Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 4, 1990 TAG: 9005040831
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: RANDY KING SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The sudden development and its impact on Geery's plans for his East Coast Hockey League team in Vinton remained clouded Thursday.
Geery was unavailable for comment, but Henry Brabham, who sold the ECHL club to Geery last summer and owns the LancerLot, where the team plays, said the New Yorker "had better get his act together here.
"I met with Richard for about 10 minutes Tuesday and he told me, `I'll sell you the team back for $60,000.' I told him, `You're crazy.'
"He [Geery] owes me money," said Brabham, who also owns the Johnstown (Pa.) ECHL franchise. "He owes people all over town. And if he doesn't make payment to me and to the people of the Roanoke Valley by June 1, I'm going to propose to the board at the league meeting on June 3 to pull his franchise.
"If he doesn't make some kind of settlement with me in 30 days, I'm going to cancel his contract at the LancerLot.
"He can move the team if he wants and play somewhere else. Or he can pay his bills and stay if he wants. But one way or another, no matter what happens, there will be hockey in Virginia [Roanoke] next season. If Richard leaves, I will bring my own team into the LancerLot."
Geery had explored moving the Lancers to Greenville, S.C., but that deal fell through when Greenville city officials decided not to approve funds for ice-making equipment at the Greenville Memorial Coliseum.
Birmingham becomes the seventh North American franchise in the new intercontinental league that will begin play in November.
The GHL previously awarded franchises to Providence, R.I.; Albany, N.Y.; Cleveland; the Los Angeles area; Hamilton, Ontario, and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
European cities committed to the Los Angeles-based league are London; Lyons, France; Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Prague, Czechoslovakia; Berlin and Milan, Italy.
John Kanel, the acting administrator of the GHL, said in a telephone interview from his office in Birmingham that the league hopes to add three more North American franchises in the next two to three weeks before the league's player draft in June.
Kanel said each team will have a $2.6 million salary cap. He said the length of the season has yet to be decided, but the owners favor an 80-game schedule. Each North American team will make two overseas trips to play the European clubs, and vice versa.
by CNB