THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 1, 1995 TAG: 9511010584
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: The CFL: What's in it for Hampton Roads
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SHREVEPORT, LA. LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
Less than two weeks after their season ended, you have to look hard to see that there ever was a football team in this town called the Shreveport Pirates. . . .
Things are slow on a Monday afternoon at the Pirate's Den, the team's ticket office/retail store in a quiet corner of the South Park Mall. Pirates T-shirts and caps, cassettes of Pirates theme music, replica helmets - collectors' items now - wait on racks. When they go, there will be no more.
Behind the counter, Shelly Ragle, the Pirates' head of ticket and merchandise operations, closes out accounts. Ragle, who expects to come to Norfolk soon to help with the Pirates' ticket drive, says the Den will stay open until team president Lonie Glieberman gives the word to close up shop - in more ways than one. . . .
A few miles away, at the Pirates' fifth-floor office, the receptionist's desk is empty. The full-time woman has been let go and a temp couldn't be found on this day, business manager Josh Logan explains.
Logan is one of the few people still on the front-office staff, among those who have said they will move wherever the Pirates go: ``I knew when I got into this business I'd have to move quite a bit.''
Somebody interrupts to tell him that Pirates receiver Curtis Mayfield is on the phone.
``I already talked to him,'' Logan says. ``Tell him his check will go out early next week.''
``I'm not looking forward to leaving,'' Logan continues. ``But I'm from Ohio, so if we go to Virginia, I'll be closer to home. . . . I feel bad for the real fans here. It's not like this is a terrible place. It's just not large enough to support us.'' . . .
Defensive tackle Ben Williams, expected to be named an All-Star for the second year in a row, is the only player left in town. He'll return home to Minneapolis after he does color commentary on ESPN's Grey Cup telecast in two weeks.
``I should get the packet in a couple days,'' Williams says. He has called the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce and requested information to familiarize himself with what might be his new professional address, assuming he re-signs with the Pirates.
As he did in Shreveport, Williams plans to be highly visible in the community, selling the team, selling himself, establishing a link.
``I want to be in the forefront of that,'' Williams says. ``I don't always like getting up early in the morning to go speak somewhere, but it takes that sometimes. This isn't the NFL.'' . . .
In the airport corridor there are framed posters of Shreveport's civic delights: the opera, the symphony, the theater, the glass factory, a river festival, the minor league baseball team and Independence Bowl. No Pirates.
Around town, no billboards.
At the visitors' information kiosks, no Pirates information.
The newspaper still has stories on the Pirates, but mostly dispatches off the wire from Norfolk about Glieberman. . . .
Then again, on this night at the Greenwood Road El Chico restaurant, the Pirates Armada booster club will hold its regularly scheduled meeting. The topic: getting Shreveport another CFL team. by CNB