CALLER-TIMES INTERACTIVE: NEWS
Sun 04-Jan-1998
Sharks leave Corpus Christi without pro team, but there's IceRay of hope
By MARK BUTTON
Caller-Times If only Charles Johnson could turn back time.
If he could do it all over again, the Southwest Basketball League commissioner and owner of the SBL's Corpus Christi Sharks said he would have done things much differently in the league's inaugural season.
The SBL came to one Louisiana and five Texas cities like a stealth bomber: unseen and unheard. Johnson and his SBL colleagues held their first news conference to announce the arrival of the league in Corpus Christi on Oct. 16. Twenty-two days later, the Sharks traveled to Galveston to play the first SBL game.
Twenty-two days.
``We really didn't do any marketing prior to the season's start,'' Johnson said. ``We didn't come into the community. We've done those things since we've been there, and we've done them well, but those were the kinds of things we should have done last summer.''
Johnson said he needed to look no further than the Corpus Christi IceRays franchise and the Western Professional Hockey League to see how a legitimate sports team and league prepares for a move into new cities. The IceRays won't drop a puck in the WPHL until October, but they have been a visible commodity in town since last August.
``We needed to be here earlier, to make people aware of our arrival,'' Johnson said. ``The whole thing is that we did not create awareness until a week or two before the season. Had we had the time, like we will have now for next season, to get out in the community and create awareness, we would have been far better off.
``Even if the IceRays have 100 or 200 season tickets sold right now,'' Johnson said, ``that's better off than we were.''
The hockey club has sold many more season tickets than that. In fact, the IceRays have just 1,200 season tickets left to sell, however there will be game day tickets available. Coach and General Manager Taylor Hall, alongside Assistant General Manager and Director of Marketing Bill Davidson and Marketing and Ticket Operations Manager Scott Brower, have done all the things that Johnson wished he had.
The IceRays already have made 26 public appearances, they have a visible headquarters in Sunrise Mall and the team's first game is 10 months away.
Of course, when it comes to minor-league franchises in any sport, the individual teams will only be as organized -- and therefore potentially successful -- as the league itself. The 1997 season was the SBL's first. Corpus Christi led the league in attendance with an average of just more than 1,000 a game, but at a league level, organization was lacking. Johnson attributes this largely to the fact that he tried to own the Corpus Christi team and carry out the league commissioner's duties, all from Houston.
``If I'm going to make a commitment to own the Sharks next year,'' Johnson said, ``I'm going to need to live there.''
Taylor and the rest of the IceRays do live here. They are sympathetic to the SBL's problems, but they say that the IceRays are in no danger of following suit.
``The Sharks were the most successful team in their shortened basketball season,'' Hall said. ``And I thought they did a great job. We all went to a few games and we were very entertained. We're sad that they're gone.
``But there's a huge difference between the league that the Sharks played in and our league.''
The WPHL is in its second year. In 1995-96, the league had six teams just as the SBL had in its first year. However, the WPHL teams' average attendance was nearly 5,000 a game. This season, the WPHL expanded to 12 teams, and next year the IceRays will be one of 14 league franchises.
Another difference between the Sharks and the IceRays concerns the leasing of Memorial Coliseum. The Sharks hammered out a quick, one-year deal; the IceRays have secured a five-year lease of the building with an option for an additional five years.
``We're committed to be here for five years and hopefully another five after that,'' Hall said. ``The only reason we wouldn't play a game in Memorial Coliseum is if there is a new facility built. But there will be hockey in Corpus for a long time starting in October.''
Taylor and the IceRays also point to the fact that the preparation time, as Johnson found out, is crucial.
``We don't claim to know everything,'' Hall said, ``but we're learning as we go along.''
WPHL president Rick Kozuback said the IceRays are quick learners.
``They've done the things they needed to do,'' Kozuback said. ``You need time to do things properly. They have followed our league and they have given themselves plenty of time. If you don't give yourself enough time, you give yourself every opportunity to fail.''
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