'84 Chronology-Pie in the Sky

Event Date: April 18th, 1984

Event Description:  USFL Study Group

Source: UPI

Despite a committee looking into moving its season to the fall, the USFL's major priority is solidifying its spring standing, a league spokesman said Saturday.

“The major emphasis is establishing ourselves firmly in the spring and establishing ourselves as a television product,” a USFL spokesman said.

USFL Director of Communications Jim Byrne added that progress is being made in the league's negotiations with ABC and ESPN. The two networks currently televise USFL games and have the right of first refusal to renew contracts which expire after the 1984 season.

“Everybody expects something to be finalized in a couple of weeks,” Byrne said of a new television deal.

A five-man committee headed by New Orleans Breakers owner Joseph Canizaro has been studying a move to the fall since January. Also on the committee are New Jersey Generals owner Donald Trump, Tampa Bay Bandits owner John Bassett, Pittsburgh Maulers President Paul Martha and Los Angeles Express general manager Don Klosterman.

While Bassett has pubicly opposed a move to the fall, Trump has been a major booster of the shift since he bought the Generals last November. Trump predicted the move would take place in the fall of 1987 last Sunday after the Generals' victory over Memphis.

Trump said he was optimisitc because of high television ratings by the league this season. Trump used the 1987 target date because the NFL's current television contract expires after the 1986 season, while the USFL would be free to negotiate a new contract with ABC that season if it moved to the fall.

“The biggest story of this league is we've been getting the highest ratings in our time slot by far,” Trump said last week. “That's the biggest story -- not how well Herschel Walker is playing or whether he will play this week.”

The committee is studying logistic and financial problems of the proposed change in seasons. Since 12 USFL teams are located in NFL cities and 11 of them share NFL stadiums -- including three which share major league baseball stadiums -- stadium availability is a problem.

Trump suggests playing games on Thursday and Sunday nights to alleviate the scheduling problems.

Getting the networks to allot additional air time and generating fan interest with two leagues in the fall are other obvious problems.

The committee is also looking at the availability of advertising money and whether current advertisers would be interested in sponsoring the league in the fall.

“A long-term planning group is studying a number of alternatives and the move to the fall is one of them,” said Byrne, who wouldn't rule out the USFL keeping its current spring format. “It is really premature to say that (move to fall) is definitive.”

In other pro football news;

The Chicago Bears Friday signed place kicker Vince Abbott, recently released by the USFL Los Angeles Express.

Abbott, a 5-foot-11, 195-pound kicker out of Cal State-Fullerton, was briefly with the San Francisco 49ers and the Miami Dolphins during the 1982 pre-season.

Story-(UPI)