Event Date: November 2nd, 1983
Event Description: Canizaro Under Control
Source: United Press International
Real estate developer Joseph Canizaro says he will buy the controlling interest in the New Orleans Breakers if the new USFL franchise gets solid fan support next season.
Canizaro said Monday he had already aquired 31 percent of the team.
“What I do depends entirely on how our city reacts to the club," said Canizaro, whose current involvement with the club was estimated at more than $2 million. “If the city supports it and loves it, it'll be all locally owned.”
The Breakers decided last month to move to New Orleans from Boston, where they were experiencing difficulty finding adequate playing quarters.
The Louisiana Superdome, home of the NFL Saints, agreed to host the Breakers as well.
Canizaro said the Breakers would need to average 30,000 fans per game for him to buy the remainder of the team.
“I have a three-year option at a fixed price to buy the team, and I'll exercise that option when it becomes clear how New Orleans reacts,” he said. “At that point I would look to have 15 or 16 other businessmen involved as minority partners. In our budgetary figures we've looked at 29,000 to 30,000. But I honestly believe that we're looking at 40,000 to 50,000 people if I know this known.”
The Breakers, 9-9 and the surprise team of the USFL last year under head coach Dick Coury, averaged 12,735 in 21,000-seat Nickerson Field in Boston. Team officials said they couldn't have made money had every seat been filled.
The announcement of Canizaro's involvement came exactly 17 years after NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle announced New Orleans was being awarded an expansion franchise.
At Monday's news conference, Coury said he was hoping to begin training camp Jan. 23 in New Orleans.
"I'm going this afternoon to look at facilities both at Tulane and the University of New Orleans,' the league's 1983 coach of the year said. 'I'm really excited about our move here and getting everything going.”
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