Concerns that the league’s stadium financing program will dry up soon are unfounded, according to NFL finance committee Chairman Tom Benson. Talking at last week’s NFL owners’ meeting on Amelia Island, Fla., the New Orleans Saints’ owner said several new stadiums have been contributing income to the fund, and at least two more stadiums could get funding through the program, which has granted nearly $600 million to NFL teams.
But Mike Kelly, the Minnesota Vikings’ executive vice president, is still not sure. With the New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys closing on massive projects, teams like the Vikings could get left out in the cold. “I hope he is right,” Kelly said of Benson.
Add the New York Giants to the teams that will soon be clamoring for stadium financing funds.
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| Tisch |
Giants co-owner Bob Tisch said the team is meeting again with the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority on July 1 to discuss the $300 million renovation of Giants Stadium. The NJSEA, which owns the stadium, has already reached a preliminary agreement with the team, but the two sides still need to hammer out a final deal.
The Giants have hired Hammes Co. to oversee the project and architect Turner-Meis & Associates, Tisch said. He hopes the new Giants Stadium would host the 2009 Super Bowl, which he expects to be awarded in March 2005. The Jets could be competition for that game, however, if their new stadium is opened. Team owner Woody Johnson gave a presentation to ownership on the club’s quest for the Manhattan stadium and the potential for the 2009 game there.
REVENUE SHARING: The issue that has sparked friction in the league found some new faces to confront it. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue appointed 11 new members to the special committee on league economics, which was formed two months ago in the face of disputes among ownership over how much revenue to share. Members include Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Chairman Bob McNair, the Houston Texans’ owner, hopes to have a report ready by the fall.
BUILDING BRIDGES: The league wants to tie its season-opening kickoff game
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| Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville will get its own theme, Building Bridges. |
to the Super Bowl with a new theme it calls Building Bridges, also a reference to the bridges in Jacksonville, the next site for the big game. The theme is expected to incorporate the Super Bowl from the opening kickoff to the final weekend.
KICKOFF PLANNING: Plans are still coming together for the festivities around the opening kickoff game in Foxboro, Mass., between the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts. Tagliabue said it would become a tradition that the Super Bowl champion opens the next season. With the Janet Jackson Super Bowl halftime fiasco in the rear-view mirror, the league plans a more toned-down kickoff celebration this year. There will be music, though the league has yet to choose the band. There will be other elements introduced into the event, which will be broadcast before the game by ABC, said Jim Steeg, the league’s senior vice president of special events. There may be some twists, he said, like the hoisting of a championship flag.
BORNSTEIN TO RUN HALFTIME: Super Bowl halftime next year will be run by Steve Bornstein, president of the NFL Network and head of league broadcasting. This year’s unfortunate halftime was run by John Collins, who left the league to become the Cleveland Browns’ president. Bornstein will be aided by new marketing director Phil Guarascio. Steeg said a request for proposals to produce halftime has gone out. How much you want to bet the RFP did not go to MTV, which produced this year’s ill-fated program?
IRSAY NOT OPTIMISTIC: Colts owner Jim Irsay didn’t sound optimistic in discussing expected negotiations this summer with city officials over a new stadium.
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| Irsay |
Since the Colts moved to Indianapolis in 1984, Irsay noted, the Pacers have moved into Conseco Fieldhouse, the speedway has added races and the WNBA and AFL have added teams in the city. Irsay expressed doubts that Indianapolis’ corporate economy could support all of that. He said he was not, however, negotiating to move his team to Los Angeles.
Speaking of Irsay, he said his recent re-signing of star quarterback Peyton Manning, including a $34.5 million bonus, was not an intelligent business decision. And he said he had to dip into his own pocket to pay the bonus, an unusual practice in the NFL. “What you are doing is writing a check out of your own personal wealth and hoping things will change in the near future,” he said, referring to the stadium situation.
INS AND OUTS: Last Tuesday night the NFL was feted on the deck of the USS John F. Kennedy, which is scheduled to leave for duty overseas in the coming weeks. The military theme will carry over into Super Bowl week, including an homage to former Arizona Cardinal Pat Tillman, who was killed in Afghanistan while serving as a U.S. Army Ranger earlier this year. … Bornstein said he expects the NFL Network to be in 20 million homes by the end of the season, up from 13 million. … The league agreed to tighten its cross-ownership rules. Team owners’ families and minority shareholders who have options to buy the club will not be allowed to own clubs in other NFL teams’ markets, just as majority owners can’t.
Daniel Kaplan may be reached at dkaplan@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
