DATE: Sunday, October 5, 1997               TAG: 9710050218

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C11  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: HARRY MINIUM

                                            LENGTH:   62 lines

ADMIRALS REPORT

Move to the AHL would give Admirals a rent reduction

NORFOLK - The Hampton Roads Admirals will get a break in rent from the city if they move to the American Hockey League.

Sources familiar with a proposed lease presented to the Admirals two weeks ago say it calls for rent at Scope to be reduced from 12 percent of after-tax receipts to 11 percent.

``We realize their costs will go up in the AHL,'' said a city official who asked not to be identified. ``We're trying to be sensitive to that.''

However, that deal may not be quite as good as it sounds. The Admirals pay 11 percent under their current lease, which expires in the spring. The new lease proposal from the city, a three-year extension, requires the Admirals to move up to the AHL by the 1999-2000 season and for rent to rise to 12 percent while they remain in the ECHL.

Essentially, the city is offering the Admirals the same deal in the AHL they have now in the ECHL.

Admirals co-owner Page Johnson would not comment on terms of the proposed lease, but it is believed that the Admirals are asking for a larger break in rent. Their costs would increase by at least $650,000 per season in the AHL, and they say they barely made money last season.

Both sides hope to have negotiations concluded by the end of the month.

Versatile exec moves on

The last full-time front-office employee from the Blake Cullen era has left the team.

Amy Mikesell, who in her four-year tenure was the director of media relations, game-day operations director, advertising sales director, novelty sales director and game promotions director, resigned last week to become a sales representative for Zeneca Pharmaceuticals.

Cullen sold the team to Mark Garcea and Johnson in May 1996. The new ownership group did not rehire radio voice Pete Michaud. Since then, it has also fired ticket manager Susan Gary. Office manager Anna Shin and administrative assistant Angie Pittman left the team when Cullen left.

Mikesell has not been replaced, though some of her duties have been filled. Tom Grace, the Admirals' radio voice, was upgraded to a full-time employee last spring and is director of media relations.

How about Greensboro?

Will Greensboro join the Admirals in the AHL? That's supposed to happen in 1999, when the Carolina Hurricanes of the NHL move from temporary quarters in Greensboro to a new arena in Raleigh.

But says Bill Black, president of the group that owns the AHL rights in Greensboro: ``We've not yet made a decision. We're got two years to see if having an AHL team this close to an NHL team makes sense.''

Black's group may be he hesitant unless the Admirals and other ECHL teams move to the AHL. Greensboro jumped from the ECHL to the AHL in 1995 and, without any natural rivals, lost more than $2 million in two seasons. The team then moved to New Haven, Conn., to make way for the Hurricanes.

``Hampton Roads is the big domino,'' Black said. ``It's a key market. If they jump, so will a lot of others. I think Charlotte and Richmond and others would follow them.''

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