THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 1, 1996 TAG: 9610010010
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 53 lines
Friday's Pilot brought good news about plans for a major-league arena.
Representatives from four organizations promoting sports in Hampton Roads pledged to coordinate their efforts and avoid turf wars in the quest to attract a major-league team.
It would be wonderful to report that representatives from seven Hampton Roads cities pledged to coordinate their efforts and avoid turf wars in the quest to attract a major-league team - but it wouldn't be true.
It would be wonderful to report that the governor is actively involved in the noble sports quest - but it wouldn't be true.
Here's what the four key regional organizations have informally agreed to do, as reported by staff writer Harrry Minium:
The Hampton Roads Partnership, composed of business, military and education leaders and representatives from area cities, will speak for the region with major sports-franchise owners considering moving here. That arrangement makes a great deal of sense, because the Partnership's membership includes the movers and shakers that a franchise owner would want to meet.
The Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce Sports Promotion Task Force, formed five years ago to attract amateur and professional sports events, will continue that task, but not at the major-league level. Thus it won't step on the Partnership's toes, but it will continue its useful work.
The Hampton Roads Sports Authority, formed 10 years ago, would finance any sports facility as long as the region's cities and counties provided funding. The authority has done two studies on a proposed 20,000-seat arena and made three unsuccessful attempts, in the '80s and early '90s, to build a super-speedway in Isle of Wight County. The authority will not attempt to recruit sports franchises but would offer assistance if the Partnership lured a team.
The newly formed Sports Facilities Authority of Hampton Roads could issue bonds for a 20,000-seat arena but only if a National Basketball Association or National Football League team first signed a long-term lease. That organization's 15 members were appointed by the governor. He has called no meetings and requests to him for marching orders have proved fruitless. Former Norfolk Mayor Vincent Thomas, a member of the authority, said, ``We don't have any staff, we don't have any money, we don't have any charge and the governor's not going to call a meeting.''
The two authorities - The Hampton Roads Sports Authority and the Sports Facilities Authority of Hampton Roads - might be merged at some point, he said. That would make sense. The less cluttered the field the better. Certainly it's getting harder to tell the arena players without a program.
So the beat goes on, with private leaders doing what they can. Some elected officials are contributing: Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim is at the center of the action. But for the most part, elected city officials are more hindrance than help. That's getting to be an old song. by CNB