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WILL. NEVER. HAPPEN.
Jerry Jones will never let this happen. Period.
San Antonio on NFL's radar
Tom Orsborn - Express-News
San Antonio is on a track that could lead to the NFL considering it for an expansion team someday, commissioner Roger Goodell suggested Wednesday.
“My words of encouragement would be to stay the course and continue to grow and continue to prepare if the opportunity comes about,” said Goodell, responding to a question from the audience during a luncheon sponsored by the University of the Incarnate Word and the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.
While making it clear the league has no immediate plans to grow beyond 32 teams and will continue to discourage relocation, Goodell indicated there has been a shift in how the league views San Antonio.
“There’s no question the growth is extraordinary here,” Goodell said. “You see it as soon as you come into the city ... The vision the leaders have here to grow this community has been very positive. I think that will provide new opportunities.’’
The NFL, under former commissioner Paul Tagliabue, has spurned the city twice in the past 16 years.
In March 1992, the league rejected a San Antonio expansion effort. The city’s bid was one of the first cut in a process that eventually led to teams being awarded to Jacksonville, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C.
In 2005, the New Orleans Saints relocated operations to San Antonio in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and played three regular-season games at the Alamodome.
Tagliabue, responding to reports that the Saints were considering permanent relocation, angered civic leaders when he dismissed the city as a small market.
Since replacing Tagliabue in 2006, Goodell has worked to establish a warmer relationship between the league and San Antonio.
“We are in a difficult period of time (economically),’’ Goodell said, “but San Antonio continues to rise, and I think that is remarkable.”
Saints owner and UIW booster Tom Benson invited Goodell to the event on the UIW campus. The luncheon also featured comments from UIW president Louis Agnese about the school’s fledgling football program, which Benson is helping bankroll.
Benson said San Antonio “has a friend” in Goodell, who attended Benson’s wedding to Gayle Marie LaJaunie Bird at UIW’s chapel in 2004.
“He’s been here before, but he never had a real nice tour like he had today,” said Benson, who has strong business and personal ties to San Antonio. “If expansion came, San Antonio would certainly be in the cards. I feel very strongly about that. This guy is very open-minded.”
During the luncheon, Goodell sat next to County Judge Nelson Wolff, former mayor Henry Cisneros and businessman Charlie Amato, a Spurs shareholder and a member of the chamber’s NFL Task Force.
“With me, Nelson and Henry sitting next to him, he got the full-court press, trust me,” Amato said. “We think we did an adequate job of explaining our growth and showing we are not having all the economic problems they’re having on the West and East coasts. Our region is growing, and we have positive employment, and we explained all that to him.
“Although he made it clear expansion right now is not a priority, we at least know we are on his radar screen.”
It wasn’t Wolff’s first visit with Goodell. He said he talked to the commissioner in New York about a year ago.
“I expressed to him how disappointed we were with Tagliabue after he didn’t have the courtesy to even meet with the mayor (Phil Hardberger) while the Saints were here in 2005, and (Goodell) said, ‘That’s not going to be how it is with me,’” Wolff said. “It’s good for us to establish a relationship with Roger because I think he is going to be in that job for a long time.”
The Saints played three games before sold-out crowds at the Alamodome before returning to New Orleans after the season.
Goodell said the league was “incredibly grateful” San Antonio embraced the Saints. He also praised the “passion” of the fans that attended the games.
“San Antonio continues to do all the right things,” Goodell told reporters. “It is growing. It is a stronger community than it was. You have got great leadership here, both corporate and public. And, as I said, the passion is extraordinary. Passion is really what makes a difference, so you are on the radar screen.”
Goodell also dismissed the notion that Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Houston Texans owner Bob McNair would block any attempt to grant Texas a third team.
“I don’t think they would,” Goodell said. “I think they recognize the great passion of the fans here.”
WILL. NEVER. HAPPEN.
Jerry Jones will never let this happen. Period.
It will never happen. Best shot was before the Texans and with the Saints after the hurricane. LA will get a team first.
I agree it will never happen. I could see San Antonio could turn into a nice NCAA football town. If UTSA could ever get a team, but the NFL will never be here.
Dallas and Houston would lose to much revenue for a team to be here.
San Antonio is on a track that could lead to the NFL considering it someday. Wow. What a ringing endorsement.
But of course San Antonians will hear what they want to hear, as always. In this case, what they will hear is "The NFL wants to put a team in the Alamodome in five years."
This has the potential to increase ticket sales at a hypothetical future preseason game in SA, involving the Texans.
Let me know when this happens.
Hey Goodell....thanks a lot.
Although, I also put this on city council and leaders.
