THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 7, 1996 TAG: 9601070162
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 185 lines
If the Pirates do not overcome several major hurdles in the next few weeks, concerned Hampton Roads city officials say the Canadian Football League team might never play a down at Foreman Field.
The Pirates have made little progress in several key areas recently, the officials say. Their major concerns:
After six negotiating sessions with Old Dominion University, the Pirates still do not have a lease for Foreman Field.
The city of Norfolk has not agreed to fund $400,000 in stadium renovations requested by the Pirates almost seven weeks ago.
A season-ticket sale that kicked off Nov. 14 has netted just 2,000.
The CFL has not given formal approval for the Pirates to move from Shreveport, La., to Norfolk.
CFL officials say they still have not received a formal application from the Pirates to relocate in Norfolk, but team president Lonie Glieberman says the necessary paper work has been filed.
The Pirates' first test might come Thursday. Providing the application is filed, the CFL board of governors could vote during a conference call whether to accept or reject the Pirates' bid to relocate.
The Pirates insist they have made some progress. They say sales of corporate sponsorships have been brisk, and that they're doing well in negotiations for radio and television contracts. They also say a telemarketing company's tests of the area indicate strong potential for season-ticket sales.
The team also has been endorsed by the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, and received a favorable review from CFL commissioner Larry Smith during a December trip to Hampton Roads.
But a high-ranking area city official who asked not to be identified said Friday: ``They've lost a lot of momentum.''
Area officials have not fueled the Pirates' momentum. They have shown little initiative, and one prominent area businessman wonders if leaders and officials aren't trying to wish the team away through inaction.
``There's been a lot of malignant neglect'' on the part of political leaders, said the businessman, who asked not to be identified. ``There's been a lot of talk in the media, but people who should be talking to each other about this issue aren't communicating. Officials don't know what to make of this team, and they're kind of sitting on their hands.''
The Pirates have not helped themselves. By declining to pay vendors in Shreveport until Jan. 1, and by postdating at least one check, they focused attention on their propensity for paying bills slowly.
Glieberman acknowledges he has not been effective in countering negative publicity from Shreveport, where officials say the Pirates owe the city nearly $1.4 million. In phone calls and faxes to Norfolk city officials and the Hampton Roads media, Shreveport officials and businesspeople have chided the Gliebermans for alleged mismanagement. A sign company even got a federal court to impound a classic car owned by Pirates owner Bernie Glieberman during the CFL meetings in Toronto six weeks ago.
Even the Pirates' advertising campaign has drawn criticism, for its battle cry of: ``Professional football is coming to Hampton Roads. The good news is that it's not the NFL.'' One official called the knock-the-NFL theme ``crazy.''
And the team has not made good use of coach Forrest Gregg, a former NFL star and coach, whom one Norfolk official called the Pirates' ``primary asset.''
``He commands a great deal of respect,'' the official said. ``Without Forrest Gregg, the deal might be dead already.''
The Pirates promised in November that Gregg would be the centerpiece of their season-ticket campaign, but other than a handful of speaking engagements, Gregg has been virtually unseen in Hampton Roads. Lonie Glieberman said he does not expect Gregg to return until late January.
By then, the Pirates' fate might be decided. During Thursday's board of governors conference call, the Pirates will be asked to summarize their season-tickets sale and stadium negotiations.
Reg Low, president of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, said he expects the board to vote that day on the Pirates' relocation. Low would not comment on his position, but Saskatchewan Roughriders president John Lipp said he is disappointed the Pirates have no lease and only 2,000 in season-ticket sales.
``I think the expectations were much higher than that,'' he said. ``The indications we got were that they would sell much more than that, and that the lease and stadium renovation would be in place.
``That's not good news.''
Low said he expected a vote Thursday because ``we have made a commitment to our television partners to have our schedule done by the end of January so that they can start selling advertising.''
``We waited too late last season and it caused major problems,'' he said. ``We are not going to do that this year.
``Larry Smith was very positive about his trip to Norfolk. . . . I guess it's now up to the sports fans in the Norfolk area to determine whether they want a team. And I hope they do.''
All the required relocation documents have been sent to the CFL, Glieberman said.
``When Larry Smith was in town, we gave him a copy of our business plan,'' Glieberman said. ``We've given them everything they've asked for.''
Bernie Glieberman said the Pirates will give an encouraging season-ticket report to the CFL. Center Solutions, a Memphis telemarketing company, did 100 hours of test marketing recently in Hampton Roads, then met with the Gliebermans in Detroit over the Christmas holidays.
