New League Seeks Team in San Diego : Pro sports: The Global Hockey League has its heart set on the Sports Arena, but some say city only has eyes for the NHL.

A proposed professional hockey league is interested in putting a franchise in San Diego, but the effort could be doomed from the start because the company that owns the lease to the San Diego Sports Arena might be reluctant to rent to such a team.

Michael J. Gobuty, chairman of the proposed Global Hockey League, said that he has not spoken with Harry Cooper, who owns the existing Sports Arena lease and plans to build a new downtown arena. But Cooper and Richard Esquinas, his partner in San Diego Arena Corp., said Tuesday that an NHL franchise was the goal.

“I can’t see us doing anything that would take away from our efforts of bringing a National Hockey League team here, and if that were perceived as taking away our chances, we wouldn’t want that to happen,” Esquinas said. “We wouldn’t want to do anything to dampen our chances of bringing the NHL to San Diego.”

Cooper said last week that he had commitments from investors willing to put up $50 million to buy a NHL expansion franchise.

“Those would be delicate discussions,” Cooper said Tuesday, when asked what would happen if a hockey team, other than a NHL franchise wanted to rent the arena. “We are a major league city and looking for a major league team.”

The Sports Arena is the only facility in the county suitable for a major pro hockey franchise. But Gobuty said he was optimistic that San Diego could get a GHL team.

“San Diego is under very strong consideration,” Gobuty said by phone from Winnipeg, Canada. “We’re going to have three or four teams in the southern part of the U.S. because we consider that an excellent hockey area.”

Two other GHL sources confirmed that a San Diego group was seeking a franchise but would release no names.

The GHL will be holding meetings in Los Angeles from Thursday to Saturday, with an announcement on franchises planned for Saturday, Gobuty said.

Only Albany, N.Y., has been officially announced as a GHL city, with Joseph J. O’Hara and Glenn Mazula named as owners. O’Hara and Mazula are also the majority owners of the Albany Patroons of the Continental Basketball Assn.

A second city set but not yet announced is Saskatoon, Canada. Others favored to get franchises include Hamilton, Canada, Detroit and Atlanta.

The league plans a November start with teams in 10-12 North American cities. Franchises in Europe, which would play an interlocking schedule with North American teams, are also under consideration, but some sources said they would not begin play until the 1991-92 season.

GHL rules will favor the faster, less-physical European game. Rules expected to be adopted include elimination of the center red line and fines, two-game suspensions and penalty shots for the opposition when a third man joins a fight or when a player carries a stick above the shoulder.

“It will be a different brand of hockey than the NHL,” Gobuty said. “We know we can’t stop the violence, but we’re trying to reduce it.”

Mindful of the over-spending that killed the U.S. Football League, the GHL plans a $2.5-million salary cap for a 20-21 player roster. The league will primarily sign players from colleges, junior hockey and the minor leagues.

“We’re not worried about getting the talent,” said Charlie Hodgins, owner of Saskatoon’s team. “Our rule changes will be good for smaller players who wouldn’t be able to play in the NHL.”

Besides Gobuty, a former owner of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets, another organizer is Dennis Murphy, who has been a founder of several new leagues including the American Basketball Assn., World Hockey Assn. and World Team Tennis.

San Diego had a professional hockey team from the 1966-67 season to 1978-79. The first was the Western Hockey League Gulls, who spent eight years here. The WHA Mariners moved in from Cherry Hill, N.J., for the 1974-75 season, remaining until 1976-77.

In the 1977-78 season, another franchise called the Mariners played in a Murphy-created minor league, the Pacific Hockey League. They were renamed the Hawks for the PHL’s last season, 1978-79.