NFL Owners Meetings: Tagliabue Delays Search For Successor

Tagliabue To Take Time Forming Search Committee

On the first day of the NFL owners meetings in Orlando, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue “delayed appointing a search committee” to select his replacement and “indicated he wants to take his time and make sure he has a good cross-section of owners and league executives on the committee,” according to John McClain of the HOUSTON CHRONICLE. Texans Owner Bob McNair said, “It’s critical to get the input of all 32 owners. We have to be careful not to get ahead of ourselves and start interviewing candidates before we define the position” (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 3/28). Tagliabue said that he would not “make any recommendations about an individual who might be in line to replace him.” Tagliabue: “That’s not my job.” He added that he hopes to bring in an “outside firm to interview the owners ‘to get their perspective’ on management and leadership in order to establish ‘a good process of feedback that is open and transparent’” (USA TODAY, 3/28). Steelers Chair Dan Rooney said of hiring Tagliabue’s replacement, “I think it could be done by July. We’ll get it together after this meeting, sit down and talk and then come up with a plan. But we’re too busy here right now. That’s my opinion” (S.F. CHRONICLE, 3/28).

McNair Says Search For Next Commissioner Is Wide Open

WHAT THEY’RE LOOKING FOR: McNair, on the search for a new commissioner: “I think it’s wide open. It can be someone no one even knows. The main thing is to get the right person for the position, whoever they might be” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 3/28). Eagles Owner Jeffrey Lurie said, “We will try to look (at candidates) from other industries as well as internally. He could come from anywhere. I don’t think the NFL needs a star search. We need someone who will really work hard in growing the brand and growing the integrity of the sport, reaching out to the rest of the world and the digital world in a very effective way that serves our fans. ... It’s not the speed of the hire. It’s the quality of the hire” (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 3/28). Chiefs Owner Lamar Hunt said, “You like to replicate Paul or, coming before him, Pete Rozelle. I don’t know that you can replicate any one person, but certainly experience in the sport and experience in the business are important. I don’t think you have to have been a coach or a [GM]. You don’t have to have been a lawyer and an accountant. But you’d want to start combining the best of those things” (K.C. STAR, 3/28).

TWO-PERSON JOB? McNair has said that he believes the league should consider splitting the position, suggesting that one person “should oversee the league’s business operations while another should oversee how the game is played on the field.” But Broncos Owner Pat Bowlen said, “I’m not for splitting the job up. I think the commissioner should be the commissioner, but I think he’s got to have some very strong people around him” (ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS, 3/28). Tagliabue added, “My own feeling is that any CEO position is a one-person position. It’s just a question of having the right governance structure and having the right management team, but I think one person ultimately has to be in charge” (L.A. TIMES, 3/28). Jaguars Owner Wayne Weaver called the idea of splitting the job “ridiculous” (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 3/28). Giants Chair & Exec VP Steve Tisch added, “I don’t think it’s necessary” (N.Y. TIMES, 3/28).

Goodell Will Likely Be Among Candidates

THE REPLACEMENTS: SI’s Peter King wrote NFL COO Roger Goodell is “the leader at the quarter pole” to replace Tagliabue. One owner said of Goodell, "He’s got something for everybody. He’s got business savvy, he’s a diplomat, and he’ll look out for the low-revenue teams” (SI.com, 3/27). NFL Network’s Adam Schefter’s “underdog candidates” for the commissioner’s job included Chiefs GM, President & CEO Carl Peterson, former 49ers & Browns President Carmen Policy, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics Chair Dick Ebersol and NFL Network President & CEO and NFL Exec VP/Media Steve Bornstein (“NFL Total Access,” NFL Network, 3/27).

SO-CAL: In L.A., Sam Farmer reports NFL officials “gave timelines for two concepts, at the Coliseum and Anaheim, each of which would cost about” $800M. That figure would be “double the original estimates reported when the league began investigating stadium options in L.A. three years ago.” Owners were told that if the league “intends to have a team playing in the L.A. market by 2010 ... they need to make significant progress on the stadium front in the next few months.” The league “probably will hear presentations” from Coliseum and Anaheim groups in late April or early May. Tagliabue said, “My guess is that we will be going forward with those presentations on behalf of the Coliseum and Anaheim so that we can make some decisions in Denver [at the spring meetings May 21-24]” (L.A. TIMES, 3/28).

SAINTS: Also yesterday, Saints Exec VP/Administration Rita Benson LeBlanc and Senior VP & CFO Dennis Lauscha gave an hour-long presentation that “included an update on the status of New Orleans, the Superdome and the team, as well as a summary of the issues the Saints faced in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.” Lauscha said that the team “suggested some preparations other teams could make in the areas of disaster planning and insurance planning, among other issues.” Lauscha: “I’ve had so many people walk up to me and say, ‘God, I didn’t even think about that.’” He added that the Saints are “still sorting out how much of the team’s 2005 losses and expenses will be covered by insurance” (New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE, 3/28).

NOTES: Tagliabue said that the minimum salary cap expenditure per team has not yet been set, but it “will be higher than the 84[%] of the $85.5[M] cap that was in effect last season.” Tagliabue: “The last I saw, the minimum would increase to 90[%] of the cap over the life of the deal” (BOSTON GLOBE, 3/28)....Rooney proposed a rule that would “prevent teams from making fans buy tickets to other games if they want to purchase one for a specific high-profile contest.” It is an “obvious attempt to stop Steelers opponents on the road from forcing the team’s fans to buy tickets to other games if they want to purchase a ticket to the game against the Steelers.” The Bengals and Chargers were among those teams on the Steelers’ schedule last year who had those policies. The proposal is “given little chance of passing” (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 3/28).