Lining up the shot
Court Square Ventures brings unwatched college sports to the tube
Chris Holden might have been a rock star. There’s a glimmer in his otherwise sober eyes when he remembers trying to put himself through medical school playing late-night gigs in a piano bar—the name escapes him—somewhere in downtown Richmond.
“I would prop my physiology book up on the piano,” he says. “I was studying nephron functions while playing old standards.”
Then like so many young, starving artists, Holden gave up his music to start a family and make some real money.
But not as a doctor. He bailed out of med school after three months and began working his way up the corporate ladder, first in advertising, then in new media. The Information Age had barely begun at the time. Today Holden finds himself leading a Charlottesville investment firm’s foray into the world of College Sports Television.
One of three partners in Court Square Ventures, a private investment group tucked into an old brick building off Jefferson Street, Holden is playing point guard for the company’s multimillion-dollar stake in CSTV, a new 24-hour cable network dedicated to broadcasting all the college sports you don’t see on ESPN. Court Square aims to make its money back and then some when the network gets bought up or goes public.
Available on DirecTV’s sports package, College Sports TV is backed by as much as $125 million in private investments and has sealed deals with most of the nation’s top college conferences. Major investors include Coca-Cola and big sports stars like Tiki Barber. CSTV’s chief was one of the brains behind ESPN Classic.
So what’s a sleepy outfit like Court Square Ventures, with a portfolio featuring software developers and fiber optic firms, doing getting in on a big enough piece of the action to earn a seat on the network’s board of directors? For Holden and his partners, who typically invest up to $5 million in tech startups, the confluence of good concept, savvy management and strong financial support was irresistible.
“It was just obvious to me what a great idea this was,” Holden says. “There are so many great college sports out there—sports with a passionate following—that don’t get the coverage they deserve.
“Everywhere I go I meet someone who has fallen in love with it,” he continues.
Holden played lacrosse in his days at Davidson College and says it would have been “thrilling” to compete for a national, if niche, audience. And it’s precisely with those sports that have little broadcast exposure, from women’s hoops to wrestling, rowing and soccer, that CSTV hopes to score.
Viewers should expect to find the network on every major cable provider by the end of the year, Holden says. And for all those Wahoos wondering why the Atlantic Coast Conference hasn’t signed a broadcasting agreement yet, have no worries. League officials say CSTV and the ACC are still working on a deal that won’t infringe on the prior TV contracts the conference has to uphold.
College Sports TV debuted in April with post-game analysis of the NCAA men’s basketball championship, but it is largely steering away from the big money-makers that March Madness and Division I football have become.
That isn’t to say its coverage lacks sophistication or depth. Its producers are just looking elsewhere for the heated rivalries and good stories—in early July, the network premiered a documentary on Diane Geppi-Aikens, the women’s lax coach at Loyola who led her players to the Final Four while fighting brain cancer.
Over the weekend you might also have seen a taped broadcast of UVA’s Chris Rotelli receiving the Tewaaraton Trophy, the highest lacrosse honor in the country, at an award ceremony in Washington. Dom Starsia, who just coached the Cavaliers to a national title, says CSTV’s coverage “put a lot more sizzle” into the lax quarterfinals this season.
“I could tell they paid quite a bit of attention to the quality of the production,” Starsia says of the crew from CSTV. “I certainly think it added to the glamour of the weekend. I know our players all enjoyed it.”
What he didn’t know was that a group of guys with deep pockets back home were helping to make it happen. Holden admits CSTV is an unusual venture for Court Square, but he maintains that his own background in media, heading one of Rupert Murdoch’s subsidiaries in the 1990s, has helped bridge the gap.
It doesn’t hurt to know what it takes to please an audience, either. Holden still plays the piano and a little guitar when he can. He also jams with his old band, the Blue Dogs, whenever they come to town.
“There are definitely days when I wake up and say, ‘Boy, would it be fun to be up on that stage,’” he says. But it wasn’t until Holden joined CSTV gurus for opening night at the network’s swanky studios in Manhattan that he realized how bright life could actually be behind the spotlight.
“It was one of those really exciting nights you can only get in New York,” he says. “There were athletes, cheerleaders, celebrities. No glitches, no mistakes. Lots of food. Lots of libations.”
Sort of like being a rock star after all.
—Robert Armengol
Under development
Massive new project will enlarge 10th and Main in the name of Holsinger
If you want to see the future of Charlottesville, keep your eyes on W. Main Street. There, the ever-growing UVA is expanding eastward, as the City figures out how to extend the Downtown Mall’s quaint stroll-and-shop vibe further along West Main. Now a project is in the works that could test how a private developer balances UVA’s thirst for office space and the City’s sense of aesthetics.
Developer Kim Heischman is a key player in a major project planned for W. Main Street, with a footprint that effectively stretches from the corner of West Main and the 10th Street Connector down to the railroad trestle that crosses 10th. Heischman apparently also has purchased the University Station post office on 11th Street, and that land likely will figure into the project, tentatively dubbed “Holsinger Square” in recognition of the famous photographer who chronicled Charlottesville in the early 20th century.
