THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 5, 1995 TAG: 9511050222
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 118 lines
Hampton Roads is famous for its beaches, naval bases, Colonial Williamsburg and the inability of its cities to cooperate on just about anything.
From water to light rail to building sports facilities, the area's seven major cities have a long history of clubbing each other over the head.
Twenty-five years ago, the NFL eyed Hampton Roads as a prospective expansion site, and the area responded by not building a stadium and making no coordinated effort to find an ownership group.
As the NBA expanded to cities such as Orlando and Charlotte, both smaller than Hampton Roads, area leaders again did nothing to attract a franchise.
Hampton Roads cities and universities have combined to build five coliseums seating less than 11,000 each - but none adequate to host a major sports team.
But, for perhaps the first time, community cooperation seems to have a pulse. And it is being brought to life by none other than a ragged Canadian Football League franchise.
The skeptics still control the floor, and rightfully so. But there is hope on the horizon - though it is clouded by ``ifs.''
If Lonie Glieberman moves his Shreveport (La.) Pirates CFL franchise to Norfolk, and if the team draws in excess of 20,000 fans a game for a couple years to aging Foreman Field . . .
``If that were to occur,'' Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim said, ``then I would think it would be clear the market could sustain a long-term commitment to professional football. And I believe the city of Norfolk would be willing to assist in an effort to build a multipurpose facility.''
Fraim, who acknowledges that a new stadium likely would not be built in Norfolk, has company. Former television sportscaster Brad Face, president of The Face Company in Norfolk and a member of the Sports Authority of Hampton Roads, also believes a CFL team could lead to a stadium.
``In the event that the team does draw well,'' Face said, ``then I would think the area would have to look at the CFL as the city of Norfolk looked at the Tides when it built Harbor Park.
``I can't believe if things are going well . . . that the area would not act to preserve a team in a league that receives national media attention.''
Still, that optimism is hardly universal. W.W. Harrison Jr., who represents the Lynnhaven Borough on the Virginia Beach City Council and is an avid sports enthusiast, remains skeptical of the CFL: ``I would rather wait and get the region together to try to attract a team in the next round of NFL expansion.''
Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf also is cautious, saying the resort city will ``watch the development of the team with interest'' while acknowledging that a pro football team ``would be good for the area.''
Art Collins, who heads the sports authority, says it's too early for talk of a new stadium: ``I think that discussion is premature. We don't know if the team is going to come.''
But Morton V. Whitlow, a former Portsmouth city councilman who represents that city on the sports authority, said the area needs a stadium with or without a CFL team.
``The fact is, Foreman Field will have to be replaced someday,'' he said. ``I'm an optimist. I still think we might be able to move up to the NFL. And for that, we need a stadium. The CFL could be the first step in that direction.''
If a stadium is to be built, many questions remain: How much would it cost? How would it be funded? Where would it be built? How large would it be?
Glieberman said he would like a 35,000-seat stadium with adequate parking, luxury boxes and modern press and concession facilities. Officials from HOK Sports, a consulting firm based in Kansas City, Mo., say that would cost a minimum of $50 million, assuming the stadium were designed to be expandable and to meet NFL standards.
Several years ago, the sports authority examined sites throughout Hampton Roads and deemed the location where Harbor Park now sits as the region's best for a football stadium. That, of course, is no longer available.
Other sites, listed in order of preference: Tidewater Community College's Portsmouth campus in Suffolk, a vacant site on the waterfront in the West Norfolk portion of Portsmouth, Bowers Hill in Chesapeake, the Greenbrier area of Chesapeake and a location just north of Williamsburg in Toano.
Of those locations, Suffolk would appear to be the early front-runner. It is close to the Monitor-Merrimac Tunnel and has a waterfront view of three downtowns - Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News.
The stadium almost certainly would be funded with tax dollars. Glieberman said the team can't afford to fund a stadium, and most new stadiums in the country are built by cities.
Collins and others agree that the likely funding vehicle would be the sports authority, which has no power to tax, but can float bonds that are backed by area cities.
A recently released report by HOK Sports and Brailsford Associates of Washington recommended the sales tax in Hampton Roads be increased 1/4 cent on the dollar to raise the $128 million to $140 million needed for a 20,000-seat non-football indoor arena. The proposal would have to be approved by the General Assembly and all eight area jurisdictions: the cities of Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Virginia Beach, and Isle of Wight County.
The arena would be paid off in six years, the report said. By extending the tax another two or three years, a stadium also could be paid for.
Harrison says the arena project and a stadium probably must be linked with a vehicle for sharing economic development from those projects.
``It's do-able, but you'd have to have some broader consensus on some of the issues which divide this region,'' he said. ``We're in competition with each other for economic development. We start gobbling at each other like piranha. I'm speaking as a Norfolk lawyer who's on the Beach City Council.
``Somehow we need some basis for sharing revenues from economic development. Everyone must somehow share in the benefits. We would need General Assembly approval for that. Who knows, (an arena and a stadium) might be the catalyst for this.''
Fraim agrees: ``Those are types (of) discussions we would love to enter into with our neighbors.''
Regardless, Bill Haase, the Pirates executive vice president, said the team will not survive without a new home.
``Foreman Field can be made to work for a while,'' he said. ``But if professional football is to survive and flourish in Hampton Roads, there must eventually be a new stadium.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
JOHN EARLE/The Virginian-Pilot
WHY FOREMAN FIELD WON'T WORK
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB