Stadium Woes Hinder USFL Expansion

USA TODAY, July 10, 1986

The best of plans are laid waste by circumstance. That is the message the USFL is learning as its anticipated 4-team expansion is not going the way the league had planned. While the franchises in Chicago and San Antonio seem to have all their ducks in a row, the proposed Miami and San Diego expansion franchises are finding that starting a new sports enterprise is anything but straightforward. Both are, after weeks of negotiations, now seeking alternative venues for their new ventures, with the Orange Bowl and San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium now seemingly out of the picture.

The Miami venture, headed by owner “Woody” Weisner and recently signed Head Coach and General Manager Howard Schnellenberger are expected to announce that the franchise will be calling Orlando home for the foreseeable future. Negotiations with the Orange Bowl proved to be fruitless. With Miami opening a new stadium for the Dolphins NFL franchise, many expected the Orange Bowl to be readily available for the USFL, but apparently the University of Miami balked at the idea of sharing the stadium, even with a spring league, and their resistance ended up dooming the proposed Miami USFL franchise. In Orlando, Weisner finds a market and a stadium very much open to housing a USFL franchise. The city, which has been seeking to gain the cache and allure of Miami or Tampa within the sports world, has embraced the idea of a USFL franchise as its first foray into professional sports. The Citrus Bowl is readily available and makes a good venue for a USFL squad. While Tampa Bay Bandits owner John Bassett continues to protest the placement of a new team so close to his base, it seems very likely that within a matter of days, the USFL and the Citrus Bowl will announce the presence of a new Orlando franchise.

San Diego is a messier issue.With pressure from both the NFL Chargers, the MLB Padres and San Diego State University, it seems the USFL has no other option in San Diego. League officials are openly questioning how the proposed expansion team’s owner, William Tatham convinced so many in the league that San Diego was a viable option when it was clear that the stadium was a major concern. So now the homeless franchise has only a few months to scout and negotiate a new home. With the other three expansion teams solidly placed in the Central and Southern regions, the league is likely going to restrict Mr. Tatham to options which could fit into the Pacific Division. It is anticipated that Orlando will play in the Southern divisions, Chicago clearly in the Central, and San Antonio ideally in the Central with Houston. Pittsburgh is expected to shift from the Central to the Eastern, which leaves only the Pacific Division with a 4-team format at present. Sources around the Tatham ownership group have indicated that the team is in discussions in several cities, including Honolulu, Sacramento, Seattle, and even Tulsa, Oklahoma, as potential relocation sites for the franchise. With so little time, and so much in the air, we anticipate that whichever city is able to house the franchise will be approved by the league, as league officials and owners would rather deal with a poorly placed team than attempt to run a 19-team season by delaying the addition of a 20th franchise.

And, just to show that even the most solid of the 4 expansion teams is not without it's issues, the Michigan Panthers this week filed a formal complaint with the league office that the new identity of the Chicago machine, with burgundy red and sky blue as two of the team's primary colors, was a direct infringement on the Michigan identity, which also uses these same two colors. The complaint is not likely to go anywhere, but it does raise a question as to why a franchise which would be perfectly set up to be a natural rival to the Panthers would opt to select a look that so closely parallels that of Michigan's. Whether or not the complaint leads to legal action, or whether the USFL opts to address this issue is very much in doubt, but it is a curious sign of the lack of leaguewide coordination that this would come up with a franchise that otherwise seems to be the most prepared of the new entrants.

So here we are, in Chicago we have a team already signing players, with an NFL experienced coach in Joe Bugel, and a deal to play in Soldier Field. In San Antonio, we have what seems to be a weaker setup, with a team playing in a 20,000 seat HS football arena, Alamo Stadium, and with a head coach whose claim to fame is NAIA level football. In Florida we have a team that hopes to have found a home, but at least has a football mind at the helm in Schnellenberger, and out west we have a team scrambling to find a home, and no word on football personnel as of yet. Hardly the smooth expansion we saw in 1984 when Pittsburgh, Memphis, Jacksonville and Houston joined the league.