CBA’s Commissioner Excludes Wildcats, but Team Still Optimistic

Any chances of the Orange County Wildcats setting up shop, let alone setting picks, in the 1988-89 Continental Basketball Assn. season were unequivocally denied by league commissioner Jay Ramsdell Tuesday, despite the insistence of team officials that the possibility of competing still exists.

“We had the annual meetings two weeks ago in Denver,” Ramsdell said. “And we emerged from those meetings with our league lineup set, our divisions set, our schedule set. Everything was finalized. Orange County is not part of those plans.”

But the Wildcats--an organization without a team--are moving ahead with their plans, even if they have had to alter them.

Brian McInerney, the Wildcats’ marketing director, said Tuesday that although the league did not approve an expansion team for the coming season, which begins in November, the possibility of buying an existing franchise and relocating it to Orange County still exists.

Before that scenario could be played out, though, the team would have to secure a permanent arena for its home games. The Wildcats have been negotiating for use of UC Irvine’s Bren Center.

“It is possible that a couple of existing franchises would be available for purchase,” McInerney said. “If we got the green light from the Bren Center, we could proceed along those lines.”

George Lemon, the organization’s vice president, is still negotiating with UC Irvine’s student affairs office, which runs the Bren Center, for use of the facility for the coming season. But Lemon would not say whether an expansion team or a current franchise would occupy the arena.

“Let’s leave some things to the imagination,” he said. “There is more than one way to skin a cat. This is not a dead issue as far as Orange County is concerned.”

However, this is news to Ramsdell, who was named the CBA commissioner in June.

“The only contact I’ve had with them since the meetings has been correspondences, where they said they were proceeding,” Ramsdell said. “I’ve been telling them it’s too late. The league sets up deadlines and sticks to them. They didn’t meet all the criteria.”

Part of the criteria was a home arena that would seat no fewer than 5,000 and had a 94-foot playing surface, which is the regulation size of a National Basketball Assn. floor.

The athletic department at Irvine has been opposed to the Wildcats playing at the Bren Center. Athletic Director John Caine said that it would put the university’s basketball program in direct competition for the area’s “entertainment dollar.”

“It’s not necessarily a snag. . . . What we’re looking at is making sure that a CBA team would be compatible with the Anteater basketball program,” Horace Mitchell, vice chancellor for student affairs, said. “We have not seen a concrete final contract. . . . That would be open for discussion.”

Said Lemon: “We’re still working on some things. It (the arena) is our most severe problem. Once we get that, everything else will be minute in comparison.”

But, according to Ramsdell, the other problems may not be so minute.

Richard Armento, owner of the Wildcats, made an initial $25,000 payment to the CBA for franchise consideration. An additional payment was required at the league meeting on June 24, according to Ramsdell.

“They had a purchasing agreement to make payments, and they did not satisfy that, nor did their posted credit,” Ramsdell said. “The league had no alternative but to deny them admission to the league this season.”

The team also lost its $25,000 deposit, which was nonrefundable.

Armento was unavailable for comment, but Lemon said the team was required to make only the original $25,000 payment.

“By contract, the rest would be made upon approval (of the franchise),” Lemon said.

Despite Ramsdell’s statements that Orange County would not be a part of the CBA in 1988-89, Lemon said the team will proceed with its plans to be a part of the league this season.

Said Ramsdell: “We’re releasing our schedule on Friday, and Orange County is not involved in it. We have extended every opportunity for them to apply again next season. This season, it’s too late.”