California Venture?

The man who could deliver a long-awaited NBA team to Anaheim arrives today for a tour of the Arrowhead Pond and meetings with city and arena officials.

For Michael Heisley, possibly the most despised man in British Columbia, the Pond is the latest stop on a cross-country tour to find a new home for his financially strapped Vancouver Grizzlies. The NBA on Monday granted Heisley four more weeks to continue his search.

“If he really wants to move his team here, we will find a way to make it happen,” Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly said.

In Orange County, where the Angels and Mighty Ducks are tiny cogs sometimes lost in a Disney empire of theme parks, television shows and movies, local fans and city officials might embrace Heisley, a self-made billionaire willing to stand up as the face and the soul of the Grizzlies.

But in Vancouver, which Heisley wishes to flee after buying the Grizzlies only last year, the owner is advised not to stand up.

Enraged Grizzly fans allege that Heisley never wanted to succeed in Vancouver and claim he sustained--and inflated--significant financial losses this season so he could persuade the NBA to let him move. Heisley denies the charges, but the home page of a hastily assembled Web site encouraged fans to “Save the Grizzlies--Hunt the Owner,” with Heisley’s picture within the cross hairs of a rifle scope.

The image, which has since been removed from the site, included this disclaimer: “Use of this icon does not advocate violence. We’re Canadians. We only shoot hockey pucks.”

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Anaheim is not the only suitor for the Grizzlies. Heisley previously has visited Louisville and New Orleans, and he was scheduled to meet in his Chicago office Monday with a Louisville representative.

Daly, Anaheim City Manager James Ruth and Pond General Manager Tim Ryan are scheduled to meet with Heisley and team executives today. The city is expected to offer free land to the Grizzlies to build a training facility, with the possibility of contributing to construction costs. Ogden Corporation, operators of the Pond, might offer to help Heisley buy out the remaining four years of his lease at the GM Place Arena in Vancouver.

The Mighty Ducks’ lease forces any NBA team moving into the Pond to share with Disney millions in revenues from luxury suites, club seats and advertising and does not provide an NBA team with any share of naming-rights revenue. Daly confirmed that Disney has agreed to conceptual lease concessions, to be discussed with Heisley as a basis for negotiation.

Anaheim Sports President Tony Tavares is not scheduled to attend today’s meeting. Through a spokesman, Tavares said: “This negotiation is strictly between the city of Anaheim, Ogden and the Vancouver organization. We are nothing more than an appendage in this process.”

In other developments Monday, Commissioner David Stern recommended that NBA owners extend until March 26 the deadline for Heisley to apply to move his team next season. The extension could allow Heisley to consider other cities, including Nashville, Memphis, Chicago and Las Vegas, as well as provide Vancouver investors time to assemble a partnership that could buy the Grizzlies from Heisley and keep the team in town.

Until last year, Heisley, 63, was nowhere to be found in the sports section. He was a prominent player on the business pages, building a reported net worth of $1.7 billion by buying financially troubled companies and steering them to profitability. The Heico Companies, based near Heisley’s home in suburban Chicago, has financial interests in about 40 firms across North America, employing more than 11,000 and producing a variety of industrial products such as logging equipment, cranes, sewer-cleaning equipment and prefabricated metal buildings.

“I didn’t always own businesses, and I wasn’t as well off as I am now,” Heisley told the Vancouver Sun last year. “I was not born with any silver spoon or even a copper spoon in my mouth.”

Heisley was born in Washington, D.C., one of five children whose parents worked as railroad employees and whose father was laid off during the Great Depression.

“I wore my share of hand-me-down clothes,” Heisley said. “I’m proud of my father. He never had much. The most he ever made in his life was about $12,000. But he worked hard and he gave us everything he had.”

Heisley said he started out in business as computer salesman making $5,000 a year. In 1979, he moved his family--wife Agnes, whom he married 43 years ago, and his five children--from Virginia to Chicago. He sold his house for a $150,000 profit, used the money to buy a financially ailing manufacturing company, then restored that company to profitability and invested his profits in another troubled company.

