St. Louis apparently is out of the running to get the NBA's Vancouver Grizzlies, leaving New Orleans, Anaheim and Louisville as
possible new homes for the financially troubled team.
Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley told the Vancouver Sun over the
weekend that it was "not a real high probability" his team would
move to St. Louis.
The owner of the NHL St. Louis Blues tried to buy the Grizzlies
for $200 million last year, with the intention of moving the team
to St. Louis, before the NBA intervened and the franchise was sold
to Heisley for $160 million.
In St. Louis, the Grizzlies would have played in the Savvis
Center, where the primary tenant is the Blues and would have been
subject to lease conditions set by Blues owner Bill Laurie.
"I'm not going to comment," said Jim Woodcock, a spokesman for Laurie. "We made a ground rule from the beginning that we were not
going to comment on reports and this is a report."
Heisley, who met last week with Laurie, said the Blues owner
made low-ball offer for a percentage of the team that was not on
scale with the proposal he made last year.
Heisley is expected to visit Anaheim on Tuesday. The team would
use the Arrowhead Pond, where the primary tenant is the NHL's
Mighty Ducks.
Last week, Heisley met in New Orleans with government and
business leaders about possibly relocating the franchise to the New
Orleans Arena.
"All things are possible at this point," said Bill Curl,
spokesman for SMG, the company that manages the arena and the
Superdome.
Curl said the New Orleans group has not heard from Grizzlies
officials since Friday.
"It's on a very fast track, but we're not in a panic mode,"
Curl said. "We have to do it, but we have to do it quickly."
Heisley is supposed to notify the NBA by March 1 about which
city he intends to move to, but he can ask for an extension.
"The assumption isn't that March 1 is the drop-dead date,"
Curl said.
The New Orleans group is awaiting information from the Grizzlies
regarding specific price scales for luxury suites, club seats and
general admissions.
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