Conference hbahba::cam_sports

OK, you get *one* more chance to spell "Anaheim" right...

    So they move out of Seattle to LA to make sure that the structure that
    they play in is earthquake proof.  Something's wrong with this
    picture...
    
    UMDan

    
    Yup,
    
    	They are more worried about an earthquake in Seattle, then the
    tiles falling from the Kingdome roof. Seattle is trying to find anyway
    possible to break there 10 yr lease. Might as well try now while the
    LA market is WIDE open. Its the same old song and dance, the Mariners
    got a new ball park, the Seahawks want a new ball park. The Seahawks
    are not going to get one anytime soon. Same reason why Cleveland is
    moving. The city took care of the Indians, Cavs, and Rock and Roll hall
    of fame, while the Browns played in the mistake by the lake.
    
    Ron

	"In a fraternity where the best owners are back-stabbers, civic pirates,
	extortionists, carpetbaggers and pathological liars, (Seahwaks owner)
	Ken Behring is a bottom-feeder despised even by his own kind."

	Bill Conlin, sports columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News

	Kevin

To me, that's a great piece of writing... :-)

I can see why the owner would want to move to LA, but why not just tell it
like it is.

                   
    Behring's best line was not the one about the infamous Seattle 
    earthquakes (as he prepares to move into the decaying quake-damaged
    Rose Bowl), though, but about how he is "from, and therefore 
    committed, to the city of Los Angeles".  Sometimes the shamelessness 
    is so shameful that it wraps around on itself and becomes virtue...
    
    glenn
    

    
         Behring's excuse making is a helluva lot more creative 
         than the now standard "We're trying to keep up with the 
         Jones". But that was probably necessated by the fact that
         three small market teams - Pittsburg, Indy and Green Bay -
         showed that the way things are currently structured you
         don't have to throw fistfuls of money at players to produce
         a winner. Instead, you have to draft well, recognize your
         core players and sign them to longterm contracts and pick
         wisely from the free agent market. Of course, it's a hell
         of a lot easier to remain a mediocre ballclub and move some-
         where where they're stupid enough to think a pro football
         team is important enough to spend hundreds of millions of
         dollars on. 
         
    

I think it's more than creative - saying that you're moving from Seattle to
LA for improved earthquake safety is reminiscent of the Hitler and Goebbels
"Big Lie Theory".

This is amazing.

Why don't the owners (among themselves), try to figure out which of the
franchises are most needy or most deserving of a move to LA?

    > Why don't the owners (among themselves), try to figure out 
    > which of the franchises are most needy or most deserving of 
    > a move to LA?
    
      And do what? Take a franchise from a city that already has one? 
      Lawsuit! Expand again and make the league even more mediocre?
      The sad part is that Los Angelenos made nary a peep when the
      Rams moved. Certainly nothing on the order of what was heard from
      Browns fans but that's largely because LA is Frontrunner City, 
      USA. And there is no big clamor for a football team. If
      a team has to move why not to a city that had *NOT* lost two
      teams and didn't give a damn because they didn't support them
      anyways. I tend to think that Behring is trying to pull the biggest
      hold up ever and the other shoe has yet to drop. I wouldn't put
      him in LA yet.
    

>      And do what? Take a franchise from a city that already has one? 
>      Lawsuit!

Perhaps, perhaps not.

You've got Tampa Bay, Seattle, and Cincinnati all talking about moving.  These
clubs are all thinking about taking the calculated(?) gamble of moving out of
town.  They've already got an idea of what their exposure is.  In the warped
view of NFL owners, maybe "needy or most deserving" means "least likely to
lose a lawsuit".

LA is important for one reason and one reason only - its status as a TV
market.  I have no delusions that millions of football-crazed Angelenos
will pack the Rose Bowl.

  Even if the NFL did think another team was more deserving, what could they
do about it? As Al Davis showed, any team can move anywhere and the NFL has
no power to stop them.

  Of course then the phrase "The NFL thinks" may itself be an Oxymoron. Like
any league what they "think" is just the net result of a vote where each owner
has his own best interests at heart.

  George

>  Even if the NFL did think another team was more deserving, what could they
>do about it? As Al Davis showed, any team can move anywhere and the NFL has
>no power to stop them.

Yes, I'm quite aware of that.  I'm dreaming of a Cinderella story where they
actually get together and figure out a cooperative way to solve a problem.
Every once in a while it's nice to step outside real life and think of how
things *could* be done.

With baseball fading in popularity, football is shooting itself in the foot
by having franchises move on any pretense.

    
    Seahawks owner Ken Behring claims safety a factor in move
    
    Wednesday, February 7 10:34am ET
    
    Owner Ken Behring, who is trying to move the Seattle Seahawks to
    Anaheim, said he had the "fear of God" put in him by reports of what a
    potential earthquake could do to the Kingdome. 
    
    
                                                   

	I for one don't blame Behring for leaving the Kingdome.  I've 
decided to no longer renew my Patriots' season tickets since I found out 
that Shaefer/Sullivan/Foxboro Stadium is not earthquake proofed...

				  /Don

	Considerin' the location of those front row seats,
	not to mention the proximity to those scantily clad
	ladies, I'd say sitting there through a tremor could
	be quite interesting.


	billl

        Unless these teams are not receiving fan support they should not 
        even think about moving. The Seahawks want to leave the name and
        colors behind just like the browns. Tampa Bay, and Cinci, are
        talking about it and Houston will be in Nashville. Good thing they
        didn't realign the divisions yet you have to keep a scorecard on
        where everyone is moving.
    
         Maybe Tampa should move to Barcelona and cincy to Frankfurt I hear
         the fan support is tremendous according to the world league. If a
         city loses a team due to lack of fan support than that city should
         never get a new team. What Art Modell did is wrong now he's going
         to have other owners following him in trying to move their
         franchises away from the people that count and that is the fans
         of the NFL. The NFL was on a roll for fan support but with these
         stupid stunts they will be losing die hard fans for lack of a 
         better term integrity.

    Denver owner Pat Blowind is asking for a .01% sales tax across a 6 or
    10 county area to fund building a "new" pile high. Seems he is willing
    to put up $25,000,000 of his own profits to help fund the whole deal 
    as long as he gains full access to revenues generated from luxury boxes
    as well as a % of the overall stadium revenue. 
    
    On the local radio show that Marty luv's so much a lady caller
    suggested that the people fight back with a couple of demands as well. 
    
    1. There will not be any PPV Pay per view in the 6-10 county area EVER. 
    2. The games if not sold out will not be blacked out in the same area. 
    
    I don't think the owner has a say in the black out rule but the PPV
    would put a cinch on his scotum in the long run. 
    
    Jeff