Michael Tuckman
Encyclopedia
Michael William Tuckman is the current president of West Coast Sports, LLC, and present owner of the Continental Basketball Association
(CBA) team Great Falls Explorers
. The Explorers were purchased in November 2007 from Apex Sportstainment, present owners of the Minot SkyRockets
. West Coast Sports also hold expansion rights to the Vancouver Dragons
. Tuckman previously owned the Bellevue Blackhawks
and Tacoma Navigators
of the American Basketball Association
. In 2005, he was named 2004-05 ABA Executive of the Year the same season his Blackhawks played in the ABA championship game only to lose to the Arkansas RimRockers
in front of 15,000 fans at Alltel Arena
in North Little Rock, Arkansas
, the largest crowd ever to attend an ABA game.
As CEO of Puget Sound Sports and Entertainment, LLC (PSSE) from 2000-2007 Tuckman developed and proposed sports arena projects in Bellevue, Renton, Tacoma, and Olympia, totalling more than $300 million from March 2000-2006.
Educated at the University of Oregon
, Tuckman is an attorney who represented several San Francisco 49ers
players in the 1980s. In 1989, he authored the national bestseller, The San Francisco 49ers: Team of the Decade. In 1992, Tuckman served as Chairman of the Facilities Committee on San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan
's Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sports, a panel that also included San Francisco 49ers President and CEO, Carmen Policy, and former San Francisco Warriors center Nate Thurmond. That year he was also named as Chairman of the Giants Stadium Committee, which was organized to build a new ballpark for the San Francisco Giants
. In 1993, Tuckman was part of a private consortium led by Safeway
Chairman Peter Magowan that bought the San Francisco Giants from Major League Baseball
in 1993 and built the privately-owned AT&T Park
.
Tuckman wrote about the sale of the San Francisco Giants in a 1993 cover story for California Lawyer magazine.
The following year he won the "Maggie Award" from the Western Society of Magazine Publishers for his second California Lawyer cover story, a profile of San Francisco 49ers President and lawyer, Carmen Policy.
Tuckman became President and General Manager of independent Seattle TV station KONG-TV in 1996, serving until the station was sold to Belo
Corporation, the owners of KING-TV
, in March 2000.
In 2002 Tuckman bought his first franchise in the CBA, to be an anchor tenant in his $155 million proposed sports arena and performing arts center in downtown Bellevue. The franchise was named the Bellevue Nighthawks.
In 2004 Tuckman purchased a franchise in the American Basketball Association
(ABA), naming the team the Bellevue Blackhawks. Tuckman led the team to the ABA Championship Game in Little Rock, in front of 15,000 fans, the largest crowd ever to see an ABA game. Belleuve led by 5 points at halftime, but went cold in the third quarter and was defeated by the Arkansas Rimrockers 118-115. The following year, the Rimrockers moved up to the NBA Development League
. In recognition of his efforts, Tuckman was named 2004-05 ABA Executive of the Year.
In November 2007 Tuckman purchased the Great Falls Explorers franchise of the CBA from Apex Sportstainment, LLC, seven games into the 2007-08 CBA season. Tuckman inherited former Boston Celtics star Scott Wedman as head coach and a team that started the season 1-9. After 12 home games in December 2007, gate receipts collected by the Explorers' home venue, Four Seasons Arena at Montana ExpoPark, totaled just $12,977, leaving a balance of $14,562.
Tuckman returned home to Seattle on December 22, 2007 for heart surgery. By January 2008, Wedman had coached the Explorers to a 6-19 record. Tuckman accepted Wedman's resignation over the phone on January 4, 2008 from his hospital bed the night before a scheduled home game with the Butte Daredevils, which ultimately had to be cancelled after Butte had completed a two-and-a-half hour bus ride in the snow. Tuckman immediately called Rick, Turner, his former coach from one of the ABA teams, the Bellevue Blackhawks
. The next day, Sunday, Turner jumped on a plane to meet the team in Pittsburgh for a Tuesday night game. Tuckman kept two players from the original Explorers team, and working with Turner, assembled a ten-man roster that finished the season 10-5. But, the franchise struggled to make money. It got locked out of its office at Four Season Arena for not meeting its contracted rent payments, and was forced to finish the season by playing games at local Great Falls high school gyms on an ad hoc basis. The Explorers hosted the eventual 2007-08 CBA champion, Oklahoma Cavalry, at tiny Fairfield High School gym in Fairfield, Montana
, an hour north of Great Falls. A sellout crowd of about 500 people turned out to see the first professional basketball game ever played in the small town of Fairfield.
