Gladiators’ owner has new-found excitement

Friday, Jan. 31, 2003 | 10:01 a.m.

Las Vegas Gladiators owner Jim Ferraro is patient.

In the next month, after 7 1/2 years of construction, upgrading and detailing, he will finally move into his posh new home on the top three floors of a ritzy 16-story, Mediterranean-style high rise in Coral Gables, Fla.

About when he started that residential project, Ferraro tackled a team of 10 lawyers from powerful chemical company DuPont in the biggest trial of his life.

In Castillo v. E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company, he proved that the exposure of a pregnant woman (Donna Castillo) to the fungicide Benlate caused her child (John) to be born with underdeveloped eyes in 1991.

A jury awarded the Castillos $3.98 million in May 1996. However, that verdict was overturned on appeal by DuPont in 1999. The Florida Supreme Court is nearing a decision that will set a precedent for the way scientific evidence is presented in that state's courtrooms.

Then again, Ferraro's patience has its limits.

When he visited a Gladiators' game in New Jersey last season, he was pleased to receive a computer mouse pad, bearing a team logo and in team colors, as he entered Continental Airlines Arena.

Ferraro was less pleased to learn that he had paid for the giveaway items, that they weren't provided by one of the team's sponsors. He was far less pleased when he discovered an employee had ordered 500,000 brochures when 50,000 were sufficient.

Two years of mismanagement and poor turnout forced Ferraro, 45, to yank the Gladiators out of the desolate Jersey meadows. His analysts explored other destinations, and San Antonio was near the top of his list.

He was advised that Las Vegas would be the most attractive city for his team, the Arena Football League's defending East Division champion. Ferraro signed a three-year agreement with Thomas & Mack Center officials soon after landing here last month.

"It's so good to be out of New Jersey," Ferraro said. "There were things going on there which I wasn't even aware of. That was partly my fault. But I had a guy who was supposed to be taking care (of business). The staff there just was not as good as the staff here."

Ferraro plans to make a hole in his hectic schedule and arrive at Staples Center in Los Angeles for Sunday's season opener against the Avengers right at the 3:30 p.m. kickoff, and he hopes to attend the following week's game in Arizona.

He will attend most of the Gladiators' eight games at the Mack, including the Feb. 17 home opener against Tampa Bay. The least expensive single-game ticket costs $8.

"We are so excited about this," Ferraro said. "I think it'll be a great thing out here. I think we'll get 6,000 or 7,000 for our first game, at least the indication is that we'll get that. Ticket sales are good. I think, in the long term, we'll fill the place. I think people will love it.

"I'm so excited about it. I can't tell you how excited I am about it."

Some are not so enthused about Ferraro.

He said most of his debts, of more than $100,000 to the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, radio station WSNR and assorted vendors, have been settled.

An unflattering website, with a black-and-white picture of Ferraro in the bottom right corner that can be contorted with a cursor, has also sprouted. At the top, the author wrote that Ferraro is the "ambulance chaser" who moved the Gladiators to Las Vegas.

Every few seconds, a small cartoonish figure walks from the left corner of the screen to the picture, where he relieves himself on the photograph of Ferraro.

More than 10,000 viewers have visited the site, which amused Ferraro.

"That's interesting," he said. "It's probably someone in New Jersey upset that we left, right? I'm the guy who left New Jersey. I guess that's a disgruntled season-ticket holder. I mean, but what are you going to do? We had to move the team.

"Listen, I'm sure there's someone out there who wished the team stayed. But, to stay and lose substantial dollars, millions of dollars a year? We had, what, 800 season-ticket holders? But I don't consider that person an enemy. That's a nut, some wacko."

Perhaps someone in DuPont's legal army has taken a course or two in web design.

Ferraro helped found the Cleveland-based firm of Kelley & Ferraro, LLP, and is president of the Miami-based firm of Ferraro & Associates, P.A. He employs 110 lawyers and assistants, and he figures he represents tens of thousands of clients.

