NFL Today: 'It All Went Out Window' : Pro football: Owners say Browns' move to Baltimore seemingly changes rules about moving franchises. L.A. expected to get existing club, not expansion team.

By BILL PLASCHKE

Nov. 8, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

GRAPEVINE, Tex. — All but conceding Baltimore to the Cleveland Browns on Tuesday, NFL owners opened the gates for any colleague with a packed bag and itchy feet.

And essentially slammed them shut on Los Angeles’ expansion hopes.

Instead of starting again with a homegrown NFL team as many hoped, the Southland will apparently have to settle for somebody else’s problem when pro football returns during the next four years.

“I see Los Angeles getting an existing team now, yes,” said Bob Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots. “There is not much appetite right now for expansion.”

This is because the league is suddenly faced with a lineup of owners who want to be like Art.

As in Art Modell, the Browns’ owner who was lauded as “Benedict Arthur” by a group of Cleveland-based pickets who marched outside the hotel here protesting the team’s planned move to Baltimore.

Lacking the support of federal courts, the league showed Tuesday at its fall meetings that even with a history-rich franchise like the Browns, it is willing to do little more than watch.

“[Owners] didn’t stop the two Los Angeles teams from moving, why are they going to stop him?” said Denver Bronco owner Pat Bowlen of Modell.

So just as many teams have copied the San Francisco 49ers’ successful offense, expect many others to copy the Browns and their fast break:

Proclaim loyalty to your city.

Then, oh, by the way, complain about your stadium deal.

Then sprint away to a better one.

Under league rules, teams are not supposed to move unless they show lack of fan support, among other things. The Browns have averaged more than 69,000 fans a game over the past five years.

“This shows that when the Rams moved without meeting the guidelines, it all went out the window,” said Ralph Wilson, owner of the Buffalo Bills. “Now, anything goes. Our rules mean nothing. Anybody can do what they want to do.”

With so many teams saddled with what they claim are revenue-poor stadiums--the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Cincinnati Bengals, the Seattle Seahawks, the Minnesota Vikings, the Chicago Bears--the league will be hard-pressed to find homes for everyone.

Good-by, expansion.

Hello . . . anybody and everybody.

Prospective Southland owners and civic leaders have spoken privately against accepting existing teams, saying that in today’s climate, the area will only support a native team such as the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

After all, Al Davis failed in Los Angeles after moving from Oakland, and George Frontiere failed in Anaheim after moving from Los Angeles.

But it appears that the area will not have a choice.

“There are more stadium problems in this league, and I don’t know what we’re going to do about it,” said New York Giant co-owner Wellington Mara.

The line for Los Angeles forms next spring, when owners say they hope to anoint a Southland site where privately funded stadium construction is expected to begin.

Jerry Richardson, owner of the Carolina Panthers and chairman of the league’s Stadium Committee, presented the owners with a list of contenders Tuesday.

Sources said he listed three top choices:

--Dodger Stadium, to be built by Peter O’Malley.

--An area in El Segundo near Los Angeles International Airport, to be built by the Disney Corp.

--Hollywood Park, to be built by track chairman R.D. Hubbard.

The only surprise there is that Hollywood Park is still in contention after being scratched from earlier lists.

Because of owners’ worries about the solidity of the financing, though, it is still a distant third.

Modell intimated that he considered moving to Los Angeles before deciding on Baltimore--”If I didn’t go to Baltimore . . . I would have considered something in the Los Angeles area, yes,” Modell said.

But sources say it was never a close call.

Until there is a stadium plan, the Southland doesn’t have a chance even for a carpet-bagger.

After eight hours of finger pointing, name calling, back scratching and chest thumping Tuesday, another thing became starkly clear.

“This is all about one thing, and one thing only,” Bowlen said, shaking his head. “Money.”

Modell claimed he doesn’t have it.

Cleveland Mayor Mike White called Modell a liar and said he ignored the city’s offers to give it to him.

After Modell accused the city of failing to support his efforts to build a new stadium or renovate aging Cleveland Stadium, White produced documents Tuesday that offered different accounts.

Letters from the mayor’s office to Modell in recent months show that the city was committing $175 million to stadium renovation efforts while Modell was secretly negotiating with Baltimore.

Ironically, on Tuesday, a proposal that used a tax to fund that $175 million won easy approval from Cleveland voters.

“That’s what kind of fans we have,” White said before the vote. “They are abandoned, and they will still pass this tax.”

Both parties also agree that Modell placed a “moratorium” on stadium talk during this season so he could concentrate on football . . . then proceeded to begin talks with Baltimore.

“We have been treated wrongly, we have been treated unfairly,” White said, calling Modell’s recent statements “purposeful duplicity.”

During an unusual news conference before the national football media, an angry White said, “It happened to Oakland, and nobody said a word. Then it happened twice in Los Angeles, and nobody said a word. It’s happening in Houston now, and nobody is saying a thing. . . .

“What impact does it have when the NFL allows owners to kick cities in the teeth? How many cities will be affected before the league realizes this is bad for the country?”

He mentioned Houston in reference to the Oilers, whose owner, Bud Adams, was reveling Tuesday in the soon-to-be announced move of his team to Nashville, Tenn., for $29 million.

“Nashville seems like such a small city, but when I told some of the owners what was going on there, they were quite elated,” he said.

Modell appeared sadder, but only for about the time it takes to cut a sound bite.

“I appear before you with a very, very heavy heart,” he said. “I feel a profound sense of remorse, almost a despondency.”

Moments later, he was making jokes about a possible change of heart and return to heartbroken Cleveland.

“That bridge is downed, burned, disappeared; there’s not even a canoe there for me,” Modell said with a big smile.

Above the din, Tagliabue offered something less than a voice of strength.

He refused to commit himself to forcing teams to remain in communities with solid fan bases, saying only, “I’m very concerned with being responsive to rabid NFL fans. History shows fans come first.”

Yet he wouldn’t even comment on whether he personally approves of the Browns’ move.

“I don’t have a personal position. . . . I’m the commissioner,” Tagliabue said.