Local Sports

Johnson wants Bobcats to be winners

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Charlotte's business community has fallen short in its support of the Charlotte Bobcats, majority owner Bob Johnson said Monday, leading him to ask executives across the region to pony up more money for tickets, suites and sponsorships.

"I am absolutely concerned," Johnson told the Observer in an interview. "I am doing everything I can to make this team work, including writing a lot of checks."

Some Charlotte business and government leaders, however, say a losing team is a tough draw, that the Bobcats face more competition for entertainment spending than the city's previous NBA team and that Johnson hasn't been highly visible as an owner.

Saying he has lost "significant money" since team's inception in 2003, Johnson has spent several days in Charlotte this month, using that time to personally appeal to the heads of major companies ranging from Wachovia to Harris Teeter.

While executives have offered advice on how to win more fans and generate more revenue, Johnson said he wants more "real, hard financial support." With several private suites available and many club seats up for renewal this summer at the newly renamed Time Warner Cable Arena, Johnson said Charlotte companies can do more to talk up the team with business partners and customers.

"One thing I know is that when the business community gets behind an event in Charlotte, it works," he said, adding, "Somewhere, we've got to get this commitment to be a part of the Bobcats."

Yet others said -- and Johnson acknowledged -- that the key to larger crowds and revenues is a winning team. The Bobcats will finish their fourth straight losing season on Wednesday, and play in a city far different than the one that welcomed the Hornets, Charlotte's first pro sports franchise, in the 1980s.

"You have to constantly work," said Hugh McColl, the former chairman and CEO of Bank of America and a Bobcats minority owner. "Every team has to earn the fans."

Charlotte City Council member James Mitchell -- who voted in 2002 in favor of the city building the $265 million arena that houses the Bobcats -- said he supports Johnson but has heard complaints about how Johnson runs the team. Fans were unhappy that the Bobcats raised ticket prices when they moved into the uptown arena in 2005, Mitchell said, and also didn't like seeing the Charlotte Sting, the city's WNBA team, fold. Another gripe, he said, is that Johnson, whose primary home in Washington, D.C., hasn't been very visible in Charlotte.

"Our mentality is," Mitchell said, "we like to see our owners."

Cool reception unexpected

Johnson said Monday that Charlotte business leaders approached him after city voters in 2001 rejected a nonbinding proposal to build a new uptown arena for the Hornets. Johnson said he was asked to put up 51 percent of a bid for the Hornets -- local investors would put up 49 percent -- but that owner George Shinn rebuffed two offers for the franchise before moving it to New Orleans.Johnson -- a self-made billionaire who founded Black Entertainment Television network -- then became a candidate to own an NBA expansion team in Charlotte. When he went back to the same Charlotte business leaders for help with the $300 million expansion fee, he said, none would commit. That made him question if there was ever enough local ownership interest to make up the other 49 percent in the two Hornets bids. "It really wasn't the reception I thought I was going to get," he said.

But the bids for the Hornets and the startup of the Bobcats were different deals that offered very different outlooks for making a profit, said a person familiar with both deals.

The Hornets were an established team, and the potential investment cost was significantly less than the NBA fee for a new team, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to discuss private negotiations. The Hornets could have been profitable for investors even if the team helped pay for a new arena.

Launching a new NBA team, however, cost $330 million -- the $300 million expansion fee, plus about $30 million for initial working capital -- leaving a smaller chance for profit, the person said. Because of that, he said, it's understandable that potential investors for the Hornets would turn down the Bobcats.

In any case, Johnson remains the majority owner by far. The Bobcats media guide lists 18 others in the ownership group, but Johnson said their combined stake was little more than 10 percent.

Johnson's big stake has left him making up the difference in team deficits. "I didn't expect to be making money at all," he said, "but (I expected) not to lose as much."

Johnson declined to say how much he has lost on the Bobcats. A source with knowledge of the team's business operations placed those losses at $50 million or more.

Price increases rankle some

The Bobcats addressed two longstanding issues last week with agreements on a new TV deal with Fox Sports Net and the renaming of the arena after Time Warner Cable.

Still, a corporate name on the building and wider TV exposure won't mean much if the team doesn't start winning, some say.

"The man's got to put a product on the court," said Charlotte City Council member Warren Turner. "Charlotte's not going to support a losing anything."

The Bobcats rank 24th among 30 NBA teams in home attendance this season, averaging 14,659 tickets.

Turner said he owns season tickets in a suite at the arena, and that he and others have been peeved at a 14 percent increase in price for those tickets over the last two years, while floor tickets have dropped in price. That penalizes fans who spend the most money on games, he said.

"I might not renew them," Turner said.

McColl, however, said he'll keep buying tickets, and he hasn't seen any significant signs of anemic business support.

"If anything, I think enthusiasm is building," he said, adding, "Hopefully next year we'll have a playoff contender, and we'll see things pick up."

Until then, Johnson said he'll continue to pitch the Bobcats as the anchor for a vibrant sports and entertainment venue. "That is why the arena is here," he said, "not just so I can have a team and the players can get paid."

"Before I was here, the business community decided they wanted a sports team and an arena," he said. "What is it we can do together?"

While the city has done its part by building the arena, Mitchell said his concerns about attendance at games make him willing to help set up meetings between Johnson and business leaders about supporting the Bobcats.

"In a basketball-rich state such as North Carolina," he said, "you really have to ask what is happening."

Subscribe to the Charlotte Observer