THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 2, 1996 TAG: 9611020595
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
LENGTH: 86 lines
We have been warned to never sell George Shinn short. Now, the editors of Shinn's new autobiography have told us this in the book's preface, so you gotta believe they're a little biased.
Belief is a huge deal with Shinn, as are God, shirts and ties, the teal tones of designer Alexander Julian on team uniforms and bold business strategies.
``You Gotta Believe,'' in fact, is the title of Shinn's book, the cover of which features a grinning Shinn and a few of his Charlotte Hornets basketball players. One is the now ex-Hornet Larry Johnson, a small forward with a bad back in whom Shinn believed so much he once signed him for an inexplicable $84 million that had everybody in the NBA reaching for ammonia tablets.
So even a self-made multi-millionaire car dealer like Shinn makes mistakes.
The poor boy from Kannapolis, N.C., who somehow won an NBA expansion franchise for longshot Charlotte, however, in no way thinks his frantic dive into Hampton Roads will be a belly whopper.
He said so Friday by giving the NHL $100,000 and asking for an expansion hockey team.
Granted, Shinn misses $100,000 like Planters misses a couple cans of cashews. But it's a statement. One that's never been made here before. One that numbs you with its suddenness and makes you say, ``Huh?''
``I've got a reputation to protect,'' Shinn said Friday after dropping off his check in the Manhattan office of his friend Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner, ``and I wouldn't be jumping in this thing if I didn't think there was a pretty good chance to accomplish it.''
``It,'' of course, is pegged to a pitch that must come out of Shinn's war room Nov. 14 and be slick enough to sell 26 NHL owners on the potential of Hampton Roads.
Even as those owners are asking, ``What's a Hampton Roads?,'' Shinn, as he did during his Charlotte presentation 10 years ago, has to dazzle them with a slew of solid details - season ticket commitments, possibly requiring personal seat licenses; population and economic profiles; marketing particulars, etc.
Oh. And an agreement for a new, luxury suite-laden arena with financing plans in place.
This would be the same arena over which various political and business commissions around here meet to discuss meeting with a consultant at their next meeting.
Shinn must believe. And if he can get an arena deal done in less than two weeks amid such stifling provincialism, then I've got a sea that needs parting.
``We have to create a frenzy,'' according to Norfolk mayor Paul Fraim. Finally, a major league sport is ``at our doorstep and it needs to be shouldered by the entire community.''
Yes, Shinn is the power player we've never had. The one whom, if he ever happened along, we've always said would get that ``largest market without major league sports'' gorilla off our chests.
Now the region needs to respond with Fraim's frenzy, and fast, with financial commitments - Shinn said the ticket drive starts Tuesday - and arena cooperation to even have an expansion prayer. Either that or be set way back in our hunt for ``big league'' status, said State Delegate Jerrauld Jones of Norfolk.
Anyway, that's a summary of the ``what'' part of this thing. ``Why'' is going to take longer to figure out.
Remember, Shinn wanted to pitch Raleigh first. But when Raleigh jilted him for his former ally Felix Sabates, whose relationship with Shinn has soured, Shinn asked Hampton Roads to the prom.
So be it. We're still in the game, regardless. But there is a thought out there, even among some of the business people who met with Shinn on Friday, that Shinn, a man of no small ego, is playing in part to try and stick it to Raleigh.
There's also the question of why he'd want to bring the most expensive team-sport ticket to an untested market with an inferiority complex - much of which comes from having little corporate presence and being more than 10 percent below the nation's median income.
Nordstrom's endorsement and the rousing success of the Phantom of the Opera road show are reasons some people think the region can handle a season ticket costing, say, $1,500 for 42 regular season games. But season after season after season? Strictly virgin turf.
It's ironic that all last fall, we had to listen to desperate Canadian Football League interests stroke us with what a great market this is.
The flattery is back. But this time, the circumstance demands serious attention because Shinn has a record of making things, some say miraculous things, happen.
You gotta believe.
Or do you?
``I think you've got an outstanding market,'' George Shinn said. ``I also think you've got an outstanding owner representing you.'' by CNB