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Firm feels snubbed by GrizzliesA Memphis company seeking to install the Grizzlies' practice court at FedExForum says it was snubbed despite having a lower bid and superior product. Bruce Gleneck, owner of Sports Floors Inc., says the combination of price and quality should have made for a local job at the publicly financed, $250 million arena. Instead, because the Grizzlies chose another brand of court, installation will be by Covington Flooring Co. of Birmingham for $128,997. "The Grizzlies have a say-so in what they want," Gleneck said. "But you know what the bottom line is? This is our (public) money we're spending." The Grizzlies and the New Memphis Arena Public Building Authority said the Sports Floors bid was slightly higher - $134,587, which Gleneck said was the high end of a range of court and price options. More than price, though, Mike Golub, Grizzlies senior vice president of business operations, said the team chose "the product we think is best for our players." He said the team's basketball officials preferred a court from Robbins Sports Surfaces, for which Covington Flooring is a Southeastern U.S. dealer. Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets Grizzlies take cash up frontThe Grizzlies have decided to take their FedExForum naming-rights revenue overnight, rather than over time. The franchise was to receive $90 million over 20 years of the FedEx Corp. naming-rights deal for the arena, which opens in 2004. But the team opted for immediate - albeit less - cash from lenders to cope with heavy financial losses at The Pyramid and the high cost of building a winning franchise. A series of transactions has given the Grizzlies $32.5 million, in addition to $20 million that FedEx already had paid the franchise, according to a report in Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal. For the Grizzlies, that means $52.5 million, rather than $90 million over time. Payments by FedEx now go to the lenders who made the deal with the Grizzlies. "This really makes the team a solid proposition," said Stan Meadows, the team's senior corporate counsel. "It doesn't have to be fed by the owners right now. We can get into the new arena and get everything in line." The financing deal, which Meadows called "very unusual," provides immediate relief for a team with annual losses of $10 million-plus at The Pyramid. But it also removed a long-term revenue source. "It is a risk, if the team can't generate sufficient revenue. With sports teams, that's always a big if," said Julia Heath, University of Memphis Economics Department chairman. Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets Griz on TV live 69 times, on tape 40It's all Griz, all the time. Well, almost all the time. The Grizzlies announced on Wednesday a 69-game television schedule for the upcoming season, and 40 of those games will be replayed at 2 a.m. WMC-TV (Channel 5) will replay all 10 of the games it will show live as well as 30 games that are originally aired on PAX (Channel 50). "There's a lot of people who don't get to see our live telecasts," Grizzlies vice president of business Mike Golub said. "There's a lot of restaurant workers, there's a lot of people who work late shifts like at the FedEx hub. "We don't expect a huge audience out of this. It's a nice experiment to try and reach more fans." Golub said there are some major league baseball teams and NBA teams who re-broadcast edited games that last about an hour. But he's not aware of any franchise re-broadcasting entire games. Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets Grizzlies Aug 2003 Archive
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