He repeated that corporate rescue operation many times. In 1992, he bought a company $40 million in debt. Last year, he told the Sun, that company was worth $180 million.

For all his riches, Heisley remained largely anonymous within British Columbia--and most of North America, for that matter--until he appeared before a news conference in Vancouver 13 months ago, accepted a leather Grizzly jacket and uttered a few magic words.

“I intend to do everything in my power to make this franchise a success in Vancouver,” Heisley said that day. “Having an owner that is committed to this market is an important part.”

Heisley had bought the Grizzlies, four days after Bill Laurie abandoned his effort to purchase the team. Laurie wanted to move the Grizzlies to St. Louis, but the NBA told him he would first have to make a concerted effort--several years, at least--to succeed in Vancouver. Heisley was hailed as a savior, the man who would keep the team in Vancouver.

One year and three days ago, Heisley was introduced to Vancouver fans during the Grizzlies’ game against the Chicago Bulls. He was given a standing ovation.

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Last year, Stern refused to allow Laurie to move the Grizzlies, citing the untapped potential of the Vancouver market. This year, Heisley persuaded Stern the Grizzlies never could succeed in Vancouver.

Why the flip-flop? Two days before granting Heisley his blessing to scout potential new homes, Stern blamed the Vancouver business community for not following through on assurances that the Grizzlies would be supported with season tickets, advertisements and corporate sponsorships if the NBA rebuffed Laurie.

“We have yet to hear from any substantial group that could make good on any of the implicit promises that were made when, at some great expense, we decided that Vancouver was entitled to demonstrate it was an NBA city,” Stern said then. “I think it’s unfortunate that the city with that kind of resources has not rallied behind the club. But that’s the choice that it’s making and we’ll go from there.”

Heisley paid $160 million for the Grizzlies and projects $46 million in losses this season.

The team generated $51 million in revenue last season, $11.6 million from ticket sales, according to Forbes magazine. Both figures ranked last among NBA teams. (The Lakers generated $50 million in ticket revenue alone, before collecting a penny from suites, sponsorships or broadcast rights, Forbes reported. The Clippers reportedly generated $15 million in ticket sales.)

The Grizzlies have averaged 13,398 fans this season, down 2% from last season. Heisley told the Sun last year he was willing to sustain some financial losses if fans filled the arena. The Grizzlies play to 70% of capacity in GM Place.

“If there is improvement in the fan support, even if the thing isn’t totally turned around financially, then that’s a positive sign and I’m going to move forward,” he said. “But obviously, if there is no improvement in the situation there, then we’re going to have to address it.”

To outraged Vancouver fans, the attendance is remarkable given the consistently lousy team. The Grizzlies are 18-39 this season and have lost four of every five games during their six seasons in the NBA.

The corporate community is up in arms too, citing a sluggish summer marketing campaign, delayed as Heisley assembled his front office. Vancouver newspapers have offered numerous anecdotes from businesses claiming they never heard from new management about opportunities to buy tickets, ads and sponsorships, although Heisley has wondered aloud why those charging the Grizzlies were indifferent to local corporations did not speak out until after Stern allowed Heisley to look elsewhere.

Heisley has even been hit with a class-action lawsuit from season-ticket holders, claiming Heisley was well aware he was buying a money-losing team in a small market and alleging he breached an implied promise to spare no effort to keep the Grizzlies in Vancouver.

“I don’t know what promise I made to them that I breached,” Heisley told the Sun. “If they say I didn’t try hard, that’s their opinion. I tried to the tune of $46 million.”

Although few in Vancouver accept that figure for Heisley’s projected losses, Stern does. And, although no one in Vancouver would embrace Heisley as a savior now, he vows he will travel from his Illinois home to watch another game, or several, in Vancouver.

He also vows that he will not hide in a luxury suite. He will watch from his usual courtside seat. He even told the Sun a colleague had dissuaded him from a cute little idea to sell a few extra tickets to what could be one of the Grizzlies’ last games in town.

“What do you think,” he asked the colleague, “if I basically sold tomatoes and gave everybody a free shot at me at center court? Do you think I could sell out the arena?”