Grizzlies May Be Looking to South

Despite indications that the Vancouver Grizzlies have eliminated Anaheim from consideration as their new home, officials from the city and the Arrowhead Pond plan to meet today to discuss additional incentives that could be offered to lure the NBA team to Orange County.

“Our people are not giving up,” Anaheim City Manager James Ruth said Thursday.

Ruth said the Grizzlies had rejected the latest Anaheim bid, presented Wednesday to Grizzly owner Michael Heisley. But executives from Ogden Corp., operators of the Pond, worked Thursday to devise a better offer, and Ruth and Pond General Manager Tim Ryan each said he has not heard from Heisley or anyone on his staff that Anaheim is out of the running.

After a meeting between Heisley and NBA Commissioner David Stern on Thursday, Heisley traveled to Memphis, Tenn., for meetings with officials there, the Commercial Appeal reported.

Word swept across the league Thursday that Heisley had narrowed his choices to Louisville, Ky. and Memphis, with some reports suggesting New Orleans remained alive as a safety valve if Heisley and the NBA could not be satisfied with financing plans for proposed new arenas in Louisville and Memphis.

“I think it’s between Louisville and Memphis,” J. Bruce Miller, leader of the Louisville bid, told the Courier-Journal after talks with Heisley and his staff.

Heisley did not comment Thursday, at Stern’s request. Stern issued a statement in which he said the Grizzlies “presented us with a progress report and will notify us of their plans on Monday.”

The deadline for Heisley to apply to move his team is Monday. Until then, or until otherwise notified by the Grizzlies, Ruth said Ogden and the city would continue to work on “two or three different scenarios that might be attractive” to the team.

Meanwhile, Louisville and Memphis are raising the financial stakes almost daily, identifying local investors willing to purchase minority ownership in the Grizzlies and announcing commitments of corporate support for season tickets, luxury suites, club seats and naming rights for the arena and for the team.

In contrast, and with no need to generate community support for public funding for a new arena, the leaders of the Anaheim bid have operated a low-profile campaign to lure the Grizzlies. Ryan tried to assure Heisley that he would have no worries selling seats and suites for NBA games at the Pond, because the arena’s 82 suites already are sold out and the Clippers drew 14,830 per game as part-time tenants from 1994-99.