Seattle businessman wants to bring af2 back to Everett

Published 11:43 pm Tuesday, September 25, 2007

EVERETT — Fans who developed a taste for arena football through three seasons of the Everett Hawks may have a new team to root for next spring.

The Seattle businessman who has taken over the rights to run an arenafootball2 team in Everett says he’s still working to have a new team in place for the 2008 season.

Michael Tuckman said he has interested investors outside of Everett, but he’s working hard to line up the local investors he needs to launch a new team.

So far, just a month since former Seattle Seahawk Sam Adams shut down the Hawks, Tuckman hasn’t yet found many locals jumping at the opportunity.

He said he understands the bad taste left behind by the Hawks, who owed numerous people and businesses money when they packed up their offices last month.

Tuckman’s mission is to convince Everett that he’s a different kind of team owner.

“We’ve got what I consider to be a winning business strategy, to run football and basketball together,” he said.

Most local football fans first heard of Tuckman when he was introduced as a part-owner of the Everett Hawks during that team’s last game in July. Adams later disputed Tuckman’s role with the Hawks, despite that public introduction.

The president and chief executive of West Coast Sports Holdings, Tuckman is an attorney whose career includes years of involvement with sports in the San Francisco area and his co-founding of Seattle’s KONG-TV. More recently, he operated now-defunct American Basketball Association teams in Bellevue and Tacoma. After the Bellevue Blackhawks went to the league’s championship in the team’s first year, Tuckman was named ABA executive of the year for 2004-05.

West Coast Sports owns the rights to the Vancouver, B.C., Dragons in the Continental Basketball Association; that team is expected to kick off play by 2010.

Tuckman also has proposed a CBA team for Everett, tentatively called the Admirals. He thinks running the football and basketball teams together could help to produce success where the Hawks and The International Basketball League’s Everett Explosion have struggled.

Key to that, however, is a workable lease agreement with Comcast Arena at Everett Events Center. He said he’s submitted a proposed lease agreement to the center for the af2 team in 2008, but said he hadn’t heard anything back by Tuesday.

“If we can get the dates leased with the events center, we can go ahead and play,” he said. “It’s too early to write off the 2008 season.”

Kim Bedier, the events center’s general manager, could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

Tuckman said arenafootball2 is eager to field a team here next year. If that can’t be arranged soon, however, he’ll instead aim for coming back in 2009.

“I am committed to this market long term,” he said. “I’m committed to bringing football and basketball to Everett.”

Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com