Nfl Owners

BOSTON -- Saying he wants to focus on his bid to bring an expansion football team to Baltimore, Leonard "Boogie"Weinglass has taken himself -- and a pledge of $6 million to $7 million -- out of the incoming group of Orioles owners.Weinglass said the decision was based solely on his concerns that some NFL owners might be put off by his plan to buy a minority share in the baseball team at the same time he is investing heavily in a football team."I want to be smart, and this is the smart thing to do," Weinglass said yesterday.

IRVING, Texas -- When NFL owners decide on expansion franchises later this month, their vote -- at least the first one -- apparently will be on a two-city package.The seemingly mundane procedural matter, decided at a meeting yesterday of two NFL ownership committees, could have significant implications for Baltimore's hopes of rejoining the league.The city's candidacy -- which features a strong financial package -- is generally given its highest marks when viewed apart from the other cities.

The word from L.A. is that Herb Belgrad is optimistic. Belgrad, who heads Baltimore's NFL expansion effort, has now effectively shown he can be bi-coastally optimistic, from sea-to-shining-sea optimistic.He's optimistic despite some ill-timed (though not particularly damaging) words from the mayor on the future of Memorial Stadium.He's optimistic in the face of a conventional wisdom that seems to want to place Baltimore third in an expansion race that will produce only two winners.He's even optimistic about the NFL's intentions despite commissioner Paul Tagliabue's courageous refusal to characterize himself as either optimistic or pessimistic that expansion would take place on schedule.

So strong is their desire to own a National Football League franchise in Baltimore that Malcolm Glazer & Sons made an offer that seemingly couldn't be refused. Yet it was quickly discarded. The dollars were right; the premise wrong.What the Glazers proposed was to give each visiting team coming to Baltimore an astonishing $1.5 million per game, which would qualify as a record in take-home pay for any sport. It'smore than double, almost triple, the going rate for playing an NFL game on the road.

PHOENIX -- Commissioner Paul Tagliabue is now going to try to convince the NFL owners that less is really more.Tagliabue closed the annual March meetings yesterday by putting the immediate focus on a special meeting he has called for March 30 in Dallas to discuss giving the television networks a rebate for 1993 in return for a two-year extension of their contract in 1994-95."

It's not over till it's over. Mayor Kurt Schmoke invoked the old cliche Tuesday night after the National Football League put off a decision on the second new franchise. He's right. It may be third down and 20 to go with the clock running out. But winning touchdowns have been scored in the last seconds, and that can happen in this competition.Perhaps not even the NFL owners know all the reasons they awarded one of the new teams to Charlotte but failed to agree on the other. Probably there was a mixed bag of reasons.

For the five finalists in the NFL expansion derby -- including Baltimore -- the waiting will continue.They'll still have to wait to find out whether the league will stick to its timetable of naming two new teams this fall to play in 1994.After the NFL owners dropped Sacramento, Calif., and Oakland, Calif., from the list of expansion hopefuls at their annual spring meeting in Pasadena, Calif., yesterday to cut the field to five cities, commissioner Paul Tagliabue said he still doesn't know if the league will expand this fall.

Saturday is D-Day for Baltimore-area sports fans, the day when they get to show how determined they are to win a new National Football League franchise for this town. If they quickly gobble up all of the 58,000 seats that go on sale tomorrow for a late-summer NFL exhibition game, a strong message will have been delivered to NFL owners that Baltimore is ready, eager and more than able to support a professional football team once more.It has been eight long years since the last NFL game at Memorial Stadium.

NFL owners vote to continue WLAFNFL owners voted last night in Dallas to continue operating the World League of American Football and agreed to a three-year television contract with both the USA network and ABC that would air 35 regular-season and two playoff games and next spring's World Bowl.Dan Rooney, chairman of WLAF board of directors, said 10 teams will compete, including holdovers London; Barcelona, Spain; Frankfurt, Germany; Montreal; New York; Birmingham, Ala.; San Antonio; Orlando, Fla.; and Sacramento, Calif.

One fan suggests a Baltimore fan parachute into an NFL stadium during a game.Another suggests appealing to NationsBank chairman Hugh McColl, who is influential in league circles.And local McDonald's restaurants have made plans to hand oupostcards for customers to fill out and mail to the NFL.Baltimore isn't taking its brush-off from the NFL lightly. Fans are writing, calling and faxing ideas to everyone involved with the effort to return football to the city."I am inundated with wonderful people who care," said Maryland Stadium Authority chairman Herbert J. Belgrad.