Team Owners

YOU CAN'T blame fans for their skepticism about the long-overdue accord between baseball owners and players. So much has been lost during this dispute.Two strike-shortened seasons. A year without a World Series. Utter contempt for the public shown by both sides. Losses of $1 billion for owners, $400 million for players. Sagging attendance and TV ratings. Fans angrily turning away from the former national pastime.Salvaging a labor agreement at least prevents matters from getting worse for a few years.

Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo has proudly and publicly supported the battle for same-sex marriage in Maryland, which was legalized earlier this year but faces a ballot initiative in November. If you follow the chatty linebacker on Twitter, you know that he has no qualms about speaking his mind on pretty much everything. But according to Dan Wetzel of Yahoo!, a local politician wants Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti to make B.A. zip it . Maryland House of Delegates member Emmett C. Burns Jr., a Democrat from Baltimore County, sent a letter to Bisciotti saying that his constituents "are appalled and aghast" that a Ravens player "would step into this controversial divide.” "I find it inconceivable that one of your players, Mr. Brendon Ayanbadejo would publicly endorse Same-Sex marriage, specifically as a Raven Football player," Burns wrote in the letter that was first obtained by WBAL.

THOUGH IT is difficult to choose sides in the dispute between National Basketball Association owners and players, a referee would have to hit owners with a technical foul for whining about outrageous salaries of their own making.Team owners drove a gigantic loophole through a strict salary cap in 1983 to allow the Boston Celtics to re-sign superstar Larry Bird for an amount that exceeded that limit. It was this salary cap that was supposed to rein in owners' competitive impulses when bidding on top players.

A.J. Foyt, Indy car racing's all-time winningest driver (67) and championship record holder (7), is now 77. He's had open heart surgery, and in January went through an illness that nearly killed him. But here he is, alive, opinonated and planning to get his race team back among the top teams in the IndyCar Series. In a recent one-on-one interview Foyt talked about many things, among them why the 1977 Indy 500 win was special to him beyond making him the first driver to win the race four times, the recent announcement that he'll field a car for minority driver Chase Austin in the Indianapolis 500 next May and a recent staph infection following same-day surgeries to remove bone spurs from his artificial knee and repair a rotator cuff.

NFL team owners converge in Chicago today to begin tackling one of pro football's most contentious issues: realignment.Commissioner Paul Tagliabue has said for several years that the league's geographically illogical divisions -- where Dallas is east and Atlanta is west -- should be cleaned up when its two newest teams are added.But after months of study and arm-twisting, many observers predict the league will be unable to garner the necessary three-quarters vote (21 votes) for a radial reshuffling and simply will slot the expansion teams into the existing structure.

The NFL is committed to setting a "realistic" franchise fee that will accurately reflect expected revenues but not unduly burden the expansion teams it expects to name this fall, a league official said.Team owners on committees devoted to expansion and finance met jointly for four hours yesterday in New York to discuss the entry fee that will be charged the new team owners. No fee was set, but estimates have ranged from $125 million to $200 million."We're trying to put two successful franchises in place," Roger Goodell, vice president of operations for the NFL, said after the meeting.

NEW YORK -- NFL team owners yesterday launched a reform of the league designed to meet the business demands of the new century and render more accountable top executives whose hefty pay has raised accusations of back-room dealing. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue was not invited to the nearly-two hour session of sometimes-contentious debate that was attended by one representative from each of the 32 franchises. Among the ideas raised: hiring an "executive director" for the league or a consultant who could suggest ways the team owners can be better involved in matters some feel are handled by a clique of influential franchise and league executives.

Baseball said ''I'm sorry'' when it punished Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott with a one-year suspension for making racial slurs against blacks and Jews.But saying sorry isn't enough if that means Ms. Schott and her fellow team owners now go back to business as usual.Bad as was what Ms. Schott did, she is in the spotlight only because she was unlucky enough to get caught, not because such attitudes are that uncommon in baseball. Baseball's bigotry goes beyond Ms. Schott.Fellow team owners who heard her make the ugly remarks she is alleged to have uttered repeatedly over the years made no protest at the time.

PALM DESERT, Calif. -- After years of false starts and delays, the NFL said yesterday it will end the suspense this fall for Baltimore and the other competing cities and announce where the league's next two franchises will be located.Team owners, here for their annual policy-setting meetings, made official what commissioner Paul Tagliabue said last January: that the teams will be awarded this year to begin play probably in 1995.A committee report laying out the expansion timetable was approved without vote by the team owners.

