THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 11, 1997 TAG: 9701110259
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: NHL In Hampton Roads
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 55 lines
The Hampton Roads Rhinos will go to New York with sales figures of 5,160 season tickets and 25 luxury suites - far short of the goals set by George Shinn when he kicked off the campaign nine weeks ago.
Shinn, who has applied to bring an NHL expansion franchise to Hampton Roads, had hoped to sell 10,000 season tickets and 40 luxury suites before his presentation to NHL owners.
Rhinos officials say they sold approximately 300 season tickets Friday morning, a mild surge due largely to Thursday's arena agreement between Shinn and the Hampton Roads Partnership. Ticket sales were cut off at noon Friday so that the accounting firm of KPMG Peat Marwick can audit the figures for the NHL. Sales will resume after Tuesday's presentation.
Tom Ward, who has led the Rhinos' season-ticket sale, said the 25 luxury suites include tickets for about 500 more spectators, boosting the actual season-ticket total to about 5,700.
Despite falling well short of their announced goals back on Nov. 5, Ward said he looks at the glass as half full rather than half empty.
``We're pleased,'' he said. ``We effectively had about six weeks of time to sell tickets because of the (Thanksgiving and Christmas) holidays.''
Shinn said ticket sales were hurt by the fact that it took so long to reach an agreement to build an arena for the proposed team.
``I spoke recently (in Charleston, S.C.) and they did a story about me in the local newspaper in which they said this guy must be a pretty darn good salesman because he sold about 5,000 season tickets for a team that doesn't exist in a building that's never been built,'' he said.
Ward, vice president of marketing for the NBA's Charlotte Hornets, who are owned by Shinn, said it took the Hornets six months to sell 8,500 season tickets prior to Charlotte's bid for an NBA expansion franchise nine years ago.
Ward said the Hornets spent $1 million, mostly in media advertising, during their ticket campaign. Ward said Shinn has spent about $400,000 since early November on the ticket sale, negotiations for an arena and the presentation Shinn will make to NHL owners.
In other developments:
Governor George F. Allen will not appear with Shinn in New York on Tuesday, when Shinn makes his hour-long presentation to NHL owners. Shinn asked him to attend, but Allen said he could not and instead filmed a short speech that will be part of the presentation.
Harold Kaufman, director of media relations for the Hornets, said Shinn will hold a press conference at 4 p.m. Tuesday in downtown Norfolk to give the media highlights of the presentation.
About 20 community leaders were briefed on details of the arena deal Friday morning at the Town Point Club in the World Trade Center. A briefing package is being prepared by the Partnership and will be distributed to the region's elected leaders and city and county managers next week.
KEYWORDS: ARENA NHL FRANCHISE TICKET SALES