``They were shocked at how well things went,'' Glieberman said. ``They're confident they can sell out the stadium by June 1. I know how that sounds, but they think it can be done.''
Added Lonie Glieberman: ``That's not what we're saying. That's what they're saying. They say the response was 700 percent better than it was in Shreveport,'' where the Pirates sold 10,000 season tickets their first season.
``Even if they're off by nearly half,'' he said, ``we'll still meet our goal of selling 15,000.''
Once Gregg returns - he is spending most of December and January scouting bowl games and getting his house ready to sell - and players begin to trickle into Hampton Roads, Lonie Glieberman says ticket sales will pick up.
``Our advertising campaign is up and running,'' he said, ``but the telemarketers are the closers. They're the ones who're going to bring in the most tickets.''
Foreman Field remains the biggest concern. The 25,600-seat stadium needs about $400,000 in renovations, according to the Pirates, who asked the city for the money and said it would be repaid by amusement taxes.
Two weeks after the request, Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim told a gathering of area mayors that he hoped that other cities would help Norfolk renovate the stadium. Fraim asked Lonie Glieberman to meet with mayors in other cities and to ask Gregg to speak with Gov. George F. Allen about potential state aid.
Gregg has spoken twice to Allen. Glieberman has met with Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf and has scheduled meetings with other mayors. But Fraim said: ``I have not heard back from them. . . . I thought we would have had some indication from them by now on how they were doing.''
Officials from Norfolk and Virginia Beach, the state's two largest cities, plan to meet late this week to discuss the Pirates. Oberndorf was unavailable for comment on Virginia Beach's position.
Fraim said he doesn't know whether Virginia Beach or the state will help the city renovate Foreman Field. He said he doesn't think the Norfolk City Council, saddled with big-ticket items such as a new downtown mall, debts at Nauticus and rising costs in the redevelopment of Ocean View, would foot the bill alone.
``My guess is that the response of the council wouldn't be very positive,'' he said. ``But if the governor's office got involved, I don't know how the dynamics might change.''
Allen, area officials agree, is a huge wild card. If he decides to get involved, they say most of the team's problems could be solved quickly.
Allen, a former University of Virginia football player and the son of former Washington Redskins coach George Allen, said during a trip to Norfolk last month that he was in favor of the CFL in Hampton Roads. Sources say the state is considering providing aid for the renovation and that state officials discussed the issue with the city of Norfolk just before Christmas.
The Shreveport Times reports that an unidentified college football coach close to Allen has contacted Shreveport officials seeking background information about the Gliebermans.
``It's a good sign that the governor is interested,'' Lonie Glieberman said.
Yet even if the funds were approved tomorrow, the Pirates would have to hustle to get the renovations, including an enlarged press box and remodeled locker rooms, done by the July 6 start of the regular season.
Renovations to state facilities must be approved at several levels of state government. One ODU official said it could take months for any renovation to be approved, and the Pirates have yet to hire an engineer to do anything more than a rough sketch of the proposed renovation.
But late last week, the Pirates finally received some good news.
First, the Birmingham Barracudas moved to Shreveport, which could save the Pirates thousands of dollars they might have had to pay for capital improvements made to Independence Stadium by the city of Shreveport. Moreover, Shreveport is expected to drop its demand for repayment of $1 million in sponsorship aid provided to the Pirates last season.
Secondly, Friday's two-hour negotiating session with ODU athletic director Jim Jarrett resulted in a major narrowing of differences. Five previous negotiating sessions had been unproductive.
Yet the fact that a lease isn't signed and the stadium renovation isn't approved are examples of how the Pirates have stumbled, one area official said.
``The first thing you have to do is negotiate with the guy who controls your venue,'' the official said. ``You want a deal done before you disclose that you're moving to an area.
``It's what Blake Cullen did with the Hampton Roads Admirals. The first thing he did was to arrange a lease with Scope, and that was before anybody knew he had been here.''
Lonie Glieberman admits he has made mistakes.
``Any time you go into a new situation, you're going to stub your toe,'' he said. ``We've made mistakes and there are some things I wished we'd done differently.
``But the key thing is that we're dedicated to making it a success. We're learning the market, and we've overcome a lot of hurdles.''
Getting the lease and renovation agreements consummated are clearly the next two hurdles on the Pirates agenda, Glieberman said.
``I don't want to put a deadline on any of this, because it puts pressure on both sides,'' he said. ``But those are our priorities. We know we've got to get these things done. Once they are done, I think a lot of other things will fall into place.'' by CNB