When the Arizona Heat softball team folded over the weekend because of a lack of funds, it joined a list of Tucson busts including the Scorch, Gila Monsters and Amigos.
However, the president of National Pro Fastpitch is optimistic Tucson's softball team will be spared the fate of Southern Arizona's past disasters in minor-league hockey and soccer. The league is planning on relaunching the franchise in 2008 under a new owner.
"We're not dummies," NPF president Pat Linden said Monday from Colorado. "We know (Tucson) is a place we need."
Tucson Sidewinders owner Jay Zucker will be involved in the Heat's next step. Zucker, the head of the Arizona State Professional Baseball and Softball Commission, will spearhead a committee to help the franchise find a new owner for the 2008 season.
He might not have to look far.
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Zucker said the prospect of buying the Heat interests him, though "it would be premature to say we're doing anything with it."
"We can address that later in the season," Zucker said Monday from San Carlos, Sonora, where he is vacationing. "It does interest me to keep professional ball going in Arizona."
Zucker is used to reclamation projects. The Sidewinders were on the verge of moving to either Portland, Ore., or Jacksonville, Fla., when Zucker purchased the team from Martin Stone in 1999. He has since ushered the franchise into financial stability, fueled by the team's on-field success.
The Sidewinders earned the 2006 Pacific Coast League title before winning the Bricktown Showdown, a one-game title contest between the winners of both Triple-A leagues.
Linden said Zucker's experience as an owner would make him an attractive candidate.
"Jay's an intriguing guy with an intriguing background," Linden said. "What he's done with the Sidewinders is no secret to anyone that's around minor-league baseball.
"He has got a lot of vision."
The next owner, whoever it is, must also have a good amount of money. Linden said any potential owner must be prepared to spend several hundred thousand dollars a year to keep the team in business.
Jim Tiggas, the franchise's original owner, was forced to sell the team to the NPF midway through the Heat's 2004 inaugural season because of financial and health woes. He lost about $300,000 through the first six months, he told the Star in 2004.
Local chiropractor Robin O'Neal increased ad revenue and attendance after purchasing the team in 2005. The Heat drew about 200 fans per game in 2006 and charged $5 for a general admission ticket. O'Neal did not return phone messages requesting an interview.
Autumn Champion, an outfielder on the 2006 Heat team, said she learned the team was folding when she received an e-mail from O'Neal.
"I guess there wasn't enough money or something," she said. "I had heard it might happen."
Former Heat coach Stacy Iveson said her players "were bummed."
The 2008 revival could come at an ideal time. The NPF is expected to add a team in Minnesota for next season and will explore either expanding or relocating a team to Phoenix. Linden said he expects the Heat, one of the league's founding teams, to prosper with a reorganized front office.
"The whole state of Arizona is a softball hotbed," he said.
