27, 1996: “Would you spend $300 for a top ticket to a Copps Coliseum concert? You might if the performer was world-class tenor Luciano Pavarotti. I’ll give you an (American Hockey League) team out of Nova Scotia, and I’d like to invite you to Edmonton to attend the Pavarotti concert.’ I thought: Oh boy, fantastic! And I sat in the front row, and had dinner with Pavarotti and his manager, and that’s when we made a deal with him to come to Hamilton.” Macaluso: “Pocklington said, ‘Gabe I’ve got something for you. In the fall of 1995, Pocklington phoned Macaluso and threw him a bone.
Macaluso had been chatting with the owner of the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, Peter Pocklington, about moving the team to Hamilton, but the deal never materialized. But it was always: ‘We’ll call you.’ And the years went by.” And we have a philharmonic orchestra that’s been around 100 years. I ended up chasing him for 10 years, and his people kept telling me: ‘He’ll play Toronto but he doesn’t need to come to Hamilton, which is not a cultural kind of city.’ And I said that’s far from the truth, and there are over 80,000 Italians living in our area, and most love classical music. And the third was bring Pavarotti to the city. One was to bring an NHL team to Hamilton, the second to have Frank Sinatra perform here. Gabe Macaluso, CEO of Hamilton Entertainment and Convention Facilities (HECFI): “There were three things I wanted to accomplish as CEO.
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