THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 14, 1997 TAG: 9701140206
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: NHL In Hampton Roads
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: 61 lines
The mood in the war room was tense.
George Shinn appeared tired. Tom Ward, Shinn's marketing guy, seemed cranky. Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim, though, was almost bubbly with nervous energy, aware as he was of the daunting task that awaited the Hampton Roads Rhinos' contingent in about 15 hours - sell the NHL expansion committee on an area that most of the owners have never heard of.
Stacked up against cities like Atlanta and Houston, the Hampton Roads ``name identity'' could be troublesome when the Rhinos make their presentation before the NHL owners at 9 a.m. today, Fraim conceded.
``But I think we're positioned so well on the scale that, with the presentation we'll make, we'll just go up,'' Fraim said. ``I really think they're going to be very impressed with what's going to be said and the facts they're going to learn.''
There will be a video and slide show featuring oodles of charts spouting countless geographic and demographic statistics. One slide that Shinn allowed the media to glimpse Monday evening in his hotel suite, for instance, touted 1990 figures that showed Hampton Roads having the greatest population density of the nine applicants.
That's one of those boring things that's supposed to surprise and impress the NHL people. Another is the extra-thick binder of propaganda, each cover plastered with the Rhinos logo, that each committee member will receive.
Which is something else that Fraim pointed out with giddy glee. Hampton Roads is the only expansion applicant with a team nickname. It is almost certainly the only applicant with its own picture book.
``Rhockey Finds a Home'' is an illustrated tale of one lonely rhino's search for a place to skate and shoot hockey pucks. Written in rhyme that brags on Hampton Roads, the book also features drawings on each page that are captioned with facts about the region.
Sample rhymes:
He got on the horn and called around/ You may be surprised at what Rhockey found. . . . Rhockey's convinced he's found his new home/ Aside from away games, he never shall roam.''
Cute, but will it all be enough to overcome the long odds and justify Shinn's optimism?
``I picked Hampton Roads because I think it's the next great sports market in the country,'' Shinn said. ``I would hope that (the NHL's) board would be as bold as the NFL board was in taking a major step to go to a market that was smaller, like Charlotte and Jacksonville, and those markets exploded. And like the NBA did when it picked Charlotte back in '87. It picked a small, unproven market and Charlotte exploded.''
But Charlotte had big corporations. Hampton Roads has Rhockey.
The war room was tense for a reason. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian PIlot
Prospective Hampton Roads Rhinos owner George Shinn waited to board
his private jet at Norfolk International Airport on Monday. Shinn
spent most of the day preparing for his presentation to NHL owners
today.
KEYWORDS: NHL FRANCHISE ARENA