THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 15, 1997 TAG: 9702150661
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICK BONNELL AND AMES ALEXANDER, CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE LENGTH: 43 lines
NationsBank chief executive Hugh McColl Jr., whose bank is leading the campaign for a new uptown arena, says Nashville, Tenn., is courting the NBA Hornets, a statement team owner George Shinn and Nashville officials deny.
``I do know there are cities, like Nashville, that are wooing (Shinn) and who will write him a check to come over there and give him a stadium as a side deal,'' McColl said Wednesday during a radio interview on station WBT-AM.
``I don't know where the hell that came from,'' Shinn said of McColl's comment. ``I don't want to move; it's not even in my thinking. The city of Charlotte is on the jerseys because the Hornets belong here.''
Nashville officials also say they have not spoken to the Hornets about relocating. ``To my knowledge, there is no truth to that,'' said Shannon Hunt, spokeswoman for Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen.
``As far as I know, no one in Nashville is wooing the Hornets,'' said Russ Simon, vice president of the Nashville Arena.
NationsBank spokeswoman Lynn Drury said McColl was unavailable to elaborate on his comments. Ed Brown, the NationsBank executive who's leading the charge for a new arena, said Shinn isn't actively negotiating with other cities. But he said cities like Nashville and St. Louis would be interested.
``The message (McColl) was trying to send was `Wake up,' '' Brown said. ``A lot of people say George won't leave (if he doesn't get a new arena). . . . That is absolutely not true.''
NationsBank officials have said the Hornets will be forced to leave Charlotte if the city doesn't help.
``The Hornets are going to have a new arena,'' McColl said during the WBT interview. ``It may not be here.''
Nashville opened a state-of-the-art, 19,000-seat arena in December and is eager to attract a major-league team as a primary tenant. Nashville has a standing offer to pay $20 million to any professional team that agrees to move there.
However, Nashville's focus now is on pursuing an expansion team in the National Hockey League. The NHL is expected to add as many as four teams in the next few months.