Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 28, 1994 TAG: 9404280069
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Associated Press and Los Angeles Times reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The league's owners unanimously approved a Vancouver franchise on Wednesday, six months after admitting Toronto. Both teams will begin play in the 1995-96 season.
"Vancouver is a beautiful, fast-growing city," said David Stern, the NBA's commissioner. "It's got a great seaport, great restaurants and great fans."
The addition of Toronto and Vancouver will give the NBA 29 teams. The franchises must pay an entry fee of $125 million, nearly four times the $32.5 million paid by the four expansion teams in the late 1980s.
But Vancouver owner Arthur Griffiths said it's a good investment. He said 7,000 fans have agreed to buy season tickets for a 20,000-seat arena that is under construction.
"We've been overwhelmed by the response," said Griffiths, who also owns the NHL's Vancouver Canucks and the new arena. "We are confident the NBA will be a big success here."
While hockey remains the No. 1 sport in Canada, Griffiths said basketball is growing in popularity, especially in British Columbia.
"We have more high school and college teams than anyplace else in Canada," he said. "When I drive around my neighborhood, I see kids playing basketball all the time. I see them wearing Chicago Bulls' jerseys and Phoenix Suns' shirts. Now they'll be wearing Vancouver paraphernalia."
The team was going to be called the Mounties, but that name has been scrapped because of licensing problems with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
"We're going to do some test marketing and come up with another name," Griffiths said.
Griffiths said he plans to hire a general manager by the end of the summer.
"We want someone with credibility, respect and a strong track record," he said. "We want somebody who knows how to build a franchise from the bottom up."
An expansion draft will be held in the summer of 1995 to stock the Canadian teams, who will take unprotected players from existing clubs. Each expansion team also will get a pick in the first round of the 1995 college draft; one team will pick sixth and the other seventh.
Expansion teams usually struggle for a few years, but Griffiths promised his team will play an exciting brand of basketball.
"The NBA is in the entertainment business, and we plan to give our fans their money's worth," he said.
Vancouver and Toronto will be the first Canadian teams in the NBA since the Toronto Huskies in 1946-47, the league's inaugural season.
Vancouver will play in the Midwest Division. Toronto will be in the Eastern Conference, but the division has yet to be determined.
To gain admission to the league, the Canadian clubs had to get NBA betting removed from their provincial lotteries. The NBA said it wouldn't award franchises to those cities unless the betting was banned.
Keywords:
BASKETBALL
by CNB