Event Date: October 19th, 1984
Event Description: Einhorn Predicts Consolidation
Source: United Press International
The owner of the Chicago Blitz predicted the U.S. Football League will be reduced by at least two teams by the end of an owners' meeting that began Friday.
Eddie Einhorn, owner of the struggling Blitz, said mergers or attrition would probably leave the 16-member league with 12-to-14 franchises.
Einhorn said he will announce the fate of his own club Sunday at the meeting's end.
The Blitz could spend the upcoming spring season in another city only to return in 1986. Einhorn said he had discussed the future of his team with a Charlotte, North Carolina businessman and others.
“The alternatives that I have is moving the team, selling the team outright or coming back in ’86," Einhorn said. “I have talked to some people and I will have a number of options to talk about Sunday.”
The possibility no franchise in Chicago for the coming spring would allow ABC to cancel its contract with the USFL, but Einhorn, the league's main negotiator with the networks, said he hoped to find a “creative” solution to the problem.
“We will be doing some interesting things in the next week. You'll read about them,” he told a news conference after the owners recessed for the day.
The owners spent the first day of meetings reviewing the television situation along with possible franchise shifts, marketing, and rules changes, Commissioner Chet Simmons said. Simmons said no owners are ready to fold their teams. “Nobody has just bellied up and said 'I'm out of business,'' he said.
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