Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones "is quietly continuing to feed the
Cowboys' machine" with "non-sanctioned marketing efforts,"
according to this morning's FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM. Mike Fisher
reports Jones' plans to rename the Texas Stadium Party Tent "The
American Express Corral" have progressed "to the point that the
credit-card company has already received part of its payback,
tickets to Cowboys games." Cowboys VP Stephen Jones: "We are
still moving ahead with some things, yes." Stephen Jones told
the STAR-TELEGRAM negotiations were "subtle": "I can't comment
on (the immediacy of) some. Others are far away." He put rumors
of talks with Warner Bros. and Disney about involving one of
those parties in a theme park with Nike in the "far-away"
category (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 9/22).
LAST NIGHT: HBO's "Inside the NFL" included interviews with
Jerry Jones and the Vikings' Roger Headrick, head of the NFLP
Exec Committee. Jones, on small-market teams competing with
large-market teams in terms of marketing: "The facts are one of
the greatest marketing clubs in the NFL is Kansas City. Lamar
Hunt and Carl Peterson, they are doing an outstanding job and
Green Bay has one of the greatest names of tradition and appeal
there is in the United States. Every club has its own aura, its
own appeal. The people to sell that, though, is the clubs
themselves, not Park Avenue." Headrick: "We have been talking
with Jerry for some time about some of our differences of
opinion. As a matter of fact, a little bit more than a year ago
I asked Jerry if he wouldn't be amenable to join in the executive
committee of Properties, to see if he could share some of his
views with us and work with us within the system. He declined at
that time and we have been sort of sharing different views ever
since." HBO's Nick Buoniconti called the NFL's suit "a charade,"
and Chris Collinsworth said it "opens up the possibility of
antitrust proceedings that will make Al Davis' successful lawsuit
when he moved to Los Angeles look minuscule" ("Inside the NFL,"
HBO, 9/21).
