In Norm Sonju`s files are the names of 143 potential investors who refused to believe pro basketball could turn a buck in this bucking bronco city. That opinion was dominant in the late 1970s, and bright Dallas executives swore you could take it to the bank.
Most of them told Sonju that fans in the area didn`t have enough interest to make the idea worth a plugged nickel, let alone the $600,000 ante he wanted from them. They showed him to the door and, because he had just moved to Texas, suggested he buy his kids a football.
The doubters weren`t Mavericks, sad to say. Donald Carter, who made his fortune selling inexpensive home furnishings by catalogue, gambled and won as the principal money man for that new National Basketball Association team.
With general manager Sonju`s business acumen, Carter brought the Mavs into a town used to simplified one-stop sports shopping–football. He got people to buy the Mavs as household names, just as he convinced them in his catalogues.
In a place where football names such as Darrell Royal and Tom Landry are spoken proudly and with familiarity, the basketball names of Wilt Chamberlain or Oscar Robertson, for example, made very little impact.
Out of sight, out of mind. Their names were only read occasionally and evoked no local emotion.
But when the NCAA Final Four begins with semifinal games Saturday, there won`t be an empty seat in Reunion Arena, home of the Mavericks. Basketball will be prime time in a city that used to channel its affections in only one direction.
The scalpers` market is said to favor the sellers for the NCAA tournament. It was not always that way here for basketball tickets, and it shouldn`t be interpreted that basketball has captured the hearts and eyes of Texas in this 150th year of statehood.
The Dallas Chaparrals of the American Basketball Association got a lesson in fan ambivalence in the 1970s. They went bust and had to move to San Antonio. It seemed Dallas was certain to be a ghost town for basketball.
Oh sure, it was nice to see Houston`s Cougars do well occasionally. Quite an interesting diversion. But the general attitude was, ”How `bout them Longhorns, and, by the way, when`s spring football start?”
So it was with the spunk of a stubborn Texas wildcatter that Sonju set off to strike oil that wasn`t to be found underneath a goalpost. And Carter provided an impetus to dig deep regardless of repeated rejections.
Sonju grew up in Chicago and graduated from Schurz High School as a confirmed basketball junkie. He clambered up the executive ladder with a Downers Grove company named Servicemaster. While working there, he coached the George Williams College basketball team.
One of his accounts was in Dallas, so he knew a bit about the city before Carter brought him here in February, 1979, and had him dedicate himself to acquiring an NBA franchise.
The market surveys Sonju initiated and studied supported the beliefs that the city, based on demographics and yearly household incomes, was on paper an appropriate site for NBA expansion.
But he went to the grass roots, and that was when he saw a potential problem. A high school basketball game showed how the sport was perceived in Dallas.
”I was meeting Mr. Carter at a high school game where his son was going to play,” Sonju said. ”I`d just arrived in Dallas shortly before this. So when my car was the only one in the parking lot at the school I thought perhaps it was my mistake.
”A police officer followed me into the lot and asked if he could help.
`I came to see the game,` I told him. `It`s been canceled on account of the weather,` he replied.
”I looked up at the clear sky, not wearing an overcoat, and he said,
`They predicted snow, so they canceled.` There never was a flake that night. I thought to myself, `What kind of place is Dallas that they cancel a basketball game with just a forecast of bad weather?`
”I mean, I`m from Chicago, and I lived in Buffalo when I was a partner for the Braves` NBA franchise. It could snow 20 inches in Buffalo, and life goes on like usual.
”I knew if we were going to make it in Dallas, we`d have to have a product that would make people come see us despite a weather forecast. We`d have to make inroads into the community`s psyche.
”One of the reasons the Chaps failed here was they were considered to be a minor-league team. The ABA really had big names, but the perception was minor league.
”Dallas will only support major-league franchises, so we believed the NBA would establish our credibility with both the people and the media.”
The Mavericks made their debut in 1980-81 and have never lost money in any season, said a proud Sonju. Ex-Bulls` coach Dick Motta and Mark Aguirre from De Paul, both of them former big names in Chicago, have been key reasons for the team`s steady progress to the point where it`s now top NBA fare whenever it plays.
However, basketball still doesn`t draw Texans the way football does. That was pointed out by the recent NCAA regional in Houston that offered such top- notch talent as North Carolina and Louisville.
Only 10,936 turned out to see those teams play last week in Houston on the Rockets` home floor. Just 9,650 showed up when Louisville followed by winning the championship game over Auburn.
Houston also ignored a big high school tournament this week that featured for two days some of the best talent in the state. No crowd was announced, but other than the players` families and a core of college recruiters, there were few who came to Rice University to see the senior-dominated tournament.
”The trouble is Houstonians. They just don`t seem to be basketball fans,” was an assessment written by a Houston Post reporter.
The Rockets, who are leading the NBA`s Midwest Division, are drawing well, and the University of Houston brought out the crowds when it was living a dream with Akeem Olajuwon. It appears the bottom line is winning.
”Definitely is,” said Texas Christian coach Jim Killingsworth, whose team was in the National Invitation Tournament this year. ”If you`re not big winners, they don`t come out to see basketball in Texas. Football has been a force for so long here.”
Killingsworth said high school players in Texas have no motivation to improve because of the lack of strong summer leagues and poor competition.
”And there`s no exposure for high school basketball,” he added.
”Look how big Texas is. No college coach can get around all of it to look at high school talent. You have to get summer camps well-organized, where the coaches can see what`s available, and the players can be motivated to work harder than they are now.
”I`ve seen some progress, but not enough. It`s a frustrating situation. We`re trying to change it, and maybe if we keep winning, they`ll listen.”
Sonju still sees some of the Dallas businessmen who chose not to buy into the Mavericks. They wish now they had been more open-minded, he said.
”Some turned into really good friends, and I tell them: `You did the right thing to turn me down. It was what you believed, and that makes the difference.` ”
Sonju guards against complacency on his staff by stressing to them that though the team is financially strong, it can ill afford to take Dallas for granted.
”This is a very sophisticated city, people have many interests,” Sonju said. ”I don`t consider football as a competitor for us. But we do have major competition from restaurants and movies and dancing and other options.
”We have tried to create an atmosphere where a family wants to come out to see the Mavericks play. We closely watch people who drink to make sure there are no problems.
”I can`t tell you what puts people in the seats, so I`m very careful with the success we have here. I did the same things in Buffalo managing the Braves and it didn`t work there.
”I`m on a mission in Dallas, a mission some said was impossible. I can`t relax now, not for a minute.”
