Event Date: December 9th, 1985
Event Description: Gore Eyes Expansion
Source: UPI
NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle's unwillingness to commit to an expansion of the 28-team league may have cost him one of his most coveted prizes -- a Congressionally granted right to limit the movement of his teams.
With Rozelle refusing to bend to pressure to pledge expansion, two lawmakers blocked Senate consideration of a measure that would grant the league a limited shield from antitrust laws to control franchise shifts.
Sens. Albert Gore, D-Tenn., and Charles Mathias, R-Md., threatened a filibuster on the Senate floor, preventing a vote on a bill Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas had designated for consideration on Wednesday and Thursday.
Senate sources say Dole would have permitted a vote during those two days, but the threat of a filibuster doomed the measure. The sources say Dole would not permit a sports bill to delay the senate calendar, particularly with lawmakers under the gun to complete budget and debt ceiling legislation.
Gore and Mathias both demanded NFL expansion in exchange for releasing the bill, with Gore pushing for a six-team expansion by 1991. Gore failed in an attempt to amend the bill to include a mandatory six-team expansion when it was being considered in the Senate Commerce Committee.
Senate sources say it is unlikely the bill will be brought up again until sometime next year, if at all.
Gore, in an interview with United Press International, said he negotiated by phone with Rozelle, but the commissioner made a "meaningless" effort at compromise.
“The NFL refuses to make any kind of reasonable offer to expand,” Gore said.
“They are offering to expand by two teams over the next six years if four conditions are met,” Gore added.
“No. 1, that the legislation passes; No. 2, that the $90 million USFL lawsuit (charging the NFL with violating federal antitrust statutes) is resolved in their favor; No. 3, that the USFL agree not to go to a fall schedule after the 1986 season; and No. 4, that three-quarters of the current (NFL team) owners be convinced that it's in their financial interest to allow expansion.”
“He seriously went through that list as an offer,” Gore said. “I view that as a meaningless offer.”
NFL spokesman Joe Browne, speaking for Rozelle, said, “We feel (the legislation) will bring stability to professional sports and will benefit sports communities, teams and leagues. Commissioner Rozelle did tell Sen. Gore (Thursday) morning that the NFL could not commit to expand by six teams in six years as he had requested.”
The NFL has made no secret of its desire for Congressionally mandated protection from antitrust laws on franchise relocation and revenue-sharing issues, as provided in the bill, sponsored by Sens. Thomas Eagleton, D-Mo., and John Danforth, R-Mo.
What makes this bill even more attractive to Rozelle is that it contains language that would empower the league to select or terminate a club's ownership.
In the 1960s, Congress granted the NFL limited antitrust exemptions to clear the way for network television coverage, pool television revenue and allow the AFL-NFL merger.
The Eagleton-Danforth bill gives the same authority to the National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, the United States Football League and the professional soccer leagues. It does not apply to baseball, which was granted wide-ranging immunity from antitrust laws in the 1920s.
Gore stopped short of using the word “greed” in giving an explanation why Rozelle refuses to commit to expansion, but that's the picture he paints.
“They haven't expanded for nine years for one simple reason,” Gore maintains. “They are currently allowed to pool all of their television revenue, $2 billion per year, and divide it up equally among themselves (the 28 owners). If they allow new owners into the league, each slice of the pie gets smaller. So they don't want any kind of expansion.”
“That artifical market scarcity is in the face of exploding demand for professional football due to the increased popularity of the sport in the last decade and the growing population in areas of the country like the Sun Belt,” the Tennessee Republican said.
“That artificial scarcity is the unlying cause of the theft of the Baltimore Colts in the middle of the night, the movement of Oakland (Raiders) to Los Angeles, the holding up of Philadelphia and St. Louis and the frustrations of Memphis, Phoenix, Birmingham and others,” Gore added.
While there is no NFL team in Gore's state, the senator's interest in the matter is not merely academic, as Memphis likely would be a leading candidate for any NFL expansion team. Memphis is the base of the USFL's Memphis Showboats.
Mathias also would like an NFL team for his state, since the Baltimore Colts were moved by owner Robert Irsay to Indianapolis in 1984.
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