Cba Rivalry Heats Up Between Yakima, Tri-City

YAKIMA - Yakima and the Tri-Cities have long been rivals in high-school sports, and this season will carry their Interstate 82 showdown into the Continental Basketball Association.

The Tri-City Chinook join the Yakima Sun Kings in the official development league of the NBA.

Three of the five games between the Washington teams will be televised live in the two cities, and the contestants already are talking trash even though the season doesn't begin until Nov. 8.

"I wish we played them 12 times, looking at their roster," Tri-City general manager Kevin Krause said last week. "I don't see them making the proper moves as a team."

"It's easy to talk," laughed Sun Kings general manager Brooks Ellison.

There is little doubt about who is winning the popularity contest.

The Sun Kings, in their second season, have sold 2,600 season tickets, second highest in the league.

The fledgling Chinook, who are in direct competition with a Western Hockey League team, have sold just 600.

"I anticipated more business support at this point," Krause said.

Playing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, last year, the Chinook drew about 3,000 fans per game, and would like to draw 4,000 in the Tri-Cities, Krause said.

"Once people come out and view it they will realize what an outstanding product it is and will come out," Krause predicted.

The Tri-City Americans are also seeing reduced hockey season ticket sales this year, indicating some fragmentation of the sports market in the community of 150,000.

Yakima, a community of 190,000, drew 3,600 fans per game last year with little other sports competition in town.

But Ellison said he believes the Tri-Cities can support the two teams.

The Chinook moved after seeing the success of the Sun Kings, and at the urging of Yakima management, who wanted a close rival to build interest and reduce travel costs. The cities are 70 miles apart.

The two Northwest teams are more than 1,000 miles away from their nearest rival, Bakersfield, Calif.

Additional Northwest teams aren't likely soon, as the 17-team league is not looking to expand before 1994, commissioner Terdema L. Ussery said during a visit to the Tri-Cities and Yakima last week.

The league wants to make sure it gets owners who are financially strong and willing to make commitments of three to five years to a community, he said.

Ellison said Spokane is one place he'd like to see a team.

In other news:

-- Dean Nicholson, 65, the legendary former coach of Central Washington University, is back as coach of the Sun Kings, and hoping to improve on last season's 15-41 record.

-- Riley Smith, the former Idaho star, has decided Yakima is better than Greece. Smith was quoted in a Spokane paper last season blasting Nicholson, the team and the city of Yakima. But he is back on the roster and said he is looking forward to the season and getting more NBA exposure.

-- The CBA all-star game is in Yakima in January, and will be televised live on ESPN.

-- The Chinook were so named both because of the winds and the salmon in the Tri-Cities, Krause said. Nuclear-related nicknames were rejected. So was the former team name of Silver Bullets when ties with Coors Beer were severed.

-- Ussery said the CBA's agreement with the NBA expires this year, and he will seek a new agreement that provides more financial benefits to the minor league. The NBA teams now can raid CBA rosters when they need to fill a gap.

European teams have also agreed not to sign players still under contract to the CBA, Ussery said.