Tuckman was quoted in a story from a Seattle paper as saying, "When I was asked by Joe Clark to buy the Explorers seven games into the regular season, I knew it was going to be Mission: Difficult. But, once I set foot into Montana and saw what a train wreck the team's finances were, I discovered it was Mission: Impossible."
Tuckman returned to Seattle in March 2008 after the conclusion of the CBA season, and purchased two expansion franchises in the Indoor Football League
(IFL). He signed a three-year lease with Comcast Arena at Everett
for his Everett Destroyers
franchise, only to lose a head-to-head battle with the now-defunct AF2
league for a lease at the new ShoWare Center in Kent, Washington. Tuckman continues to own two CBA franchises, the Vancouver Dragons
and the Seattle Explorers (formerly the Great Falls Explorers).
In 2009, Tuckman briefly took over operation of a Seattle independent TV station, KHCV-TV. He changed the station's call sign to KPST and created a new campaign around the theme of Puget Sound Television. As Executive Producer of Puget Sound Television Studios, Tuckman created no original primetime programs while serving as the five-channel station group's President, General Manager and Chief Operating Officer.
Tuckman founded the Puget Sound Sports Hall of Fame as a non-profit foundation in 1999, and has contributed more than $100,000 to the organization over the years, which he continues to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Continental Basketball Association
The Continental Basketball Association was a professional men's basketball league in the United States, which has been on hiatus since the 2009 season.- History :...
(CBA) team Great Falls Explorers
Great Falls Explorers
The Great Falls Explorers were a team in the Continental Basketball Association founded in 2006. The team played their home games at the Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls, Montana. The franchise was branded 'Explorers' in honor of Lewis and Clark traveled through the area. The Explorers,...
. The Explorers were purchased in November 2007 from Apex Sportstainment, present owners of the Minot SkyRockets
Minot SkyRockets
The Minot SkyRockets were a team in the Continental Basketball Association. They played their home games at the Minot Municipal Auditorium. The team began play in 2005 as the San Jose Skyrockets of the American Basketball Association. The team had a very successful first season, finishing first...
. West Coast Sports also hold expansion rights to the Vancouver Dragons
Vancouver Dragons
The Vancouver Dragons were a proposed expansion team set to play in the Continental Basketball Association. Team rights were owned by Michael Tuckman, president of West Coast Sports, LLC. The Dragons were initially slated to play in the ABA along with Tuckman's other teams...
. Tuckman previously owned the Bellevue Blackhawks
Bellevue Blackhawks
The Bellevue Blackhawks were a professional basketball team affiliated with the American Basketball Association and owned by former attorney and KONG_TV President and General Manager Michael Tuckman. The team was based in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, WA...
and Tacoma Navigators
Tacoma Navigators
The Tacoma Navigators, owned by Michael Tuckman, are a defunct team in the American Basketball Association. The Navigators made it to the playoffs in their first and only season only to forfeit their first round game in Newark, NJ. The team was coached by former Seattle Supersonics player Vincent...
of the American Basketball Association
American Basketball Association (21st century)
The American Basketball Association, often abbreviated as ABA, is a semi-professional men's basketball league that was founded in 1999. The current ABA has no affiliation with the original American Basketball Association that merged with the National Basketball Association in 1976...
. In 2005, he was named 2004-05 ABA Executive of the Year the same season his Blackhawks played in the ABA championship game only to lose to the Arkansas RimRockers
Arkansas RimRockers
The Arkansas RimRockers were a NBA Development League team. They participated in minor league basketball based in Little Rock, Arkansas.Logo design: A red, white, and blue ball going through a basketball rim ....
in front of 15,000 fans at Alltel Arena
Alltel Arena
Verizon Arena is an 18,000-seat multi-purpose arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas, directly across the Arkansas River from downtown Little Rock. The arena opened in October 1999...
in North Little Rock, Arkansas
North Little Rock, Arkansas
the city was 62.55% White, 33.98% Black or African American, 0.41% Native American, 0.59% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 1.18% from other races, and 1.26% from two or more races...
