DATE: Wednesday, October 22, 1997           TAG: 9710220730

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER 
                                            LENGTH:  100 lines

MOVE TO AHL NO CERTAINTY, ADMIRALS CO-OWNER SAYS

Hampton Roads Admirals co-owner Page Johnson says a move to the American Hockey League is far from a done deal even though he has signed a lease that requires his hockey team to jump to the AHL by 1999-2000.

``I can't say where I'm going to be in two years, except to say I'm going to work diligently the next six months to try and figure out where I should be,'' Johnson said Tuesday, a day after the Admirals and Norfolk officials formally agreed to a three-year lease extension.

The deal stipulates the lease can be canceled if the Admirals don't move up to the AHL, the highest developmental league for the NHL.

Johnson said he will conduct a study this winter to determine if the team can afford the move. Costs will be higher in the AHL - estimates vary from $600,000 to $800,000 more per year. How the costs will affect the team's bottom line depend on the terms of an affiliation agreement with an NHL team and whether the city will grant concessions on the lease, Johnson said.

Regardless, he said the Admirals won't go to the AHL if he believes they'll lose money.

``We're going to do what any prudent businessman would do, we're going to do what's best for professional hockey in Hampton Roads,'' he said. ``The most important factor for us is what our fans want. We'll be listening to them.

``I understand the city has its own agenda. They want to better the city. I'm just glad they're giving us time to think through all of this.

``We'll keep them aware of what's going on. . . . If we find we can't afford it, we'll go back to the city and tell them, `This is what we've found out.' That's why we want them to participate in our due-diligence process. That's why we arranged meetings with the two league commissioners, so they could hear plusses and minuses.''

The commissioners - Dave Andrews of the AHL and Rick Adams of the ECHL - met with Johnson, majority owner Mark Garcea and Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim recently in Norfolk. Both made the case for their leagues, Johnson said.

Adams suggested that he accompany Fraim, Garcea and Johnson to an AHL game. Johnson said he and Garcea also will also visit several AHL cities in the next few months on their own.

``My understanding is that it's not nearly as emotional a game as the ECHL and that's what drives our fans,'' Johnson said. ``Mark and I want to see that for ourselves.

``We want to talk to fans, to watch a number of games, to get a feel for what it's really like.''

Richmond owner Harry Feuerstein says if the Admirals jump to the AHL, it will be a repeat of the disastrous experience in Greensboro, where the Monarchs left the ECHL for the AHL in 1995 and lost $2 million in two seasons.

``You'll have problems with the parent clubs,'' he said. ``Attendance is going to decline. It's going to be a mess.''

City officials won't comment for the record on the AHL issue, but have said privately they want the Admirals to move up because fans deserve better hockey.

They also say that by positioning itself in markets such as Cincinnati, Hartford, Philadelphia, Syracuse and Hamilton, Ontario (35 miles outside Toronto), the AHL is becoming the hot league of minor league hockey.

Officials are also convinced other large ECHL cities, especially Richmond, will follow Hampton Roads into the AHL. Richmond and Hampton Roads have one of minor league hockey's most torrid, well-attended rivalries.

But Feuerstein says the Renegades won't move.

``It not up for discussion. It ain't happening,'' he said. ``We're not going, period. Our fans wouldn't like it.

``I would hate to lose our rivalry with Norfolk. But if they go, we'll survive. I'm not sure they will, but we will.

``It doesn't make financial sense in Richmond. I don't understand why if it doesn't make sense in Richmond, it would make sense in Norfolk, which has a smaller building and the same kind of problems Richmond has, in terms of having no luxury boxes and club seating.''

Feuerstein concedes the hockey in the AHL is a step higher than the ECHL, but he says it will be less attractive for fans in Richmond and Hampton Roads.

``It's a much slower game,'' he said. ``We have a much more physical league, a more rough-and-tumble element. That's the formula that works for our fans.''

He also says city officials underestimate the ECHL's ability to exist in large markets. The league outbid the IHL for the New Orleans market and moved an expansion team into Upper Marlboro, Md., in suburban Washington. The Charlotte Checkers also draw well.

And he says the ability of ECHL teams to sign most of their own players is a freedom that won't be appreciated until it's gone. NHL affiliates dictate the coach and many of the players for most AHL teams.

``If I can't control winning and losing and who's coaching the team, we'd go out of business,'' he said. ``Do you think the people in Hampton Roads will turn out for a loser? Do you think the fans want to lose (head coach) John Brophy and (assistant coach-general manager) Al MacIsaac?''

Johnson said the often-tepid relationship between the Admirals and city officials has warmed in recent months.

But Feuerstein says it's not the city's place to dictate where the team will play.

``I don't understand why the city would do that,'' he said. ``I don't live here so perhaps it's not my place to say . . . but I don't think anyone likes to be forced to do something that doesn't make any sense.

``Right now the people in Norfolk have a great time at Hampton (Roads) games. That team should be a great source of pride for the city. I can't for the life of me figure out why you'd want to change something that's not broken.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

Page Johnson

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