleston Boulevard, which is affiliated with University of Nevada School of Medicine. Johnson completed his first week Friday.
“It was really heartwarming to experience the reception from everyone on the staff as I walked through the hospital,” Johnson said in a phone chat Saturday night. “It was amazing the positive response I felt because of the Wranglers.”
Johnson has worked in the operation of sports franchises for the past 25 years, moving to Las Vegas with the hockey team for its inaugural season of 2003-2004. Johnson was the pilot of the promotional program that helped the Wranglers become a locals’ favorite, drawing more than 4,000 per game at Orleans Arena.
But the team was jettisoned from their home ice at the end of 2013 and has still not found a suitable home venue. If there is nothing in place by the time the ECHL winter meetings Jan. 21, the team might well be finished in this city.
Johnson has spent the better part of a year trying to find a home for the hockey team, with a deal to play at the Plaza downtown beginning this season melting away in February.
In the months after, he was recruited to perform the same sort of marketing magic he worked with the Wranglers. Over the years, the franchise became well known for its inventive promotions, most of them devised by Johnson’s oft-obtuse sense of humor.
Dick Cheney Hunting Vest Night, Wranglers Midnight Circus and Regrettable Tattoo Night were among Johnson’s more inspired events. So was a visit by velvety lounge singer Tony Clifton, long ago the alter ego of Andy Kaufman and today a close associate of comedy writer Bob Zmuda.
Johnson says he will continue to use that fertile imagination to build a plan to raise awareness and funds for UMC, saying, “What I’ll be doing will not be that much different from what I have been doing with the Wranglers in terms of generating publicity and making news.”
It will be fascinating to see how the one-time Billy Bird of the Louisville Redbirds minor league baseball team scripts a marketing campaign for a medical center.
Because of budget shortfalls, UMC has not staffed the foundation director position for nearly five years, after Suzanne Hackett-Morgan left the post.
A week into the new job, Johnson is already in UMC mode.
“UMC is an amazing asset in this county, and that’s why I took the job,” said Johnson, who was approached by UMC officials about six months ago with this career opportunity. “I want to present it in a way that people have not thought of it before.”
Johnson says the general idea is “to make health care fun.”
We’ll await those results. In the meantime, fill out this form and take a seat. Dr. Clifton will see you soon.
The Orleans Arena, a Boyd Gaming facility located just west of the Las Vegas Strip, is one of the nation’s leading mid-sized arenas, and was recently ranked No. 1 in the United States and No. 5 internationally among venues of similar size by Venues Today Magazine.
The Arena hosts more than 200 events each year, including concerts by top names like Carrie Underwood, Daughtry, Van Halen, Brooks & Dunn, Black Eyed Peas, Akon and Rihanna; family favorites like The Harlem Globetrotters and Circus Spectacular; and a wide variety of sporting events, including NCAA basketball tournaments, the West Coast Conference and Western Athletic Conference Basketball Championships, mixed martial arts with Superior Cage Combat, and major motorsports events.
The arena serves as home to the Las Vegas Wranglers professional ECHL hockey team, the Las Vegas Legends professional indoor soccer team, and the Lingerie Football League’s Las Vegas Sin. Stay connected to the Orleans Arena on Facebook (www.facebook.com/orleansarena) and on Twitter (@orleansarena).
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.
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