European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 2, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday. December 2, 1993 Money can sports the stars and. Stripes Page 33 f if you look no farther than the a Fly a latest expansion announcement you la think this is Only about Jacksonville. It Isnit. Ohs Urc Jacksonville is the hot City of the moment the latest town to feel legitimized by becoming a major league.�?�. But the moment you begin to read Between the lines you also know this is about St. Louis Baltimore and Memphis on one hand Tampa Cincinnati Anaheim and Foxboro on the other. The real game of hardball is just beginning. Just because St. Louis and Baltimore commentary did no to get expansion teams tuesday does no to mean they wont get teams. The nil Isnit mob. Football teams move. Football is a a who a going to give me moriey7�?o Why do you think teams left Baltimore and St. Louis in the first place this happens to be a time when there Are football teams looking to make a Deal and people with the Money to woo then Mike Brown has already made it known publicly the bengals Are available. The rams have been flirting for weeks. The patriots have been making noise about moving if they can to have a new stadium. The buccaneers Are now no. 3 in their own state. Do you get my Drift St. Louis May have been shut out on the expansion front but Stan Kroenke is still Worth $500 million and the City still has a downtown publicly financed domed stadium under construction. Baltimore May be in full whine again but there Are three groups a Malcolm Glazer Boogie Weinglass and Alfred Lemer Lead them a with hundreds of millions a new downtown stadium has been approved. Memphis May be angry Michael Wilbon Over being turned away More times Over More years than any other suitor but Billy Dunavant or. Is. Still the worlds leading Cotton merchant. Everywhere you look Money. What the nil did intentionally or not was strengthen every weak franchise by leaving available three very attractive cities. One reason the nil might not have wanted to award two franchises now and two say five years from now is that it would have eliminated leverage for existing clubs. If Baltimore and St. Louis Are already occupied what real threat do the bengals and buccaneers have cities done to usually Call owners and say a you know what lets build you Guys a new $150 million stadium at the taxpayers  clubs need leverage. The Best leverage is the threat of moving the team. A baseball always leaves at least a couple of attractive cities unoccupied so that existing teams can blackmail their cities. The White sox for example said they were bolting for St. Petersburg a few years Back a new stadium kept them in Chicago. And baseball teams have less mobility because of antitrust Laws that Are not an obstacle to football teams. If a City blinks an nil team a see Colts b. Irsay a could be off in the night in a Mayflower Van. Bill bid Wili wanted a new stadium did no to get one and took a nil commissioner Paul Tagliabue left team owner Wayne Weaver Center and Jacksonville mayor de Austin show off the new Jersey that will be worn by the jaguars who will be gunplay in the Noflin 1995. Deal so Sweet in Phoenix the City pays for everything except his dry cleaning. _ _ _ the bucs rams bengals and patriots will now get virtually everything they want from the cities in which they reside or move someplace like Baltimore or St. Louis where people will be so Happy to have them  pave the roads to new stadiums with Money. You can create a dozen scenarios in which any combination of teams move. Personally i done to see Why the bengals have to stay in Cincinnati. Its not like the nil needs Cincinnati. Any one of the millionaires let s say one of Baltimore a or a merger of two can lure the bengals. You think Pei Ify pinching Mike Brown can to have his grip loosened with the right Deal do the buccaneers want to be no. 3 in their own state for results its one of the worst franchises in nil history. The team loses 10 games every year the stadium is half empty. You know what will happen if the bucs move to Memphis they become the Toast of the town for at least a half dozen years which is 48 More sellouts than the club will get in Tampa. You know what happens if the dreadful bengals Rii Ove to Baltimore sellouts every week in a new stadium on a fresh grass Field for owners who Arentt Hamstrung at every turn that a what. The bidding is going to Start fairly soon. You can make the argument that the nil would hate to leave . In the hands of a1 Davis about whom you just never Ever know and that the league would never leave open Boston the no. 6 Market in the country. But the rams and the patriots do get lost. Football is no. 4 in Boston and there Are always More people inside Disney on a Given sunday than in the big a. Which brings us to Jacksonville. There a no no. 4 in Jacksonville. Actually Sherels no no. 