, the largest crowd ever to attend an ABA game.
As CEO of Puget Sound Sports and Entertainment, LLC (PSSE) from 2000-2007 Tuckman developed and proposed sports arena projects in Bellevue, Renton, Tacoma, and Olympia, totalling more than $300 million from March 2000-2006.
Educated at the University of Oregon
University of Oregon
-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...
, Tuckman is an attorney who represented several San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
players in the 1980s. In 1989, he authored the national bestseller, The San Francisco 49ers: Team of the Decade. In 1992, Tuckman served as Chairman of the Facilities Committee on San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan
Frank Jordan
Francis M. “Frank” Jordan is a U.S. politician, foundation executive and former Chief of Police.Jordan was born in San Francisco in 1935 and graduated from Sacred Heart High School in 1953...
's Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sports, a panel that also included San Francisco 49ers President and CEO, Carmen Policy, and former San Francisco Warriors center Nate Thurmond. That year he was also named as Chairman of the Giants Stadium Committee, which was organized to build a new ballpark for the San Francisco Giants
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....
. In 1993, Tuckman was part of a private consortium led by Safeway
Safeway Inc.
Safeway Inc. , a Fortune 500 company, is North America's second largest supermarket chain after The Kroger Co., with, as of December 2010, 1,694 stores located throughout the western and central United States and western Canada. It also operates some stores in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Eastern...
Chairman Peter Magowan that bought the San Francisco Giants from Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
in 1993 and built the privately-owned AT&T Park
AT&T Park
AT&T Park is a ballpark located in the South Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Located at 24 Willie Mays Plaza, at the corner of Third and King Streets, it has served as the home of the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball since 2000....
.
Tuckman wrote about the sale of the San Francisco Giants in a 1993 cover story for California Lawyer magazine.
The following year he won the "Maggie Award" from the Western Society of Magazine Publishers for his second California Lawyer cover story, a profile of San Francisco 49ers President and lawyer, Carmen Policy.
Tuckman became President and General Manager of independent Seattle TV station KONG-TV in 1996, serving until the station was sold to Belo
Belo
Belo Corp. is a Dallas-based media company that owns 20 commercial broadcasting television stations and two regional 24-hour cable news television channels. The company was previously known as A.H. Belo Corp. after one of the early owners of the company, Alfred Horatio Belo, now the name of the...
Corporation, the owners of KING-TV
KING-TV
KING-TV, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Seattle, Washington, affiliated with the NBC network. Owned by Belo Corporation, it broadcasts on UHF digital channel 48. Its offices and broadcasting center are located just east of Seattle Center...
, in March 2000.
In 2002 Tuckman bought his first franchise in the CBA, to be an anchor tenant in his $155 million proposed sports arena and performing arts center in downtown Bellevue. The franchise was named the Bellevue Nighthawks.
In 2004 Tuckman purchased a franchise in the American Basketball Association
American Basketball Association
The American Basketball Association was a professional basketball league founded in 1967. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA–NBA merger in 1976.-League history:...
(ABA), naming the team the Bellevue Blackhawks. Tuckman led the team to the ABA Championship Game in Little Rock, in front of 15,000 fans, the largest crowd ever to see an ABA game. Belleuve led by 5 points at halftime, but went cold in the third quarter and was defeated by the Arkansas Rimrockers 118-115. The following year, the Rimrockers moved up to the NBA Development League
NBA Development League
The NBA Development League, or NBA D-League, is the National Basketball Association's official minor league basketball organization. Known until summer 2005 as the National Basketball Development League , the NBA D-League started with eight teams in the fall of 2001...
. In recognition of his efforts, Tuckman was named 2004-05 ABA Executive of the Year.
In November 2007 Tuckman purchased the Great Falls Explorers franchise of the CBA from Apex Sportstainment, LLC, seven games into the 2007-08 CBA season. Tuckman inherited former Boston Celtics star Scott Wedman as head coach and a team that started the season 1-9. After 12 home games in December 2007, gate receipts collected by the Explorers' home venue, Four Seasons Arena at Montana ExpoPark, totaled just $12,977, leaving a balance of $14,562.
