THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510290207
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C12 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Long : 179 lines
Lonie Glieberman, 27, is president of the Shreveport (La.) Pirates of the Canadian Football League. For 2 1/2 years before that, Glieberman ran the Ottawa Rough Riders.
Glieberman hopes to move the Pirates, which lost $8 million in its two seasons in Shreveport, to Hampton Roads for the 1996 season, if a planned season-ticket drive nets 15,000 orders by January. He had put out some feelers about a move to other cities, including Milwaukee and Dallas.
He is negotiating a stadium lease with Old Dominion University to use 25,400-seat Foreman Field.
During an interview with reporters and editors of The Virginian-Pilot last week, Glieberman discussed the past and future of the Pirates and the CFL.
Here is an edited text of the interview:
On why he chose Hampton Roads:
``The key thing, as with all sports, is fan support. The population is definitely here. The CFL is a great thing for this community not only from a standpoint of community pride but also from the standpoint of getting their name out all over the country, both countries (U.S. and Canada) for that matter and tourism is a big industry here. We know that we can help definitely bring a lot of Canadian tourists down in this area because the TV is going to show games back in Canada.''
On talking with other cities:
``Here's what we're doing so we don't get everybody confused. We thought about, `Let's do ticket drives in all these communities (Hampton Roads, Milwaukee and Dallas).' Then we thought, wait a minute. Say all three of them hit their ticket drive. What are you telling the public? So what we decided is to pick the market that is our first choice, and that's this one. If this hits the goal, there's no question we're going here. We'll still talk to Milwaukee and sometimes to Dallas about lease arrangements. We'll talk to a couple of corporate sponsors, but from the standpoint of ticket drives, you can only make one commitment. It's kind of like marriage: You can only ask one person to marry you.''
On ``recruiting'' players here:
``One thing we're looking at are CFL free agents. These guys are going to say, `Wait a minute, for the same amount of money that Memphis or Saskatchewan is offering, I can come here and live in a great community, go to excellent schools and raise a family.' Nobody likes to go back and forth. Nobody likes to live in one place for six months and then go back for six months. They like to be part of the community. A lot of guys are excited about here because they know the area's supposed to be really nice with a lot of beaches and all of that stuff and because Virginia's supposed to be a very good state.''
On why he stays in the CFL even though he's losing money:
``Because we're masochistic. I'd grown up watching this league, and I believe it's going to succeed in the States. The owners in this league have stuck through the losses because we all believe that there will be a TV contract. Maybe in '96, maybe in '97, maybe in '98. But we believe that it's out there, it's going to happen. We need to weather the storm and get through this time. We think it's a great investment.''
On what his father, team owner Bernie Glieberman, expects:
``I would say his instructions right now are to find the best market for CFL football and get the job done. . . . We're going to get that thing rolling and if we can accomplish the ticket goals we can accomplish the rest of the hurdles.''
On what CFL commissioner Larry Smith says about Hampton Roads:
``He said, `Great market, where you going to play?' We said we think we can find a solution. I can't speak for him, but if he knew this market was going to be a sold-out stadium market, and had sold 15,000 season tickets in two months, I think he'd overlook some of the things you look for in a normal stadium deal.''
On losing seasons in Shreveport:
``There's no excuses and we offer no excuses. We deserve the record we have, but in fairness to (quarterback) Billy Joe (Tolliver), it takes an NFL guy about one half to a full year to develop. Doug Flutie was on the BC Lions in 1990 and his team's record was 3-15. And Doug even got benched a couple of times. On defense, that's where we are a little weak. We are lacking some ability there and some quickness. These are probably the holes we have to fill in the offseason to be a team that contends for the Grey Cup.''
On the front-office operation:
``I really do feel that in 1995 we ran the club very well. In 1994 we made some mistakes in some hiring we did and we changed those things. In the football operations side we hired Forrest Gregg. I think Forrest has a track record that proves his credibility instantly. The executive vice president for business operations, Bill Haase, was with the Detroit Tigers for 17 years. . . organization.''
On the value of season tickets:
``The reason the season-ticket base is so important is because you never can guarantee weather, and you can't guarantee victories, so you can't rely simply on a walk-up crowd because you don't know what's going to happen. We feel that if we have 15,000 in season tickets by January we know that going into the season that we can plan on about 17,000 or 18,000 and with a normal walk-up crowd we could end up with about 23,000.''
On ticket sales in Shreveport:
``People were saying it's too expensive, so we said kids 12- and under come in free. We saw a minimal increase in attendance. We did direct mail, we did telemarketing. We went out and combed the entire area. Ticket sales-wise, we just were not successful there and we don't know the answer. We sit here today and we still don't know the answer. When you only have 250,000 people to draw from and 30 percent of them are below the poverty line, you may just have a fundamental problem of having not enough numbers. ''
On Hampton Roads season tickets:
``We're looking at prices right now of between $175 and $215 for sidelines. We want to make sure that the average family could afford to go. The main customer who will support a CFL team is the family. We do feel that the enthusiasm and the interest is there. Now it's our job to cultivate the interest.''
On season-ticket deposits:
``We'd be asking for $50. It will go into a trust account set up by a law firm so that the money is never going into our hands. None of the money is cashed or taken by the club until the team is officially granted to this community. So nobody has to worry about what's going to happen with their money.''
On Foreman Field renovations:
``I would say it is not fair for the club to bear the cost of that only because that's the norm in professional sports. We are not looking to come in here looking for someone to build us luxury box suites. The club is prepared to come here and it's prepared to commit itself to here and make a significant financial investment here, but we're not profitable. At this time, no, we wouldn't bear the cost.''
On the possibility that Norfolk won't pay for the renovations:
``We know what we have to accomplish here. And I will just say that our talks with ODU and the mayor will remain private. We obviously know we have to have certain things done and we will work towards that accomplishment.''
On the future at Foreman Field:
``The reality is Foreman Field's a temporary solution. It's just not adequate. It's not what can make a CFL team successful in the long term. But we just feel this sports community is so strong and so big without other NFL or major college football around here, that this is such an opportunity we need to go for it. No question, long-term there's going to have to be a new stadium for a CFL team to be successful here. It's our job first to show people in the state and community that we're sold out, that people here really want this thing, because i don't think anybody's going to make any kind of commitment towards us until we show them that the public's behind us.''
On how long he could stay in Foreman Field:
``I think three years is probably top end. And the reason I say that is that we'd be drawing 26,000 a game and I think the salary cap will eventually go up and that's where we start to be affected because you've got stadiums elsewhere in the country and Canada that hold in excess of 30,000. So we won't be able to maximize our revenue from concessions and signage because the facility was built in 1932.''
On what to do if you have to wait longer for a new stadium:
``I don't honestly have an answer for that right now. The other alternative is temporary stands in Foreman Field to bring it up to say 30,000 for another two years, things like that. If we're selling 26,000 a game, we'd be viable enough to bring in extra stands for the extra two years. As long as we know it's being built, i think the CFL would feel comfortable, I think we would feel comfortable.''
On the stability of the CFL:
``Our commitment is that we will be playing football in '96. In the CFL it is not exactly unusual this time of year to be going through this kind of stuff. The CFL has this kind of relationship and that's because of lack of TV revenue and you're always going to hear this kind of stuff this time of year. This league has been around for 104 years. It's had a great history. What it has to do is find a way to give the American teams more support because right now without TV we are kind of out in the wilderness.''
On the CFL's TV prospects:
``We have eliminated pursuing ABC, NBC and Fox for the obvious reasons. We are pursuing things with CBS and there's also ESPN and Warner Brothers and we don't want to forget USA Network.''
On the importance of winning:
``You never can guarantee wins because you have no physical control over that, but we always will be committed to winning. You can check with the guys in Shreveport: from day one when we saw a mistake we made changes immediately. are two American teams playing to win that Grey Cup this year and we hope they don't win it, because we want to be the first.'' ILLUSTRATION: JIM WALKER/Virginian-Pilot photos
``The key thing, as with all sports, is fan support. The population
is definitely here. The CFL is a great thing for this community.''
``The reason the season-ticket base is so important is because you
never can guarantee weather. You can't guarantee victories.''
``The reality is Foreman Field's a temporary solution. . . . It's
not what can make a CFL team successful in the long term.''
by CNB