THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 22, 1994 TAG: 9406220596
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940622 LENGTH: Long
A strong leader of a well-funded sports authority charged with attracting a major-league franchise to the area.
{REST} A supportive corporate community from which an ownership consortium and a visionary board of directors could be formed.
An individual with $100 million of disposable income and a desire to own a new toy.
And:
A 45,000-seat baseball-only ballpark with grass.
A 70,000-seat football stadium.
An 18,000-seat indoor arena for basketball and hockey.
And:
A vital marketplace with a demonstrated enthusiasm for and desire to support major league sports.
The current climate in an incredibly competitive major league sports landscape demands a combination of all those factors. Any weakness dilutes a region's bid.
``Leadership is No. 1,'' says Anne Duncan, a Virginia native who heads the non-profit Dallas International Sports Commission, a private organization which sparked the deal that brought the Minnesota North Stars hockey club to Dallas last year. ``You can't have any of the other things, the bricks and mortar or the financial resources, without the right leadership. And committed leadership.
``It's not if-you-build-it-they-will-come as much as people say. It's much more that you go out and make it happen.''
Reality would say that Hampton Roads, which is starting nearly from scratch, is years away from entering the big leagues, even though its sports profile has improved drastically with the popularity of the minor league Hampton Roads Admirals and Norfolk Tides.
Among others, Tides president Ken Young, a Tampa, Fla., resident whose investment group bought the Tides from the New York Mets for more than $7 million two years ago, thinks major league football and baseball are pipe dreams for Hampton Roads.
Not only because of the staggering startup cost - the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies paid $95 million for their baseball franchises, the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars anted up $140 million to enter the NFL - but also because other cities, denied before in the expansion game, still have ownership groups, stadium plans and the financial wherewithal waiting in line for another chance.
And new players are continually entering the fray.
Young contends that the long-range outlook is more promising for an indoor sport, and something more prestigious than arena football or box lacrosse.
``I'd say an NHL franchise is No. 1, the NBA is No. 2,'' Young says. ``An expansion franchise in the NHL costs $50 million right now while an NBA franchise costs $125 million. A big-money person might perceive the NHL as offering a greater chance for an earlier return.''
Young, though, suggests we're better positioned for a franchise interested in relocating instead of expansion. Yet the fields are cluttered with cities angling for both opportunities.
In all but baseball, which still enjoys a tenuous antitrust exemption under scrutiny from a U.S. Senate subcommittee, teams may change cities if they adhere to league rules governing such moves. Baseball has a freer hand to block transfers, as it did when the San Francisco Giants had a deal to skip to St. Petersburg, Fla., in 1992.
As for the various expansion strategies, they are unofficial, although some clarity can be gained from sketchy media reports.
Baseball has a nine-member expansion committee that this month recommended continued exploration of expansion, probably for the 1998 season, in order to balance its six divisions at five teams apiece.
Baseball's owners are said to be using expansion as a bargaining chip in their attempt to secure a salary cap in the current contract talks with the player's association. Whenever it happens, however, Phoenix and Tampa-St. Petersburg are considered favorites from a field that also includes Orlando, Charlotte, Washington and Buffalo, N.Y.
Within the NFL, ``there is some sentiment to expand again to 32 teams sometime in the near future,'' NFL spokesman Greg Aiello says. Prospective candidates will line up behind St. Louis and Baltimore, while the league also explores Canadian interest.
The NBA has said it has international expansion, inside and outside North America, on its mind, but probably not before the turn of the century.
That leaves the NHL, the more economical alternative. The league has expanded by five teams in the last five years, and a NHL official has hinted that another two teams could be added by 2000. If so, it figures to be a free-for-all, especially in the Southeast, where minor-league hockey has boomed and where the NHL is unrepresented between Washington and Tampa.
``If you saw a market, you might scout it out and say, `This is a great city; who're the potential owners you could have down there?' '' NHL spokesman Arthur Pincus says. ``You might do something like that. But with the interest we get, I don't think that's necessary.''
In other words, major league franchises do not simply land in laps, begging for adoption. They never have in Hampton Roads. And especially in today's multi-billion dollar sports marketplace, they never will.
{KEYWORDS} PROFESSIONAL SPORTS MAJOR LEAGUE SPORTS
by CNB