2 in Jacksonville. The jaguars Are it. You want to know Why the nil could select Jacksonville owner Wayne Weaver looks to be every bit one of their own a Good old boy and Jacksonville has no Competition. Its Green Bay with Sunshine. I know you re waiting for the Jacksonville jokes Kmart is Jacksonville s Neiman  a idea of a Good restaurant is Stuckey a. Seriously though the mis perception of Jacksonville is that its one Long Low rent Honky Tonk dump. In the Florida Boom of the 70s, Orlando Tampa and fort Lauderdale left Jacksonville in the dust. It used to have the fifth biggest bowl game going the Gator then it dropped off the radar. Apparently some of us need to visit. What we know about Jacksonville is that the City supports football. People showed up at Wal games in the 70s and they fought like wild Over tickets to to sol games in the 80s. Can St. Louis say that can Baltimore you done to need 10 million people in a City to support football just 75,000 or so who feel a ticket to pro football is to Cir slice of  was never anything shaky about Jacksonville s ownership group which includes Jeb son of George Bush. Jacksonville never lost a team because of Baa ownership or iffy fan support. After being used As a bargaining Chip by the oilers Colts and Falcons there a something Sweet and Hokey about a Middle Market City going from fifth on oct. 26 to first. I for one am going to Stop laughing at Jacksonville go out and buy a jaguars hat. If they could suit up sunday they a probably be a three Point favorite Over the skins. Tjw Wathington Poal it got a raw Deal by David Ginsburg Baltimore a now that Baltimore is officially out of the race for an nil expansion team two questions remain should Baltimore go after an existing franchise does the City really want to have anything More to do with the nil the Baltimore expansion committee was angered by the a Fly a decision tuesday to pick Jacksonville As the second expansion team to Start play in the 1995 season. After spending several years and millions of dollars to Sway the league s owners Baltimore got a figurative slap in the face. A a in a so mad i can to speak Quot said gov. William Donald Schaefer who is rarely Tongue tied. T Schaefer figured the Baltimore bid had h All a great City with a wonderful football tradition a new stadium and three owners to choose from. What else could the nil want a it was t until the other City was announced that it finally dawned on me a i done to know if we were Ever in the running a Schaefer said. A we were Leid to believe All along that our presentation was As Good As if not better than All the  Schaefer has been working to bring a team to Baltimore Ever since the Colts left town for Indianapolis in 1984, now he faces the Prospect of having to steal some other City s team. The los Angeles rams already have engaged in discussions with Baltimore while the los Angeles raiders Cincinnati bengals and new England patriots Are also rumoured to be looking to move. In addition to the moral dilemma of raiding other cities there a also the question of whether it would be Worth mounting another Effort that could end in frustration. Al guess i really want to know what the fans feel a a Schaefer said. A the question is now Are our fans interested in the nil All of that will have to be assessed Over the next few weeks Quot mayor Kurt Schmoke said. A but it would not Surprise me if an existing team gave us a Call Dick Rietski who played the final two years of his nil career with the Colts in 1961-62, invested in dub seats at the yet to be built new stadium. He does t want to see somebody else steam a he just wants his Money Back. A live had it with pro football a he said. A i went to every game and every function to promote this expansion bid. I Don t want to hear about the rams raiders bengals or anyone. I Don t want to steal a franchise after All the fuss we made about  Jet. Walt Kordecki a 53-year-old accountant for the state of Maryland held season tickets to the Baltimore Colts for 16 years. After hearing of the league s decision to pick Jacksonville he suggested that it was time for Baltimore to abandon the Hunt for a team. _ a i done to think its worthwhile a he said. A fall that Money set aside to build a stadium they could use that for a lot More useful things. Our government is willing to kiss the backsides of that Den of thieves known As the nil but state employees Haven t gotten a raise in four  Baltimore has t had an nil team for 10 years. A a in be been hit twice a once when the team left and then today a Schaefer said tuesday. A a after the leagues owners picked Charlotte on oct. 26 and delayed a decision on the other new team Baltimore scrambled to strengthen its bid by endorsing a third owner Alfred Lerner a minority investor of the Cleveland Browns. It did t help. While Jacksonville celebrated Baltimore St. Ixia is and Memphis tenn., ended up As frustrated finalists