THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606230196
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: 72 lines
Once more, Hampton Roads is damned with faint praise.
A Pittsburgh businessman has added Norfolk to the list of cities he is considering for a franchise in something called the International Basketball League, scheduled to begin play in the fall of 1997.
We are supposed to be flattered, I guess.
Don't be.
Paul Martha, a Pitt football star in the early '60s and now the driving force behind the IBL, admits that he hasn't spoken to anyone locally about his intentions. He likes what he sees, of course - Scope and a large population.
Left unsaid is the assumption that since we don't have a professional basketball team, sports fans will jump at the chance to support a group of high school graduates and college dropouts in a third-rate league.
This is the Canadian Football League Syndrome at work again.
When Lonie Glieberman's Pirates looked to come ashore in Norfolk last year, the argument went that since Hampton Roads had no other big-time football presence, we should be grateful for anything and anybody who would bleed red ink in our zip code.
Now that the CFL's American experiment has gone flatter than a three-day-old Molson's, it is obvious that the instincts of Norfolk's city fathers were correct.
Even a minor-league sports market must have its standards.
Sometimes it seems as if Hampton Roads, Norfolk especially, is on the sports telemarketing list from Hell. No sooner does Norfolk sit down to dinner than the phone rings. Somebody on the other end wants to peddle a minor-league sport. Would the city be interested?
An indoor soccer team expressed interest in playing at Scope. So did the Continental Basketball Association.
Nothing came of the talks. Nothing will develop with the IBL, either. If the league ever did get serious about Norfolk, it would discover that Scope caters first to the Admirals and Old Dominion. The next team would have to settle for leftover dates.
``We'll negotiate with anybody,'' says Bill Luther, director of Scope. ``But there are only so many weekends in a year.''
Scheduling problems are a handy excuse for a city that knows better than to think minor-league basketball is a legitimate draw.
Meanwhile, Hampton Roads has been spared the responsibility of supporting a team in the new women's American Basketball League. Richmond is home to Virginia's franchise in this fledgling operation.
Few expect the ABL to survive overhead costs or America's stubborn resistance to women's basketball. Richmond is welcome to its experiment.
Meanwhile, minor-league frontmen with more dollars than sense will continue looking at Norfolk.
The prosperity of the Admirals and the healthy crowds drawn to Tides games at Harbor Park cause heads to turn in our direction. Not that anybody here believes the success of the hockey and baseball teams could be repeated by a rag-tag basketball team.
College hoops are more attractive than any league short of the NBA. The ACC. ODU. Norfolk State. We have enough good basketball to be particular about who we invite into our area.
The IBL? Not a chance. Norfolk isn't playing that game. Which is why the city has not initiated contact with the league.
You might think Norfolk is guilty of flights of fancy for entertaining thoughts of building an arena to attract an NBA team. But as long as the dream is alive, it does no good to bring in another winter sport that is sure to founder.
Every team that fails tarnishes the area's image, and leaves behind a residue of ill feeling and bad publicity.
A low-rent basketball franchise in Hampton Roads would not find an audience large enough to justify its existence.
This seems obvious to everyone except the bush-league telemarketers who think they are doing Hampton Roads a favor.
Somebody please tell them they are not. by CNB