At the NFL's league meetings in Dallas yesterday,
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said that the owner of the new
Browns franchise "would be announced in the middle of
September," and scheduled an August 19 meeting to introduce
the bidding groups to team owners, according to Terry Pluto
of the AKRON BEACON JOURNAL. The league also announced that
it will give the Browns "the same basic deal" in terms of
forming its roster that the last two expansion teams, the
Panthers and Jaguars, had. The Browns will receive: the
first pick in the '99 draft; 14 picks over the seven rounds
of the '99 draft, including six in the top 100; and seven
extra picks in the 2000 draft -- unless they make the
playoffs in their debut season in '99. In addition, each
NFL team will designate five players from which the Browns
will choose 30-42 players for their roster (AKRON BEACON
JOURNAL, 7/29). USA TODAY's Gordon Forbes writes that Al
Lerner and Carmen Policy, whose group has "jumped ahead" in
the Browns bidding, "won't go" to the August meeting, as
they are "confident that Lerner's wealth and Policy's
presence make them a 2-1 shot in the Cleveland Derby" (USA
TODAY, 7/29). ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported that with
"insiders" in every bid group, Tagliabue "spent considerable
amount of time telling the owners it would be a fair
process." But Mortensen added, "I think with Jerry Jones as
one of the heads of the expansion committee, it's going to
come down to the bottom dollar" ("NFL 2Night," ESPN2, 7/28).
In Akron, Terry Pluto writes on the Browns bid situation
under the header, "Green, Not Browns, Drives Owners."
Pluto: "While NFL officials try to say all the proper things
about finding the right owner for the Browns, their actions
scream nothing but greed" (AKRON BEACON JOURNAL, 7/29).
STADIUM OVERRUNS: Cleveland Mayor Michael White said
yesterday that overruns on the new Browns stadium "have
risen to" $33M, pushing the total cost to $280M. White said
that the overruns will "largely be absorbed by two cushions:
a $15[M] grant from the NFL and $12[M] in unexpectedly high
taxes on parking, admissions and motor vehicle rentals."
White added that he is "exploring several ways of filling"
the remaining $6M gap (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 7/29).
