EVERETT — The woman who has managed the events center in downtown Everett since its 2003 opening will leave her position in November to oversee public facilities in Tacoma, including the Tacoma Dome.
Kim Bedier, general manager of the Comcast Arena at Everett, has accepted the role of public assembly facilities director for the City of Tacoma beginning Nov. 14. Her last day in Everett is Nov. 9.
“It was just one of those career opportunities,” Bedier said of her new job.
Philadelphia-based Global Spectrum manages the events center in Everett. Comcast Arena includes a skating rink, conference center and 10,000-seat arena, which was a city-led redevelopment project.
Bedier helped open the $71.5 million facility, then called the Everett Events Center, in October 2003.
Since the center’s opening, it has become home to the Everett Silvertips hockey team and Washington Stealth lacrosse team. Under Bedier’s watch, the center has drawn musical acts like Justin Bieber, ZZ Top, The Cure and B.B. King.
The center also has hosted events like Skate America and the Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championship. Events like those “really put Everett on the map,” Bedier said. And that’s what community leaders had in mind when they decided to build it — to give people a reason to get off I-5 and come to Everett, she said.
As for the future of Comcast Arena, Bedier said she’s leaving it in good hands — a team of arena workers who are “passionate” about the center. The arena has a pretty strong calendar of events coming up, she said.
And “slowly but surely, we’re coming out” of the recession, she said. The economic downturn hurt the center’s ticket revenue in 2008 and 2009.
Bedier’s position has been advertised within Global Spectrum but has not been posted externally yet.
Prior to coming to Everett, Bedier opened two events centers in Canada: the Air Canada Centre in Toronto and Crystal Centre in Grande Prairie, Alberta. She holds a bachelor’s degree in recreation and physical education from Acadia University and has 20 years experience in venue management. In Tacoma, Bedier not only will oversee the Tacoma Dome but also Cheney Stadium, the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center and the Bicentennial Pavilion.
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