The project’s lead architect, John Matthews of the firm Mitchell/Matthews, says Holsinger Square will be a “major project. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of square feet. We’re talking big dollars,” he says.
As he describes the project, Matthews says all the right things, from the City’s point of view––using hyphenated buzzwords like “mixed-use” and “pedestrian-oriented” that the City’s Board of Architectural Review loves to hear.
“We’re interested in getting more vitality and increasing the foot traffic on W. Main Street,” says Matthews, whose firm also headed the design team for UVA’s North Fork Research Park, a poster child for northward sprawl. “We’ve been a major instigator in putting the individual above the automobile.”
In fact, Matthews has already made his Holsinger Square pitch to the BAR. He brought renderings before the Board in July 2000 for a preliminary hearing––an informal “heads up” that allows developers to gauge BAR reaction before trying to push a big project through the City’s bureaucracy.
At that meeting, Matthews indicated that the brickwork on UVA’s Fayerweather Hall would be the model for the Holsinger façade. According to meeting minutes, the BAR seemed satisfied with Matthews’ design, although BAR member Ken Schwartz commented that he wanted the building set back further from the road. He also encouraged the developer to include more residential apartments in the design.
After the preliminary hearing, Heischman didn’t pursue a formal application. The BAR’s issues about setback “were easy to overcome,” says Matthews, but the developer wanted to wait to see how the City’s new zoning ordinance, which was already being discussed back then, would affect the development options. Also, the delay gave Heischman time to acquire the post office. Matthews says his client likely will take the project to the City within the next three months.
Matthews says the building will feature below-ground parking, with retail space on the ground floor and a mix of offices and residences above.
With UVA rapidly expanding its medical facilities, and with the City encouraging more public-private partnership with UVA, especially in the biotechnology sector, the demand for office space in Holsinger is likely to have lucrative results for Heischman. The City, however, trying to increase its housing supply, will likely continue to press Heischman to include more apartments.
“One thing that concerns us is the glut of new apartments that will be coming online in the next 18 months,” says Matthews on that point, referring specifically to Coran Capshaw’s 225-unit apartment complex near the Amtrak station.
“The market will tell us what combination of residential and office will go there,” Matthews says. “The question is what is best for that street and best for the community that also makes money.”––John Borgmeyer
Dub moon rising
Easy Star’s crazy diamond shines on with Pink Floyd reggae tribute
Perhaps it was fitting that when Lem Oppenheimer decided to stake the fate of his company on a half-baked idea, he was, um…naturally inspired at the time.
That way, when he explained his plan to produce a reggae version of Dark Side of the Moon, and people wondered what the hell he was smoking, Oppenheimer could honestly respond: some good shit, man.
“A lot of people probably had the same idea at some point or another,” says Oppenheimer, who lives in Charlottesville and is one of four partners in Easy Star records. “But nobody else acted on it.”
Last February, almost exactly 30 years after the debut of Pink Floyd’s landmark concept album, Easy Star records released Dub Side of the Moon, which recasts the psychedelic masterpiece in the soulful cloak of vintage reggae. Now, an idea that seemed just crazy enough to work, plus the enduring popularity of the original Dark Side, is providing Oppenheimer’s homespun company with worldwide notice.
As a teenager in New York City’s Greenwich Village, Oppenheimer discovered the languid bliss of Floyd, and spun DSOTM nearly every day before junior high. By the time he moved to Charlottesville in 1997, he had fallen in love with the mellow gold of reggae music. He and three friends–– Eric Smith, Michael Goldwasser and Remy Gerstein––each put together $5,000 of their savings and founded Easy Star records. Easy Star invested in both original recordings and reissues of out-of-print records by Sister Carol and Sugar Minott. The company released 11 CDs in all.
Then, in 1999, Oppenheimer was hustling around Manhattan on task for Easy Star, with DSOTM in his Walkman and THC working its magic in his frontal lobe. He imagined that Floyd’s unhurried soundscape and philosophical depth would fit perfectly with the tight rhythms and Rasta vibe of reggae. Pink Floyd gave Easy Star permission to remake their record.
“The only thing we couldn’t do was knock the cover art,” says Oppenheimer, so the company created original artwork with a red, gold and green beam passing through a lunar eclipse.
With credit cards and loans from family and friends, Easy Star began creating the album with some of New York’s finest studio musicians––and the best from these parts, too. Local bluesman Corey Harris performs guest vocals on “Time.”
Dark Side of the Moon is one of the most popular albums of all time––it spent nearly 14 years in the Top 200 selling records in America. The challenge for Easy Star was to capitalize on Dark Side’s popularity without offending fans with a cheesy rip-off.
“It was definitely a make-or-break moment for us,” Oppenheimer says.
