San Antonio Mayor Says Tagliabue’s Wrong About Market Size

Tagliabue's "Small Market" Comment Upsets San Antonio Mayor

San Antonio Mayor Phil Hardberger believes that NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue characterizing the city as a “small market” is the “uninformed opinion of an outsider,” according to Tom Orsborn of the SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS. Tagliabue said in yesterday’s New Orleans Times-Picayune that the NFL “has no plans to move ‘any teams into small markets.’” Hardberger responded, “The feeling the commissioner voiced, with due respect, is that of people who live a long way away and are not on the ground seeing what is happening here.” Tagliabue, through a league spokesperson, declined to comment. Former San Antonio Mayor Nelson Wolff said, “We’ve always argued Austin, South Texas and even (northern) Mexico should be considered part of our market. The NFL has never bought that argument, but with these three [Saints games at the Alamodome], we can prove them wrong.” The Saints yesterday said 66,348 tickets remained for the three games, including just 6,883 for Falcons-Saints on October 16 (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, 9/21). In an open letter to Tagliabue, the EXPRESS-NEWS’ David Flores writes Tagliabue “need[s] to rethink” his perception of San Antonio. Flores adds, “San Antonio is not the small-time, sleepy city you might think it is. ... I’m foolish enough to think San Antonio could support an NFL franchise -– provided Austin is part of the equation” (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, 9/21).

SAINTS TOP TEXANS: In San Antonio, Briggs, Finger, Orsborn & McDonald report San Antonio’s KENS-CBS will air Bills-Saints instead of Texans-Bengals on Sunday “unless the game is blacked out.” KENS President & GM Bob McGann noted the Saints game’s “significance as the first NFL regular-season game played in San Antonio.” McGann: “They are the home team here for three games.” McGann added the Saints-Panthers game September 11 drew a 10.0 rating on KABB-Fox, while Texans-Bills in the same time period drew a 7.0 rating on KENS. An NFL spokesperson said that it is “undetermined whether the blackout rule would apply to Saints games in San Antonio” (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, 9/21).

BATON ROUGE TICKET PRICES: Ticket prices for the four Saints games at LSU’s Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge cost $15-89 for individual game tickets and $40-336 for four-game packages. LSU students and groups will receive $2 off individual ticket prices. Partial proceeds from the ticket sales will go to the Saints Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund. Capacity for Tiger Stadium will be 79,000 (NOLA.com, 9/20). Tiger Stadium holds 91,600 for LSU games (THE DAILY).