In order to make anything happen here, you would need a HUGE push beginning right now to even come close to making anything happen by 2012.
But, we won't...and I find it laughable that Jerry Jones and McNair would allow it to happen.
They'll come out and say the right things publically, but you know there will be a wink and a handshake that squashes any such deal
Gotta love San Antonians. They'd trade the Spurs for an NFL team in a heartbeat, yet they sit and root for the NFL team whose owner is the driving force keeping San Antonio from getting their own team.
San Diego is doing everything in their power to get rid of the Chargers...
"Someday..."
Yeah...that's gonna happen.
Considering we're talking about the same people who called Tony Parker a playoff choker and demanded he be traded and then turned around and fellated him on day to day basis after he orchestrated a sweep of the Cavs and won MVP, and also demand Pop be fired if the Spurs dare lose three regular season games in a row...
The Spur-Cowboy fan hybrid is a pretty insane animal. There are a few good ones out there but for the most part...not my kind of sportsfan.
Nope...all they are doing is trying to use other cities as leverage to get a better deal.
San Diego relocating to San Antonio has about a .005% chance of actually happening.
Los Spurs football?
Montana would get an NFL team before San Antonio.
but your saying there's a chance???
Football team. No freaken way.
I've heard this line before. Can you explain exactly how NOT rooting for the Cowboys will get San Antonio a team earlier?
The only reason Houston got a team is because they had their together and took advantage of the fact that LA thought it was a foregone conclusion that they were going to be awarded the expansion franchise. If San Antonio finds themselves in a similar situation in the future, Jerry Jones won't be able to stop it by himself.
I still hate the Cowboys.
If all San Antonians stopped watching Cowboys games, stopped buying Cowboy gear and just ignored that team existed, Jerry Jones wouldn't have a market to protect. Right now San Antonio pumps millions of dollars a year in JJ's pockets and he's right to not want to give that up without a fight.I've heard this line before. Can you explain exactly how NOT rooting for the Cowboys will get San Antonio a team earlier?
Nah, Houston is a huge market. Much bigger and wealthier than San Antonio. San Antonio could build a state of the art facility but Jones would find a way to block the city from getting a team. He'll smile in front of the camera and pretend he supports San Antonio's dream ... and then turn around and stab San Antonio in the back behind the scenes.
If San Antonians got too mad, he'd placate them by moving training camp here to smooth things over. San Antonians fall for that trick every time
Yeah, that's going to make Jerry Jones so happy he'll do whatever it takes to make sure San Antonio gets a team.
Unless something has changed about revenue sharing, Jerry Jones gets the same amount of money for a Tony Romo jersey as Dan Snyder does. Jerry has no particular financial interest in the city, beacause most of the unshared revenue comes from local broadcasting and stadium revenue. You're usually pretty up to date on stuff like this, so feel free to tell me what I'm missing.
If the NFL loses the salary cap next year the league will become like major league baseball and San Antonio won't want a team by then. Nobody will be able to out-spend the Jones, new stadium in hand, for talent.
Redskins and the Cowboys technically are not part of revenue sharing like everyone else. They give more than anyone else but they also keep more. This started when the Cowboys signed that huge Pepsi deal in the 90's.
Regardless....of course a team gets more money when it sells more items.
The non salary cap years are not the free for all people think they are. The uncapped money only applies to specific players who have specific tenures which are 6 year players.
Besides there are safe guards in place to protect this. The top 8 teams in the league have spending restrictions during the non cap years.
Last edited by Evan; 10-09-2008 at 07:47 PM.
As long as I am one of the few.
Sadly though, you are right, there are a bunch of them that even I don't like.
Its simple. SA does not have enough money or people to support a NFL team. They really should have gotten a MLS team. 18 to 20 thousand seats. The Mexicans alone could fill those seats. Pricing is pretty reasonable.
What a bunch of negative-minded losers. The posts on this thread lead me to actually believe that the members of this forum have a massive, collective inferiority complex. Even when the ing commissioner comes to town and validates that the city is on the map for a team eventually, nobody on this board buys into it. It's all Dallas this, and Jerry Jones that wah, wah, wah. Wakeup people! San Antonio is big and enough rich for a team.
And for those of you that feel that San Antonio lacks the clout to support a team of its own just look at little Jacksonville or Buffalo or Green Bay or Nashville etc, etc. None of these towns are as rich and as big as San Antonio yet all have NFL teams. The bottom line here is that if you're raised to be small-minded and narrow-minded that's how you will always think. Unfortunately San Antonio is cursed to be riddled with people of this type of mentality. And the majority of replies on threads like this clearly reflect that mentality.
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