THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 1, 1996 TAG: 9604010152
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 110 lines
Hampton Roads Admirals president Blake Cullen says he plans to make sweeping changes to his hockey team next season.
If he doesn't sell the Admirals, that is.
The Admirals were eliminated from the playoffs in the first round for the third time in four years, falling to archrival Richmond in humiliating fashion. The Renegades swept three games, including a 10-2 drubbing of Hampton Roads on Friday in Richmond.
Moreover, attendance fell to an average of 6,954, down about 500 per game from a year earlier, and the season was marred by several incidents involving players and coach John Brophy that led to suspensions.
``The most disappointing season we've ever had,'' said Cullen, who brought the Admirals to Scope seven seasons ago. ``I expected to play better, win more games and draw more people. It's just unacceptable to lose in the first round of the playoffs the way we did.''
Cullen plans to change the way the Admirals recruit players. Rather than seek youthful juniors on their way up, he says the Admirals will go after talented older players less likely to be called up by the IHL and AHL. Callups have helped cripple the Admirals in each of the last three seasons.
He will hire at least one full-time employee to launch an aggressive season-ticket campaign. His goal is to sell 4,500 season tickets, about 900 more than were sold this season.
Cullen vows that the team will return to local television next season. The Admirals haven't been televised locally, other than one game on regional cable, in two years.
And by early summer the Admirals will move into new offices on Granby Street near the World
Trade Center, a move that will improve the team's visibility.
But will Cullen be around the snip the ribbon?
On that question he apparently has yet to make up his mind. He says that he has no plans to sell the team and that ``nobody has an offer on the table to buy the team.''
But he won't rule out selling, and there are plenty of willing suitors. Ken Young, president of the Norfolk Tides, and Mark Garcea, who owns the Hampton Roads Mariners, previously expressed an interest in purchasing the Admirals, a team valued at perhaps $3 million.
Young made a substantial offer to buy the team last spring, which Cullen rejected. Young said Sunday from his home in Tampa, Fla., that he would ``be willing to sit down with Blake if he considers selling.''
Allen B. Harvie Jr., who formerly owned the Richmond Renegades and is developing a series of skating rinks in Hampton Roads, says he has offered to buy the team as well.
``My business is here,'' Harvie said. ``I'd love to own the team.''
Said Cullen: ``Nobody's made any offer of any kind. I'm making plans to go forward next year. I don't know what more to say.''
Cullen declined to say for sure whether Brophy will return as coach.
``I haven't talked with John and don't know his plans,'' he said.
But he came to his coach's defense over the poor play of the Admirals and about an incident last month in which Brophy is alleged to have hurled a hacksaw blade into the Scope stands, for which he was suspended by the ECHL.
``You can only coach what you have,'' he said. ``We didn't have the defensive talent we've had over the years. He did the best with what he had. John basically didn't have an argument (with a referee) all year. He had a good year in that regard. He was suspended twice, once when a player came out of the penalty box. I don't know how he could have stopped that.
``The other incident was totally misrepresented. I saw what happened. . . . He intended to hit the wall. He lobbed (the blade) up lefthanded, expecting it to bounce down. It was not hurled into the stands. A fan reached down and caught the blade.
``I'm not defending what he did. There was no excuse for that. No good came of it. But he didn't do what Sports Illustrated and others said he did.''
Cullen on other subjects:
On his team's affiliations with Washington and Pittsburgh of the NHL, Portland of the AHL and Cleveland of the IHL: ``I would like to stay with Washington. But I'm going to take a long look at our affiliations. The teams above us are so desperate for players now since they are only getting eight or nine players from the NHL. It seems that any player like Trevor Halverson (now with Indianapolis) are gobbled up.
``The idea in our league seems to be to get players like Scott Gruhl (Richmond), Shawn Wheeler and Nick Vitucci (both in Charlotte), guys who are not moving up. We take great pride in the guys we send up. But who the hell cares beyond us and the players? It doesn't do us any good to send players up.''
On the ECHL's requirement that he sign an agreement to stay in the league three years or forfeit up to $1 million: ``I don't have any plans to go to another league. It wouldn't bother me if the region weren't going to build a new arena here. But I don't want to be locked into a league they may not want here.'' Nonetheless, Cullen admits he'll have no choice but to sign the league affiliation agreement in May. Otherwise, the league could force him to withdraw.
On the ECHL: ``I seen the league going in directions I'm totally against. I don't like anything they're doing.'' He said he's particularly upset by the league's takeover of marketing of novelties, such as hats and T-shirts. ``I want to control the sale of our novelties,'' he said. ``But now the guy who owns a small store and wants some T-shirts has got to order through someone in California.''
On the attendance decline: ``We have to do a better selling job. We have to go back out and pound the pavement. It's lack of smart selling on our part, and that's my fault. We've got to change our approach.''
CALLED UP: Admirals forward Sean Selmser and defenseman Bob Woods were called by Portland and flew to Albany, N.Y., to join the Pirates, who are in the midst of a road trip. The Admirals were eliminated from the ECHL playoffs Saturday by Richmond. ILLUSTRATION: Blake Cullen says he has no offer on the table. But there are
plenty of willing suitors for his team.
by CNB