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Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Businessman Seeks WNBA Team for Duke City
By Glen Rosales
For the Journal
A Phoenix-area businessman who recently made a purchase agreement to buy the New Mexico Scorpions ice hockey team is now investigating the possibility of bringing a WNBA franchise to Albuquerque.
Bill Dutton, the director of development for Arena Management Co., which has been trying to put together a multipurpose arena project in Downtown Albuquerque, said Monday he has contacted the women's professional basketball league about expanding to Albuquerque.
A league official in New York, who declined to be identified for this story, confirmed that there has been periodic interest from individuals and groups about bringing a team to Albuquerque. He declined to say if Dutton was among them.
Before there's any expansion into the area, however, the official said a potential ownership group must prove it has a stable financial background and that the franchise would be going into a viable market that has a history of solid corporate sponsorship and has an interest in women's sports.
"We're not very familiar with Albuquerque because we don't have an NBA franchise there," the official said. "We're very familiar with cities that already have NBA teams."
The WNBA expects to be playing with 14 teams when the season starts May 14. All of them are in or near NBA cities. Average attendance in 2004 was almost 8,500 per game.
The league held an exhibition in Albuquerque on May 5, 2004, between the Minnesota Lynx and Sacramento Monarchs. Each team had ties to the University of New Mexico. The Lynx had former Lobo Jordan Adams and the Monarchs had her former UNM teammate Chelsea Grear. The game drew 6,336, with Grear and Adams receiving standing ovations.
And it's on that interest that Dutton hopes to capitalize.
"I like the women's Lobos program," he said. "This wouldn't be something that would compete with that because the seasons don't overlap.
"I think it would even help it. We would be excited to have (former) Lobo players and even coaches as part of the team," he added.
But Dutton said the process of bringing a WNBA team to Albuquerque is in the preliminary stages.
"We need to prove the market is ready for it," he said.
Dutton said he would provide the league with information about the city, including demographics and its history of support for the UNM women's program.
He said if things go well, he hopes to have the team in place for the 2007 season.