Product liability, wrongful death, personal injury and medical malpractice had been his staples. He began specializing in asbestos-afflicted workers 15 years ago, and that is what attracted the Castillos to Ferraro.

DuPont, based in Wilmington, Del., quit selling Benlate last year.

"(Donna Castillo) didn't have a shot before she came to me," Ferraro said. "To me, I feel fortunate. I make a lot of money doing the absolute right thing, helping out a lot of people. We make a difference for these people.

"A lot of these blue-collar guys who are dying don't have insurance, or have inadequate insurance. Some of them die before their time, or they didn't plan properly to die. You take care of them. It's a very meaningful experience."

His cause might have suffered a blow two weeks ago, however, when Federal Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. rejected the reliability of scientific studies that linked Benlate to the rare birth defect, keeping a trial from beginning in U.S. District Court in West Virginia.

Andrew Bourne, 13, of Essex, England, had been one of a dozen children whose parents were involved in that case and one of about three dozen that Ferraro represents.

Final oral arguments in DuPont's appeal of the Castillo ruling ended before the Florida Supreme Court on Feb. 6, 2001.

"It's the longest anyone is aware of for a civil case in Florida," he said. "Word is that they are writing some big decision that will govern science in the courtroom in Florida for the next 20 or 30 years."

Ferraro is renowned in the legal field for his no-win, no-fee pledges, and he annually donates $500,000 to charity. He relishes being in the middle of all the action.

"I always find the action, somehow," he said.

He grew up in Greenwich, Conn., where his father's locker at the local YMCA is still beside the one used by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young's father.

Ferraro excelled as a 5-foot-9 linebacker at Greenwich High, once earning 33 points (two for a solo tackle, one for an assist) in a game. His fury made him pause, though, after he nailed an opponent and saw the lifeless body lying on the grass.

"The dark note," he said. "(I) broke his neck. I felt like quitting football, but it ended up that he was OK. Spent some time in the hospital, but he wasn't paralyzed."

Ferraro matriculated to the University of Miami, where he played on the scout team and was an average student. Halfway through his undergraduate spell, when he knew he'd be lucky to make the third team, he quit football and focused on school.

He graduated, then earned a master's (in accounting) and law degrees from Miami.

"It's just my nature," Ferraro said of his penchant for being in the eye of hurricanes. "I like it, although I do like peace and quiet. I will like spending time in my new place."

He visits Europe at least twice a year, and Vienna is on the itinerary for February. The new home is furnished with antiques, art and exotic pieces from many of those trips, such as a colorful lava table from Mt. Etna in Sicily that highlights a living room whose ceiling is 23 feet.

South Florida real estate agents have told Ferraro it is the nicest condominium they have ever seen in the state, and he's pondering an offer from Architectural Digest to do a layout, possibly even a cover shot, of the luxury penthouse.

He has been living on Fisher Island, just south of Miami Beach. The objective of the new place is to be closer to James, Andrew and Alexis, his children who live with his ex-wife a block and a half away.

"When you walk in, it's like you're in Italy," Ferraro said. "It has all hand-carved wood and it has a veranda. It's a cool place. It turned out much better than I had imagined. Taking so long, we got to really think about things and made changes along the way.

"Everything has a little history to it in that place."

Ferraro's passion for football drove him to purchase the Red Dogs for $7 million in December 2000, and he immediately changed the team's nickname to Gladiators. He said the average AFL franchise has about doubled in value since then.

He bristled at skeptics and critics who have given the team little chance to succeed here, because of the city's long history with failed sports teams, and at those who consider Arena ball to be the minor leagues.

"It really isn't," Ferraro said. "It's a sport of its own, and I think it's going to be great. A lot of people are moving here because it's a great place to live with a great climate. This is, potentially, a diamond-in-the-rough.

"We'll do well, unless (coach) Frank Haege loses his mind, can't coach anymore, they start losing and no one goes to the games. If we win, this team will be profitable next year, we'll have a fan base and everyone will be happy. Hopefully, it's a new day for Vegas."

archive