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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 1999)
Sports Page 9 • Thursday, October 7, 1999 ■rw ^.uauanon Oil - louston awarded NFL expansion franchise authorifel J8L 61 mleadsIe Wnta (AP) — Houston re- ime,Eppefep tie NFL yesterday, paying a ifcreditg^fd $700 million for an expan- just assisie; franchise and beating out Los urt said ijleslthe nation’s second-largest cii Char:: narket. is been br, he tote, announced by com- N. loner Paul Tagliabue, was 29-0 leen wasbe Ari; ona and St. Louis abstain- est Virginia TW|nty-four votes were need- 992, Eppe: ir approval. know wb he pecision represents a blow irlestonorlB'mgeles, which could not .sincethereon several proposals for a sta- econd ann i site. The city lost the Raiders stin police lakland and the Rams to St. imore tha |alter the 1994 season, airest. he I vote awarding Houston nessman Bob McNair the team d ped months of indecision in Aphthe NFL at one point condi- Ulilly awarded a franchise to Los A deadline for Los Ange- | o come up with a suitable sta- rhM ro p° sal came anc ^ went > putting Houston back th| picture. dikingne !P' n,< a h er a while we all got /as the be j of it. thought it was time to he clainte:!;' d she didr: | uld not ge: dthe pek:| oman unoif is mother i the car. Bv YORK (AP) — Just what the Texas tstedthev prs needed: a day off in the big city. mdoningaBy could watch television and dwell d on S5.Br seven-game postseason slide. By could read the newspapers and rides hadi;Bon their 22-inning playoff scoreless jse the b: ft. al capadtvBy C o U ld listen to the radio and the old to beBnt talk of a Subway Series between Hnkees and Mets. plan tosffBpbody expects us to win,” Game 2 •ges apply, ter Rick Helling said yesterday. “To me, asalsoaske® p ressure j s on t pj e Yankees. They ;hi!d Proteifthe first game. ” Bn is an understatement. Orlando ran ™ 0 ^ ei pnd eZ held the Rangers to two hits in lyonne D0« nn j n g S anc j B ern j e Williams had six vorb IU<1 BnN eW York’s series-opening 8-0 win esthy night. Hplling (13-11), who gave up a major make a decision,” McNair said. The $700 million fee is the high est for a sports team in the United States. With a $310 million stadium included, the Houston deal would be worth more than $1 billion — a first for the NFL. “It’s a great day for Houston, we hope a great day for football,” Mc Nair said. “Our facility will be sec ond to none. ” The vote returns an NFL team to Houston, which lost the Oilers to Tennessee after the 1996 sea son and is the nation’s No. 11 TV market. The name of the Houston team is not set, but Tagliabue said it would not be “Oilers.” When Cleve land lost its franchise to Baltimore after the 1995 season, the NFL brought back a team to Cleveland, along with its traditional nickname, colors and records. Upon hearing the news today, football enthusiasts in Houston were ecstatic. Larry Dluhy, owner of Sports Collectibles of Houston, was a long time Oilers fan, but said he wel comed the return of an NFL team. “We’re on cloud nine,” Dluhy said. “We just can’t believe it, it’s so exciting. I’ve lived here all my life and the last two years with the Oil ers gone, there’s been a huge va cancy. It’s like an empty closet and now we’ve filled it back up.” At the SRO Sports Bar & Cafe near downtown Houston, the lunch crowd had not yet arrived, but manager Kathryn Scharringhousen was already celebrating. “It’s awesome,” Scharringhousen said. “I’m very happy and I know it’s going to be great for our business,” “I think everyone just loves a Hous ton home team.” Owners also voted to adjust the league alignment to eight divisions of four teams each. Right now, there are six divisions — one with six teams and the rest with five. Houston will be placed in the AFC, where the old Oilers played. That would mean one AFC team would have to switch to the NFC. Arizona and St. Louis abstained be cause of questions over the pro posed alignment. McNair said a retractable-roof stadium will be completed in time for Houston to play its first season in 2002. Public funds of $195 mil lion will go into the project. “It's a great day for Houston; we hope a great day for football.” — Bob McNair Houston expansion franchise As part of the deal, Houston will be the site of a Super Bowl “as soon as practical after completion of the stadium,” Tagliabue said. “We’ve made an outstanding business proposal, and these are good business people who know a good proposal,” McNair said. “From what I know about the oth er proposals, I