Dave Rosenfield, general manager, Norfolk Tides Photo by Mark Rhodes

"Professional sports today are really not just sports," he says from his office in Harbor Park in downtown Norfolk. "It’s family entertainment. When I started in the business, sport was enough. It’s not anymore."

Truth is, it’s never been tougher to turn a buck in professional sports. And the field just keeps getting more crowded. Think there’s not a glut of teams and sports in the Old Dominion? Just check the sports-page agate for scores from the Richmond Rhythm or Richmond Speed or the Roanoke Steam or those Norfolk Nighthawks.

There may not be room for every team. Should some clubs pack up their balls and go home? Steve Lerch, a noted sports sociol-

ogist from Radford University, thinks it’s all up to the folks in the seats, or not in the seats, as the case may be. "If the product is good and the perception of the fans is that it’s worth watching, the fans will come out." That’s a pretty tall order, though. Sports clubs face myriad problems as they fight to survive. They need decent stadiums or arenas, loyal fans and deep pockets for marketing. They must seek out work arrangements with often demanding or unhelpful professional affiliates, follow the Big Guys’ rules and, on top of that, win more often than not.

That’s a pretty tall order. Take the Rhythm, a pro basketball team that came to Richmond last winter. The club is a charter member of the eight-team, expense-sharing International Basketball League. According to Rhythm COO Henry S. Martin, the team must average 3,500 paying fans on each of their 32 home dates to break even. A retired dentist, Martin found that reaching that mark last season in the Coliseum was like pulling teeth. The Rhythm averages fewer than 1,500 fans at home games. By contrast, the top-drawing teams in the league, Cincinnati and St. Louis, average more than 6,000 fans per night.

Rhythm owners Charles and Wanda Gill, who also run a Richmond limousine service, are committed to making the team work. This season, for instance, they plan on moving the team to the 7,500-seat Alltel Pavilion at the Siegel Center in downtown Richmond. The smaller, newer area will put a premium on fan comfort, according to Martin. That may do the trick, considering the Rhythm’s owners, like most other minor-league franchises, aren’t solely responsible for paying players’ salaries, which average about $40,000. (Last year, teams had a $596,000-cap to pay 12 players.)

Inexpensive tickets and this salary-sharing scheme may make it easier to draw fans and pay for the franchise. "The first year at the gate was not a pretty picture, but once we get people out, they’ll come back," says Martin. "We aren’t killing them in the pocketbook. Families can afford an $8 or $12 ticket, and the quality of basketball is very high."

More and more, new-and-improved facilities are the catalyst behind successful minor-league franchises. In Norfolk, a dispute over extending a lease at Scope, the city’s downtown arena and convention center, nearly put the city’s hockey team in the penalty box for this coming season. Team owners Mark Garcia and Page Johnson faced a May 31 expiration of their existing lease. The Norfolk City Council stalled extending it, but reconsidered when the Admirals had a chance to move up in stature from the East Coast Hockey League to the American Hockey League, just one notch below the top level National Hockey League. The Chicago Blackhawks, the Admirals’ AHL affiliate, wouldn’t supply Norfolk with players without a face lift to the Scope facility.

In June, the issue was resolved, at least temporarily, when Garcia and Johnson announced that they would pay for $170,000 in improvements in the arena to the ice, boards and glass. So, the Admirals sail on, at least until the current contract expires in two years.

Debating facility improvements is one thing, but who actually foots the bill for all of these sparkling new, million-dollar facilities? More often than not, it is the hometown, not the home team. That was the case a few years ago in Salem where dilapidated Municipal Field was a relic with crumbling concrete seats, little locker room space, too short outfield walls, not enough bathrooms and antiquated light poles that were actually in the field of play. The city took one for the team in 1995, however, opting to build the new, $11 million, 6,300-seat Salem Memorial Stadium. As a result, the Salem Avalanche, a Class A Carolina League affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, will stay in town.

All of these issues came up as the major leagues cracked down on their minor-league affiliates in a new agreement that called for higher standards across the country. Kelvin Bowles, owner of Salem’s baseball team since 1986, would have sold and let the team move elsewhere had the city of Salem not come through. "My hands were tied," Bowles says.

Now Bowles has another problem. Salem hasn’t won a Carolina League pennant since 1988. "We’ve had 12 years and haven’t won the division title, and that’s pretty bad with a four-team division," says Bowles. "I think you need a really good team every four or five years, because you know there are always going to be some lean years."

Fact is, the Avalanche hasn’t had many great players. That’s something that worries Bowles as a six-year agreement to keep the affiliation with the Colorado Rockies comes up for renewal this year. "We’re getting some criticism, we haven’t won in so long," he says. "There’s not one player on the Colorado 25-man roster right now that played in Salem, and that’s not very good. I’m encouraged by the new leadership with the Rockies, though. I think they’re going to become a strong organization, and then they’ll put some winning teams here."

Bowles can accept an offer to continue on with Colorado, or he can hope another major-league team shows some interest in having a Class A team in Salem. Don’t get the idea he has much leverage, though. Baseball regulations prohibit him from making deals beyond the standard working arrangement set forth in nationwide contracts with the majors. "I know you have to have rules and regulations," says Bowles, who built and sold 20 cable TV systems in Virginia. "I worked with the FCC and their controls, and this is similar. But we’re the ones working seven days a week, borrowing money, putting ourselves at risk and then trying to work through the limitations. They think we’re making a dollar down here, and I don’t know if they like that in the major leagues. They’ve got to save money to pay that $2 million to a utility infielder."

One professional sports club where everything seems to be coming together is in Tidewater. The Tides have averaged over 500,000 fans each of the past seven seasons, coinciding with the team’s move from cozy 6,000-seat Met Park to 12,000-seat Harbor Park, which the city of Norfolk built in 1993 for $17 million. Last year, the Tides raked in over $2 million in ticket revenues, $2 million in concessions and another million from all other sources, primarily radio and advertising.

According to General Manager Rosenfield, the Tides keep those attendance and revenue numbers up by spending money and going beyond the game itself. The Tides employ face-painters, jugglers, mimes and a five-piece Dixieland band to work the crowd prior to games. Just this season, the team added a $1 million video board to further enhance the fan experience and serve as a whole new source of advertising revenue.

And while minor-league baseball teams aren’t responsible for player, coach or trainer salaries — big-league affiliates foot that bill — they do certainly incur their share of expenses. In the eighth year of a 20-year lease agreement with the city, the Tides pay more than a million a year in rent. Some of the money is credited to the franchise through admissions and meal taxes.

Still, it’s a bargain in what the stadium has meant to the team — and to the city. "The ballpark is just one more attraction that consistently brings people to our downtown," says Norfolk mayor’s office spokesman Charlie Hartig. "The renaissance is still under way. There are new businesses and restaurants opening every day." Hartig points to an enlarged tax base downtown thanks to the Tides and their hockey-counterparts, the Admirals. "There’s no question the existence of these franchises is good for our economy," he says, "from the admission tax to the taxes people pay when they come downtown to see a game and have dinner, go shopping or pay to park."

The Tides paid their dues to earn the new ballpark, too. "With what we guaranteed, the city is basically getting a marvelous facility for almost nothing," says Rosenfield. "Smart cities and counties aren’t going to build a facility, take on that kind of risk, without stability from the tenant. We had been a consistent, stable, profit-making company for 30 years." And in sports, where everyone loves a streak, that’s a record all franchises shoot for.