Recording the music took three years, as the musicians strived to re-create every nuance of Dark Side, including snippets of spoken-word and the album’s legendary synchronicity with The Wizard of Oz. Then, Easy Star gambled again by hiring the publicity firm Shore Fire, whose clients include Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello and Norah Jones.
The risk paid off after the disc was released in February. A marketing blitz from Shore Fire got Dub Side of the Moon favorable reviews in all the right magazines––Entertainment Weekly, VIBE, Playboy, High Times. Rolling Stone panned the record, but called it “bong-tastic,” a phrase that made it into Easy Star’s promotional material.
Then, the National Public Radio program “All Things Considered” aired an extremely favorable review in March. Suddenly, Dub Side hit No. 3 on Amazon.com’s sales chart. Since then, Easy Star has sold 16,000 copies of the record and distributed more than 40,000 throughout America and Europe. Dub Side remains the top-selling reggae album on Amazon.
In July, the musicians who recorded Dub Side will begin touring as the Easy Star All-Stars. The show will include original reggae tunes plus Dub Side in its entirety. The tour kicks off at Starr Hill Music Hall.
So far, Easy Star has not spoken with any members of Pink Floyd, but guitarist Roger Waters sent the company a fax saying that he had received the CD and read the liner notes. Otherwise, Waters remained neutral, saying “it’s not my policy to endorse any covers of my material.”
Like his three label-mates, Oppenheimer, who works at Musictoday, continues to hold down his day job. He hopes the success of Dub Side will turn Easy Star from a hobby into a bill-paying career.
“Bob Marley will always be popular,” Oppenheimer says. “Maybe someday the government will legalize pot, and then we’ll really be in business.”––John Borgmeyer
Dogmatic decisions
Canine trainers match dogs with owners at the SPCA
Lisa Rodier-Yun bursts through the door wearing a gruesome Halloween mask festooned with wild, straggly black hair. One of the room’s occupants, Shelley, is cautious of the intruder at first, backing away confused. But she warms up, her tail resuming its healthy wag. She’s passed the “visit from a stranger” test, as well as the “food bowl” and the “doll child” tests, indicating that the nutmeg-colored shepherd mix needs a little work, but overall is a good candidate for adoption.
Such is the determination of Sherri Lippman, a 30-year veteran dog trainer who performs temperament testing on new arrivals at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). It’s her job to predict how a dog will behave in an adopted home—after all, a sudden bite over the food bowl could easily send a pooch back to the overcrowded animal shelter.
“The worst thing we can do is to adopt out a dog that will come back the next week,” says SPCA executive director Carolyn Foreman.
That explains in part why the work of Lippman and her partner Rodier-Yun is important: Matching dogs with adopted homes they’re best suited for reduces canine recidivism, and helps to squash misconceptions about pound puppies behaving badly.
Lippman has been performing temperament tests for two years at the shelter, coming in once a week to visit with an average of four to six dogs. She’s also the owner of Citizen Canine, which provides instruction and behavioral counseling to pooches in Central Virginia. She holds degrees in behavioral psychology and counseling, which she put to use in 1970 raising German shepherds as helper dogs for the visually impaired, and since has worked at local obedience clubs and trials.
Lippman and Rodier-Yun receive no money from the SPCA for their temperament testing, opting to volunteer at the Rio Road W facility. They work in the laundry room, occasionally interrupted by shelter workers taking laundry to and from the dryer. In a perfect world, the regularly scheduled tests would have no disruptions, a prospect that may be in the offing at the SPCA’s 27,000-square-foot new building currently being built behind the existing one. If fund-raising goals are met, the new headquarters could open in March 2004.
But for now, the duo’s current case is shepherd mix Shelley, who arrived at the shelter as a stray on June 7 after being picked up by animal control with a choke collar but no identification. Lippman and Rodier-Yun study every move Shelley makes, as even a dog’s slightest motion has meaning.
Shelley makes eye contact with Lippman and Rodier-Yun as she wags her tail in a wide, S-shaped motion—encouraging signs. Lippman strokes Shelley three times, neck to tail. Shelley leans against Lippman’s legs, looking up at her, smiling.
Lippman murmurs and coos to Shelley as she checks her teeth five times in a row, holding Shelley’s upper lip for five seconds each time. This test for dominance aggression is critical to home placement.
“At one point or another,” says Lippman, “owners have to get something out of their dog’s mouth.”
But too much prodding makes the dog uncomfortable—Shelley softly nips Lippman’s hand, tugging on her leash.
“She’s not loving being restrained, and she’s too mouthy, so she can’t be with small children,” says Lippman.
“She’s really smart though, and willing to work,” adds Rodier-Yun.
But there’s no guarantee about whether or not Shelley or any other dog will be perfectly suited to a selected home. “None of this is failsafe,” says Lippman. “But it’s very, very informative.”
“We have a responsibility to deny adoptions that may not be the best match for certain families,” says shelter manager Beth McPhee. “It’s a must.”—Kathryn E. Goodson