THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510290166
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 195 lines
Most who have done business with Lonie Glieberman agree that the 27-year-old heir to a $400 million family fortune is unpretentious, honest and affable - the kind of guy you'd love as a frat brother or a best friend.
But is the man who wants to bring the Canadian Football League to Hampton Roads qualified to run a professional football franchise? On that the jury is bitterly divided.
Glieberman has been president of CFL teams for more than four years, thanks to his father, Bernie, a respected Midwestern homebuilder who has purchased two franchises for his son to run.
At both stops - 2 1/2 years with the Ottawa Rough Riders and two with the Shreveport (La.) Pirates - Glieberman has run up more than $10 million in red ink and hasn't had a winning season.
Now the Pirates want to plant their skull-and-crossbones at Norfolk's aging Foreman Field, where Glieberman insists that the third time will be the charm.
Those left behind in the wreckage of Shreveport and Ottawa advise this area to think twice.
Said Ottawa mayor Jacquelin Holzman, whose city is suing the Gliebermans and has been countersued as a result: ``We were not surprised when they went to Shreveport that they chose the name Pirates.''
Counters Forrest Gregg, the former NFL Hall of Famer and the Pirates coach: ``Lonie is the finest owner I've ever worked for. I find it hard to believe the mayor said that.
When I ran into her last year at the Grey Cup, she asked where Lonie was. She wanted to give him a hug.''
When it comes to opinions on Glieberman, there is no shortage. And there is no consensus.
Shreveport City Councilman Cedric Glover: ``He's young, naive and doesn't listen. In many respects, having the Pirates was like having the child you love with the woman you don't exactly hate, but don't want to be with. If there was a way to do something that would offend someone, they (the Gliebermans) would figure out a way to do that.''
Steve Ernhart, part owner of the CFL's Memphis Mad Dogs: ``He's a very knowledgeable young guy with a lot of energy. They put together a good team this year that could be very good in Virginia.''
Orvis Sigler, former Army basketball coach and sports coordinator for the city of Shreveport: ``It's been a bad operation from the very beginning. They never put a quality product on the field. I can't recommend that you get in bed with them.''
Bill Haase, former Detroit Tigers vice president and director of operations for the Pirates since March: ``We did everything we could to make it work in Shreveport. I put in 18 years with the Tigers and I would not risk my reputation on an organization that I didn't think did things the right way and that I felt wasn't going to succeed.''
Dale Sibley, former director of economic development for Shreveport: ``They ran a makeshift operation. They never got to know this area, the people, the way things are done here. When people tried to offer advice, good advice, it often fell on deaf ears.''
Don Brennan, CFL beat writer for the Ottawa Sun: ``We've had four owners in five years. As far as actually digging into their pockets, being at games and being front and center to answer questions, they were far and away the best we've had. But Lonie was young and made youthful mistakes.''
Insisting that he has learned from his mistakes, Glieberman blew into Hampton Roads last week with all of the finesse of a tank. He announced a season-ticket drive, but did so by crashing somebody else's party - a roundtable discussion Tuesday in Norfolk.
The focus of the forum was supposed to be: ``Should Hampton Roads aspire to become a major league city?'' Instead, once Glieberman was introduced, it turned into a discussion of the CFL and his grand hopes. Glieberman envisions 15,000 season-ticket holders, a home attendance average of more than 20,000, a CFL championship and eventually a larger stadium.
Most of all, he envisions a team that will pull the area's frequently contentious communities together: ``This is the right market for the CFL at the right time.''
Yet the men and women whose cooperation will be necessary to make that dream come true are withholding judgment. Several area business and political leaders who asked not to be identified said they are wary of Glieberman, and would need more convincing before embracing him.
``He came to town with no business plan, no numbers, without a great knowledge of our area,'' one area official said. ``He's been late to some meetings. He's done more talking than listening and isn't asking the right questions.
``I think there's a consensus that we want the CFL, that we think it can work. We wonder if this is the right owner at the right time.''
Haase insists that Glieberman is.
``We've heard people from Shreveport are taking potshots at Lonie,'' he said. ``It's true that he made mistakes. But we all make mistakes.
``Put aside what happened the first few years. He hired Forrest Gregg as his head coach and Forrest is well on his way to building a winner. Was that a mistake? Lonie has given me a free hand to make decisions. Was that a mistake?
``Sometimes Lonie is a little impatient and that makes him impetuous. But that's because he wants so much to succeed. He's a good man to work for, and if the community gives him a chance, he'll succeed.''
