Event Date: October 20th, 1984
Event Description: Roulier Buys Express
Source: United Press International
United States Football League franchise owners adjourned two days of meetings Saturday, but postponed announcement of the results for two weeks.
The biggest confirmed news to come out of the meeting was the approval of Houston Gambler part-owner Jay Roulier as new owner of the Los Angeles Express. Roulier, a Denver entrepreneur said he would sell his share of the Gamblers to take over the Express.
But confirmation of the sale, and the possibility of a new franchise being awarded to the city of San Antonio will not be released until a news conference November 7th in New York, said USFL Commissioner Chet Simmons.
Oil baron Clinton Manges refused to comment regarding the awarding of a new team to the city of San Antonio, saying only that he is determined to bring pro football to the south Texas city.
The league agreed to fine any of the owners representing the current teams a $50,000 fine for prematurely releasing any information about the meeting.
John Bassett, owner of the Tampa Bay Bandits and outgoing chairman of the USFL executive committee, said owners decided to postpone releasing the changes so players and coaches would not “read about it in tomorrow's newspaper. There are human and marketing reasons,” Bassett said.
The troubled Chicago Blitz franchise also is expected to announce a move that will allow the team to move into involuntary bankruptcy, but return in 1986.
Although refusing to discuss the content of negotiations, league officials strove to put a positive face on the results of the two-day meeting at Amelia Island, a north Florida golf and tennis resort.
“All I can tell you is the job is done and done well in two days instead of the three we had expected," Bassett said. “There has never been up to now a league in the history of the United States to have such success in its first two years.”
The 1986 season will end with the championship game that owners decided Saturday would take place in Jacksonville, Fla. Jacksonville, an expansion team last year, has been one of the most successful in an endeavor troubled by meager attendance, especially in its largest cities.
The proximity of Jacksonville invested the meeting with an air of optimism at a time when some owners were uncertain about the league's future, Bassett said. He said he came to the meeting expecting “this thing was going to go on or it was not going to exist” after the meeting.
The Express should be essentially the same team as last year in the 1985 season, Roulier said. The new owner said he was assuming all player contracts, including that of high-priced quarterback Steve Young, and would launch a marketing program within 30 days to boost the team's paltry attendance.
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