© St. Petersburg Times, published January 25, 2002
Begin with the premise.
An NBA team is losing money. It plays in a smallish market with an inferior arena. The owner is looking to sell.
Now move on to an idea with promise.
Less than 100 miles down the road is a state-of-the-art arena situated in a larger market. The landlord is willing to talk.
Put 2 and 2 together and what do you get?
An I-4 road block.
For a variety of reasons, the Magic is not likely to show up at the Ice Palace's doors with suitcases and pride in hand.
As a concept, the idea sounds grand. As a practical matter, it is somewhat less so. It makes sense only until you invite details into the conversation.
Such as, NBA commissioner David Stern. The guy who has all but vowed to throw his body in front of any moving vans leaving the TD Waterhouse Centre.
And the building situation. Most teams that relocate are moving to get a sweetheart of a deal in a new arena. A prospective Magic owner would be the No. 2 tenant behind the Lightning at the Ice Palace.
Finally, the Tampa Bay market. You know, where the Rays ranked 28th out of 30 teams in attendance and the Lightning is 20th. And where it is difficult to find major corporations with money to burn. If this is a greener pasture, Orlando must be in a heck of a drought.
The issue is being discussed only because of the recent announcement by Magic owner Rich DeVos that he is selling the franchise.
DeVos, 76, is supposedly looking to get out because he wants to spare his family the problems associated with inheritance taxes. Of course, he arrived at this decision only after Orlando refused to build him a new arena.
The TD Waterhouse Centre is 13 years old, but was virtually antiquated when it opened because of its design.
It is a 1980s-style arena with limited luxury boxes and club levels. In other words, too many cheap seats. Orlando has 29 skyboxes located in nose-bleed territory. The trend is for at least twice as many luxury boxes built in the middle of an arena where they can attract top corporate dollars.
While stumping for a new arena, DeVos claimed the Magic lost $10-million a year for the past five years. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of Central Florida for an investor who might spend $200-million to buy the Magic.
"We would need 60-75 suites and (additional) club seats to make it work in this market," said Cari Coats, the Magic's vice president for business development. "What you're looking for is the proper mix of seating in the arena. The more premium seats we have, the more revenue we can create. With that revenue we can offer lower ticket prices on the rest of our seats.
"This arena could work for an NBA team, but it would depend on the goals of the team. If you're looking for an average to above-average team, you could stay here and break even. We wanted a championship caliber team and were unwilling to compromise on those goals."
Thus, was born the idea of the Magic moving out of Orlando.
So let's say a billionaire decides to take a fling on the Magic. Let's say he concurs with DeVos the arena is outdated. Let's say he also gets blown off by Orlando politicians in a request for a new arena. And let's say he somehow convinces Stern relocation is the only answer.
Even after clearing all those hurdles, there still is a question of whether the Ice Palace would be the best destination.
There are other cities in which hockey and basketball teams share arenas, but their circumstances differ from Tampa Bay. In most cases, they are larger markets without the same difficulty finding corporate sponsors. Or they have cross-ownership so the revenue flows into the same wallets.
It would be a simple -- and ideal -- situation if Lightning owner William Davidson could own the Lightning and the Magic and combine his revenue streams. But he owns the NBA's Detroit Pistons and cannot be an investor in the Magic.
This means two ownership groups would have to co-exist at the Ice Palace and share dates, revenues and the competition for corporate sponsors.
"You would have to find a creative way for the ownership groups to pull together and work with each other and not against each other," Lightning president Ron Campbell said. "It would have to be a joint venture of some type."
It would require the type of cooperation not evident in the Glazers' dealings with the Mutiny. Like the Lightning at the Ice Palace, the Bucs control the revenue streams at Raymond James Stadium. When the Mutiny and Major League Soccer could not convince the Glazers to share, the team died.
Palace Sports & Entertainment, Davidson's company, is far more likely to be equitable in dealing with an NBA team because it would be in its best interests. It would mean more dates at the Ice Palace and more buzz in the area surrounding the building.
"You put an NBA team together with the Lightning," Campbell said, "and you have the Ice Palace on steroids."
The question is whether Palace Sports & Entertainment and a Magic owner could find a common ground in dividing the pot.
The Lightning could lose money from concerts and other events that are bypassed because of basketball dates. Does that mean the Lightning should get a portion of the Magic's nightly revenues? And would the Magic agree to that?
And would the Magic usurp some of the corporate dollars flowing the Lightning's direction?
"We're not actively pursuing this, but there is a germ of a possibility there," Campbell said. "Stranger things have happened."
So does a Magic-Lightning partnership make sense? Yes.
Would it be good for the community? Absolutely.
Will it happen? Don't count on it.