No Pro Basketball, Refunds on Way

Sports Arena operator Harry Cooper said Monday he has no certain prospects of landing a professional basketball team in San Diego and is ready to refund deposits on season tickets.

Cooper said efforts to launch a new National Basketball Assn. team or acquire an existing franchise, a cornerstone of his plans to build a deluxe Sports Arena, have stalled, largely because of intense competition for franchises and a lack of support from city officials.

With little hope left of bringing an NBA team to San Diego before the new arena’s targeted opening of August 1994, Cooper said he is now focusing on entering the National Hockey League.

“Just like you can’t build a shopping center without an anchor tenant, you can’t build a sports arena without an anchor tenant. It either has to be an NHL team or an NBA team,” he said.

A letter will soon go out to the 3,000 San Diegans who put up a $50 deposit on season tickets to an NBA team. They can either choose a refund with interest or a comparable deposit on an IHL or NHL season ticket, Cooper said.

HIRINGS

The University of San Diego has hired Regina Sullivan as assistant athletic director, USD athletic director Tom Iannacone announced Monday.

Sullivan, 29, will serve as the operations director, the primary administrator for specific sports and as the coordinator of special projects. She had been working as a graduate assistant in the University of Tennessee’s athletic department.

A 1983 graduate of Yale, Sullivan was a four-year letter winner for the women’s varsity basketball team and an All-Ivy League performer in 1980 and 1983.