ROSEMONT, Ill. -- The owners of the 28 National Football League teams will try today to finish the business they started last month, completing the league's first expansion in nearly 20 years, but they will find themselves weighing new factors and questions.Their choices remain Baltimore, St. Louis, Jacksonville, Fla., and Memphis, Tenn. But the look of some of the contestants is different from Oct. 26, when the league added the Carolina Panthers and deferred until today naming the second city.

The Ravens will pay tribute to Patricia Breslin Modell, the wife of former Ravens and Browns owner Art Modell, when they meet the Houston Texans Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium. The players will have a decal with the initials “PBM” attached to the back of their helmets to honor Mrs. Modell, who died Wednesday at the age of 80. There will also be a moment of silence prior to the singing of the National Anthem. In making the announcement, the organization also included statements from owner Steve Bisciotti, general manager/executive vice president Ozzie Newsome and head coach John Harbaugh about Mrs. Modell.

Abe Pollin, a pioneer in area sports and the first man to move a major league sports franchise out of Baltimore in the modern era, died Tuesday. He was 85. His death was announced by his company, Washington Sports & Entertainment. No details were disclosed, but Pollin suffered from progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare brain disorder that impairs movement and balance. He had heart bypass surgery in 2005 and broke his pelvis two years later. "With Abe Pollin's passing, the NBA family has lost its most revered member, whose stewardship of the Wizards franchise, together with his wife, Irene, has been a study in unparalleled dedication to the city of Washington," NBA commissioner David Stern said.

Abe Pollin, a pioneer in area sports and the first man to move a major league sports franchise out of Baltimore in the modern era, died Tuesday. He was 85. His death was announced by his company, Washington Sports & Entertainment. No details were disclosed, but Pollin suffered from progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare brain disorder that impairs movement and balance. He had heart bypass surgery in 2005 and broke his pelvis two years later. "With Abe Pollin's passing, the NBA family has lost its most revered member, whose stewardship of the Wizards franchise, together with his wife, Irene, has been a study in unparalleled dedication to the city of Washington," NBA commissioner David Stern said.

Orlando, Fla. -- NFL owners, attending their annual meeting, continue to study placing a franchise in the Los Angeles area and yesterday doubled the size of their L.A. stadium working group to 11 members, plus commissioner Paul Tagliabue. Los Angeles, which has not had an NFL team since the Rams left for St. Louis after the 1994 season, first needs to come up with a suitable stadium. Efforts center on renovating the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum or new construction in Anaheim, Calif. In both cases, costs reportedly are projected in the $700 million to $800 million range.

What do you get when you mix Carmelo Anthony and auto racing, with Gene Simmons as matchmaker? Chances are that you're looking at raised eyebrows, which was the case with one sports marketing expert when he heard the news of Anthony's new partnership in an Indy Racing League team. "All you need is Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and you've got it down," said David Carter of the Sports Business Institute at the University of Southern California. Sure enough, though, NBA star Anthony and veteran open-wheel race team owner Ron Hemelgarn are partners in the racing team, a bond brokered by Simmons, the rock legend of KISS.

Both sides in the NFL labor dispute are giving peace another chance. Facing a midnight deadline, the league postponed the start of free agency late last night for 72 hours, to Thursday at 12:01 a.m. The delay avoided, for the time being, the anticipated release of a substantial number of veteran players as well as serious complications in the near and long term for the league. The postponement, the second one since Thursday, came after a weekend of negotiations and brinksmanship between negotiators for owners and the NFL Players Association over an extension of the current collective bargaining agreement.

ATLANTA -- NFL team owners had a mixed reaction yesterday to a presentation by Cleveland officials, complimenting them on their "rock solid" stadium renovation financing plan, but questioning whether a new structure would be better."

Television news reports in Cleveland yesterday said city officials and the NFL had reached an agreement on the parameters of a deal to settle lawsuits stemming from the Browns' proposed move to Baltimore. The reports were promptly denied by the league and city."I can unequivocally state that there is no agreement with the Browns," Cleveland Mayor Michael White said in a hastily arranged news conference.The television reports said the two sides had agreed to a plan under which the city would build a new stadium and drop its suit against the Browns.

Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti, general manager Ozzie Newsome and coach Brian Billick spoke for nearly an hour to the media this afternoon, a conversation that focused primarily on the decision to keep Billick for next season. Bisciotti talked publicly for the first time since announcing last week that Billick would return, defending a decision he says was the toughest he had to make in his two years as majority owner. Bisciotti, though, said Billick underachieved and demanded changes, both from Billick and his coaching staff.