don’t think they compare to ours. I think the main issue is that Houston’s ready to go.” The league’s expansion commit tee met with McNair on Tuesday evening and also heard Michael Ovitz make another pitch for giving Los Angeles the 32nd team. McNair’s $700 million franchise bid is some $50 million higher than the new franchise was expected to be worth. Ovitz, who most recent ly proposed building a stadium at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif., and another group seeking a team for the Los Angeles Coliseum apparently did not make an offer anywhere close to the one Houston put on the table. Ovitz and his backers hold an option on a parcel of land at Holly wood Park. But he obtained the op tion just last week, so any plan for that site would have to be in the very early stages. Ed Roski, one of the Coliseum backers, also was in Atlanta. He would not disclose the amount of the offer made by his group, which includes billionaire Eli Broad. Ros ki did say that he believed any plan to build a stadium at Hollywood Park faced a number of challenges, including lacking easy access to freeways, that the Coliseum pro posal did not face. Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas said in Los Angeles that the Coliseum group never received a clear idea of what the NFL wanted in LA. The league owners voted 29-2 last March to give Los Angeles a team conditional on the NFL’s re ceiving a suitable stadium and fi nancing proposal by Sept. 15. The league shortly afterward narrowed the choice down to the Coliseum, eliminating a bid by Ovitz, who proposed building a stadium in suburban Carson. But the negotiations with the Coliseum stalled last summer after the NFL’s request requested — and did not receive — the promise of $150 mil lion in public funds to go toward the Coliseum project. ngers use day off to try and correct postseason problems league-high 41 homers, pitches against Andy Pettitte (14-11) on Thursday night be fore the series moves to Arlington. “To me, all the pressure is on the Yankees. They won the first game.” - RICK HELLING RANGERS PITCHER “Obviously, if you’re down one, it’s a lot more important game,” Pettitte said. “But it’s still important. If we can get the second game here and go there to Texas up two, we feel confident.” Sound familiar? After the Yankees beat Texas in last year’s postseason opener, Pettitte faced Helling in Game 2 and led New York to a 3-1 win, allowing one run and three hits in seven innings with eight strikeouts. Helling gave up three runs and eight hits in six innings. “It was just like ^ has been so far in all these games against the Yankees,” Helling said. “We got outpitched a little bit, didn’t score enough runs to win.” Helling, who traveled from the team hotel to the Bronx by limo; was the only Rangers’ player in sight at Yankee Stadi um on Wednesday, with manager John ny Oates giving his team a day off. About half the Yankees showed for an optional workout. The clubhouse mood was businesslike. The Yankees need 10 more wins to achieve their goal of a third World Series title in four seasons, and they are hoping to find the consistency that led them to a record 125 wins a year ago. New York is hoping Pettitte will pitch with confidence, as he did in a record 21-3 victory at Arlington on Aug. 23. “They’re a scary team to play against because you know they’re going to break loose,” New York’s Paul O’Neill said. “They’re going to score runs when it’s all said and done. ” Texas hopes so. The Rangers have just one run in their last 42 playoff innings — all against the Yankees. “We’re a very good offensive ball club,” said Rangers general manager Doug Melvin, whose team led the American League in batting for the second straight year. “We’ll break out of it somewhere along the line here. Just hope that it’s sooner than later.” Texas may have its best chance against Pettitte, a Texan from Deer Park. Juan Gonzalez is 10-for-22 (.455) against the left-hander, Rusty Greer is 9-for-25 (.360), Todd Zeile 5-for-14 (.357) and Rafael Palmeiro 13-for-44 (.295) with four homers and nine RBIs. Pettitte put pressure on himself anywhere he played during the first four months of this season. He was 7-8 at the July 31 trade dead line, looking lost during some starts. Manager Joe Torre and several of own er George Steinbrenner’s baseball people argued that Pettitte should not be dealt. And once the deadline passed, Pettitte ap peared to relax, winning three straight starts and five of six fp ►RE id get paid to surf the web www.AIIAdvantage.com