THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 21, 1996 TAG: 9601210165
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: [By HARRY MINIUM]
LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
Who were some of the major players who worked to keep the Canadian Football League out of Hampton Roads?
The largest was Bob Smithwick, Norfolk's economic development director, who advised the city fathers from the start to just say ``no'' to the CFL.
But there were others. Bill Luther, the influential director of civic facilities, and who oversees Scope and Harbor Park, counseled Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim that the CFL was a bad risk.
Blake Cullen, president of the Hampton Roads Admirals hockey team, wasn't happy about having a new competitor, but twice hosted Glieberman at Scope and never spoke out against the CFL.
Not so for Dave Rosenfield, general manager of the Norfolk Tides baseball team, who said he never called anyone to trash the CFL, but did so when others called him.
``When people call, and some have, I told them that it can't succeed, because the only way it makes sense is if you believe a stadium will be constructed for the CFL, and I don't think that would ever happen,'' he said.
Rosenfield said he admitted up front he didn't want competition. The Pirates season would have begun in July, during the stretch run of the baseball season.
``I'm a bottom-line business guy. I can say to you very obviously, we don't want to the competition,'' he said. ``But, if they sold every ticket for every game, they'd still lose money. Look at what's happened to CFL teams in other American cities. Why go into a business that has no light at the end of the tunnel other than an oncoming train?''
Many of the team's most effective foes were in Shreveport, La., from whence the team relocated to Hampton Roads. City officials, businessmen, former team officials and journalists flooded Hampton Roads with telephone calls from early October through late December. by CNB