ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, June 3, 1996 TAG: 9606030145
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NORFOLK
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE LARGEST metropolitan area remaining without a major-league franchise wants a basketball team.
The Tidewater area of Virginia is intensifying efforts to attract an NBA expansion franchise.
The city of Norfolk is turning its campaign to land an NBA team over to the Hampton Roads Partnership, a coalition of 53 regional business, civic, political and military leaders.
At its meeting Wednesday, the organization's executive committee plans to name a subcommittee to hire a consultant, who will be asked to determine if the region can support an arena and attract an NBA team.
Hampton Roads is the nation's largest metropolitan area without a major sports team.
Talk of landing a NBA franchise began three years ago with an informal discussion in the Norfolk economic development office on Hampton Roads' future.
``We tried to define what we thought the region should be,'' said Robert B. Smithwick, then Norfolk's director of economic development. ``When we did, in order to be all of those things, we determined we had to have a major sports team.''
Smithwick spoke with Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim, then began a campaign to put Hampton Roads into the big leagues. The effort landed Smithwick in the New York City office of NBA commissioner David J. Stern, who said the region has a good shot of landing a franchise if it puts together a proposal that includes an ownership group and a commitment to build a 20,000-seat arena.
Fraim acknowledged that Hampton Roads is a long way from meeting those requirements. But he said his city's efforts have put Hampton Roads on the NBA's prospective expansion map.
``The NBA knows who we are and that we are interested,'' he said. ``We have their attention.''
Before he began wooing the NBA, Smithwick contacted all the major leagues, including the NFL, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and even the Canadian Football League.
With NFL and Major League Baseball expansion years away, Smithwick turned to the NHL and the NBA, which has no formal plans to expand but is expected to in the next decade. The focus quickly moved to basketball, in part because the region has a successful minor-league hockey team.
Smithwick also was convinced that the NHL was more interested in markets such as Atlanta, Cleveland and Houston than Hampton Roads.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 linesby CNB