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Making History Two years ago Charlotte lost its National Basketball Association franchise, the Hornets, when the team's owners, George Shinn and Ray Woolridge, decided to fly off to New Orleans, stinging the Charlotte community. The man who had attempted to keep the Hornets in Charlotte, Robert L. Johnson, the charismatic founder, chair, and chief executive officer of Black Entertainment Television (BET), was granted a new franchise by the NBA to bring professional basketball back to Charlotte. Johnson was recently named by Sports Illustrated as number one on its list of the "101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports." Chief operating officer Ed Tapscott and Silberman with model of the new Uptown Charlotte Arena Johnson's road to owning the Charlotte team reveals the darker side of the politics of professional sport franchises. When the Charlotte Hornets first ran the hardwood in 1988, the team emerged as NBA attendance leaders, selling out their 23,000-seat arena for the first several years. But then things started to go sour. Ownership started demanding concessions from the Charlotte community, such as a new arena. In response, Charlotte leaders approached Johnson, who served on the board of directors for US Airways, for which Charlotte serves as a major hub city, and asked Johnson to purchase the team and keep it in their city. He failed to strike a deal, and the Hornets buzzed off to New Orleans. The community was left with a bitter taste--its loyalty had been ill rewarded. But Johnson decided to build a new team from scratch. History made (this is the first NBA franchise--indeed, the first major sport franchise of any kind--owned by an African American), he began assembling the best and the brightest to work for him. And three of those off-court stars are IC grads. Chris Weiller is the man responsible for giving an identity to the team Charlotte fans will be coming to see. A television-radio major at IC, Weiller was also the kicker for the IC football team (and for many years held the school record for longest punt--78 yards). It wasn't football, however, that opened doors for him. It was the internship he'd landed at the ABC show Good Morning, America, in the summer between his junior and senior years. He returned to the show after graduation as a production assistant, which led to another job at ABC. Eventually, through contacts made there, he became manager of public relations for Madison Square Garden. From there he went on to become vice president of communications for the New York Knicks, working with the team's general manager, Ed Tapscott. When Robert Johnson bought the Charlotte franchise, he hired Tapscott as his executive vice president and chief operating officer. Tapscott, in turn, hired Weiller, making him the third person to join the organization.

A. Ozolins, Ithaca College Office of Publications, 4 March, 2004