Bonham and Hinchey: WNBA team a possibility

Saturday, July 7, 2007

This ninth anniversary edition of Boardroom Sports leads off with a question: Is there a WNBA team in our state's future? A Fort Collins-based group thinks so and it's launched a strong bid to make it happen soon.

"The Colorado Chill would be the only major league women's professional sports team in Colorado," said Dave King, majority owner, along with his wife, Annette, of Triple Crown Sports, the entity that is orchestrating the effort. "There's no other national sports opportunity like this in the state. It provides a mentor/hero role for younger kids that's unique. Most young female athletes grow up with posters of Carmelo Anthony and Britney Spears on their walls. We want them to keep Carmelo's and put up Becky Hammon's."

For the past 25 years, Triple Crown Sports has built an impressive résumé of producing sports events and operating teams. This experience includes putting on softball and baseball tournaments and owning and operating Women's NIT NCAA tournaments, the minor league Colorado Chill of the National Women's Basketball League and TC Athlete Representation Co.

King and his associates first approached the WNBA about owning a franchise in early December - a fact-finding meeting, as King describes it.

"We learned that everyone from Donna Orender, commissioner of the WNBA, to NBA Commissioner David Stern was committed to helping the league succeed. They learned that we were qualified, credible and knowledgeable owners based on our history of promoting and producing quality women's basketball."

Once Triple Crown Sports was given permission by the WNBA to anchor an ownership group to purchase a WNBA team for Colorado, King formed Colorado Chill LLC and is in the process of rounding out the ownership group. Triple Crown Sports would be the managing partner and a one-fourth owner.

The Colorado effort is competing with groups from Atlanta and Kansas City for an expansion slot in the WNBA.

"The league needs all of us," King said. "In the next five years, you'll probably see -WNBA teams in all three markets. Right now, it's whoever's got the tightest bid."

The WNBA is in its 11th year and has teams in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Indianapolis, Washington, Minneapolis, Minn., Houston, Phoenix, Seattle, Chicago and San Antonio as well as Hartford, Conn., and Sacramento, Calif.

The Chill, which would be headquartered in Fort Collins, would play its 17 home games from May to September at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland and Pepsi Center in Denver starting in 2008.

The Chill has a history of success in Colorado. It was the premier franchise of the now-defunct National Women's Basketball League (2003-2005), having won two championships and been runner-up once. It also earned a reputation for large, enthusiastic crowds and for being a well-run franchise.

The Chill would not be the first women's pro basketball franchise in Colorado. That honor belongs to the Colorado Xplosion of the American Basketball League, which played at the Denver Coliseum and McNichols Arena from 1996 to 1998.

The team had a relatively small but rabid following that showered adulation on Crystal Robinson, the inaugural ABL Rookie of the Year, and Debbie Black, the league's first Defensive Player of the Year. Several of the team's players migrated to the WNBA when the ABL folded in the middle of the 1998-99 season. The ABL's demise disappointed many fans, who are eager to see professional women's basketball return to the region.

"We're really excited about it," King said. "Anytime you have an opportunity to put together a franchise that can fill a real community need, it's a thrill. We're optimistic about the possibilities."

The Bonham Line: To make a go of it in today's crowded sports environment, you have to have a viable league, financially stable and committed owners and an organization that understands its product and how to market it. Triple Crown Sports' track record and strategic approach to pursuing a WNBA franchise suggest that it understands the formula for success.

Dean Bonham is CEO and Don Hinchey is VP of communications for The Bonham Group, a Denver-based sports and entertainment marketing firm. Send your comments to dhinchey@bonham.com.