Tuckman returned home to Seattle on December 22, 2007 for heart surgery. By January 2008, Wedman had coached the Explorers to a 6-19 record. Tuckman accepted Wedman's resignation over the phone on January 4, 2008 from his hospital bed the night before a scheduled home game with the Butte Daredevils, which ultimately had to be cancelled after Butte had completed a two-and-a-half hour bus ride in the snow. Tuckman immediately called Rick, Turner, his former coach from one of the ABA teams, the Bellevue Blackhawks
Bellevue Blackhawks
The Bellevue Blackhawks were a professional basketball team affiliated with the American Basketball Association and owned by former attorney and KONG_TV President and General Manager Michael Tuckman. The team was based in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, WA...
. The next day, Sunday, Turner jumped on a plane to meet the team in Pittsburgh for a Tuesday night game. Tuckman kept two players from the original Explorers team, and working with Turner, assembled a ten-man roster that finished the season 10-5. But, the franchise struggled to make money. It got locked out of its office at Four Season Arena for not meeting its contracted rent payments, and was forced to finish the season by playing games at local Great Falls high school gyms on an ad hoc basis. The Explorers hosted the eventual 2007-08 CBA champion, Oklahoma Cavalry, at tiny Fairfield High School gym in Fairfield, Montana
Fairfield, Montana
Fairfield is a town in Teton County, Montana, United States. The population was 659 at the 2000 census. Fairfield is the self-proclaimed "Malting Barley Capital of the World" with of irrigated cropland and of non-irrigated cropland in production for the purpose of raising malt barley in the...
, an hour north of Great Falls. A sellout crowd of about 500 people turned out to see the first professional basketball game ever played in the small town of Fairfield.
Tuckman was quoted in a story from a Seattle paper as saying, "When I was asked by Joe Clark to buy the Explorers seven games into the regular season, I knew it was going to be Mission: Difficult. But, once I set foot into Montana and saw what a train wreck the team's finances were, I discovered it was Mission: Impossible."
Tuckman returned to Seattle in March 2008 after the conclusion of the CBA season, and purchased two expansion franchises in the Indoor Football League
Indoor Football League
The Indoor Football League began in 1999 as an offshoot of the troubled Professional Indoor Football League. Keary Ecklund, the owner of the Green Bay Bombers and Madison Mad Dogs, left the PIFL after its first, financially-troubled, season to start his own league. Unlike the PIFL, the IFL was an...
(IFL). He signed a three-year lease with Comcast Arena at Everett
Comcast Arena at Everett
Comcast Arena at Everett is a $83.3 million dollar muti-purpose complex, in Everett, Washington, designed and developed by the City of Everett Public Facilities District. The arena opened in September 2003....
for his Everett Destroyers
Everett Destroyers
The Everett Destroyers is a professional indoor football team that was supposed to begin play in the Indoor Football League in the 2009 season. Based in Everett, Washington, but for unknown reasons the deal to join the league fell through and the Destroyers falied to expand to the IFL...
franchise, only to lose a head-to-head battle with the now-defunct AF2
AF2
AF2 was the name of the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football rules and style of play. League seasons ran from April through July with the postseason and ArenaCup...
league for a lease at the new ShoWare Center in Kent, Washington. Tuckman continues to own two CBA franchises, the Vancouver Dragons
Vancouver Dragons
The Vancouver Dragons were a proposed expansion team set to play in the Continental Basketball Association. Team rights were owned by Michael Tuckman, president of West Coast Sports, LLC. The Dragons were initially slated to play in the ABA along with Tuckman's other teams...
and the Seattle Explorers (formerly the Great Falls Explorers).
In 2009, Tuckman briefly took over operation of a Seattle independent TV station, KHCV-TV. He changed the station's call sign to KPST and created a new campaign around the theme of Puget Sound Television. As Executive Producer of Puget Sound Television Studios, Tuckman created no original primetime programs while serving as the five-channel station group's President, General Manager and Chief Operating Officer.
Tuckman founded the Puget Sound Sports Hall of Fame as a non-profit foundation in 1999, and has contributed more than $100,000 to the organization over the years, which he continues to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors.