Columnist Dean Juipe: City snubbing us, Trotters execs claim

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2001 | 11:38 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

Mention the Harlem Globetrotters to most any civilized person in the world and the reaction borders on the predictable.

"Entertaining."

"Fun."

"Skillful."

The Globetrotters are something of an American institution, emerging in 1927 and evolving under the guidance of Abe Saperstein and a series of successors to where they are a staple on the international circuit. Their games are annual fixtures in countless cities.

It's difficult to say or find a negative word about them, and that's a formidable reputation.

So how would you feel about the Globetrotters moving their home base to Las Vegas and playing up to 43 games a year in a downtown arena that they would either control or share with a minor-league hockey team?

It's a proposal the Globetrotters have (unofficially) presented to the City of Las Vegas, yet one that apparently isn't going to be acted upon based on present information. The result: Trotters execs are fuming.

"We want to do an arena in Las Vegas in the worst way," said attorney Bill Lightbody, initiating the discussion with a call from his San Diego office. "We'd also have our corporate headquarters there, and a Globetrotters museum.

"We would turn the site into a destination spot that tourists wouldn't want to miss."

But there are underlying factors and they seem to be working against the Globetrotters. Without getting into myriad details -- and because I'm not sure I fully understand them all myself -- the proposal is back off the board and the city, if it goes in any direction concerning a downtown arena, seems to have cast its lot with an Idaho businessman who's exporting minor-league hockey as much as anything.

"It's not sour grapes on our part," Lightbody said. "But it's very strange and there are some things going on in Las Vegas that don't appear right."

A Trotters publicist, the Las Vegas-based Ray Brown, calls the city's handling of the issue "reckless" and reeking of a "conflict of interest." Crucial to both his and Lightbody's perspective is that the Globetrotters were held in "default" by the city for not relinquishing the written portion of their proposal by a city-imposed deadline last month; they said they failed to comply for legal reasons.

Like the Idaho proposal, the Trotters would utilize 30-year bonds to build the arena and then surrender ownership to the city. They also said the appropriate studies have been done and that the financing on their end is in place.

Mayor Oscar Goodman has publicly spoken of the Globetrotters moving here, yet he seems to have misplaced Lightbody's phone number.

"I can't get the mayor to call me back," he complained. "I'm kind of wondering where we are."

Where they are is outside looking in as the city courts a number of ideas for its open spaces downtown, including asking rap mogul Suge Knight for his input on the situation.

"They're talking to Suge Knight?" Brown said, somewhat indignantly. "I think the Globetrotters are a better deal than that. They'd be of great value to Las Vegas."