In spite of his family's immense wealth, friend and foe alike describe Glieberman is something of an average Joe. He was raised in the home, a modest one given their assets, his father purchased three decades ago. As a teenager, he worked digging ditches.
Lonie eschewed private school to attend Groves High School in his native West Bloomfield, Mich., a Detroit suburb where he was the voice of the school's football and wrestling teams on the local cable-TV outlet.
He was small (5-foot-4) and did not play varsity sports, but he was an avid playground competitor who lifted weights and has been a proficient skier since grade school. He lived in a dormitory at Michigan State, where his grades were above average, though not spectacular.
He often wears casual clothes, sans socks. In Shreveport he lived in a modest apartment and drove an aging Chrysler.
Glieberman doesn't drink, smoke or take the Lord's name in vain. He is staunchly patriotic, religious and a sports nut who has memorized an amazing array of sports trivia.
He never wanted to follow his dad into the construction business. Instead, for two decades he fantasized about owning a CFL team.
Eric Clark, a boyhood friend and the son of ex-Detroit Lions coach Monte Clark, said Glieberman grew up watching the CFL in Michigan, which borders Canada.
``It wasn't the NFL for Lonie,'' Clark told the Ottawa Sun. ``But name any off-shoot or private league and Lonie loved it. He'd try anything outside the NFL.''
Running a CFL team, Clark said, ``was always Lonie's dream.''
The dream began to come true in 1991 when Lonie, then just 22, was talking with actor John Candy, a longtime friend and part owner of the Toronto Argonauts.
Glieberman was trying to convince the CFL to allow his family to purchase a $3 million expansion franchise and move it to Detroit, but the league declined.
Candy, who died last year, suggested that Glieberman instead buy the perennially troubled Ottawa Rough Riders, then for sale for $1. Glieberman did it.
``I remember he (Candy) called me at 3 a.m. to tell me we got the deal, that it was going to work,'' Glieberman said.
At first, things went smoothly. The Gliebermans took over in late 1991 and finished well. In '92, the Rough Riders were 9-9, their first break-even record since 1979, and averaged nearly 25,000 per game.
But by the end of '93, the honeymoon was over. The team was losing, two assistant coaches had quit in disgust and the Canadian media was roasting Glieberman.
Reporters pilloried him for his height, his propensity for talking too much, his patriotism and even his habit of drinking water in bars. Once, he was lampooned for a bar fight, in which he punched a patron who took a swing at his girlfriend, Lisa Cole. The patron, reported the Ottawa Citizen, had uttered a slur about Glieberman's Jewish heritage, causing Cole to grab his neck.
``It really hurt my mother when she read those stories,'' Glieberman said. ``She would cry when she read them. But it never bothered me. I realized early on that you've got to take things like that like a man.''
Glieberman acknowledges that much damage was self-inflicted.
Once, when asked after a game by an Ottawa reporter if coach Ron Smeltzer would be the team's head coach for the next game, he replied: ``Probably.''
After moving to Shreveport, he told McRae: ``Southern girls are not only sexy and beautiful, but real feminine. Canadian girls, they're so hard and feminist.'' That did not sit well in Canada, where eight of the CFL's 13 franchises reside.
``Lonie's a decent guy,'' said Kent Heithold, the Shreveport Times' Pirates writer. ``He and his father just made a lot of mistakes in judgment.
``Lonie's biggest problem might have been telling the truth. You expect to get lied to in the CFL. Being honest got them in more trouble than hiding things.''
That was especially true at midseason this year, when he admitted he was thinking of moving the franchise elsewhere.
``Lonie suffered from a terminal case of foot-in-mouth disease,'' said Glover, the Shreveport councilman. ``The fans here are very sensitive. When you admit at midseason you're thinking of moving the team, what do you expect to happen?
``There was never a commitment made to this area.''
Glieberman countered: ``What was I supposed to do when I was asked that question, lie?
``Look, we gave it our best shot in Shreveport. I don't know why things didn't work and because I was the president, it was my fault. But how many other business in Shreveport stayed after losing ($8 million) in two years?''
``Lonie is a good person. I like him,'' Glover said. ``But if I were you in Norfolk, I'd learn from our experience. You need to know whether they're going to make a long-term commitment to be part of your community.
``If there is such a commitment, it might work. If not, you're better off going in another direction.''
Glieberman said the commitment will be there if the season-ticket sale is successful.
``We're going to lose money here the first few years,'' he said. ``We know that. But we know this will be profitable in time. We're sure we've found the right market. The response here has just been so positive.
``We're going to be involved in the community. My father will build homes here. We'll be here for the long haul.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot
Some praise Lonie Glieberman's ability. Others tell this area to
watch out.
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