Expansion

From Fair Pay, Fair Play pages 87-94.

In 2005, San Antonio hosted the New Orleans Saints for three games as their stadium was being repaired after Hurricane Katrina. The city had been trying since 1993 to get an NFL franchise and there was some talk the Saints could move there. NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue waved away the worries coming from a nervous New Orleans. He said his league was not interested in satisfying the needs of the San Antonios of the world: “We’re going to be moving up in market size, not either down or flat,” he told the newspaper. As to further relocations, he said “the objective is going to be to concentrate them—put it this way—in markets that can really support them.”

More than a decade later, San Antonio and other hungry-for-a-team communities are still waiting. It may be a wait without end as pro-team sports leagues cast a greedy eye at major markets overseas. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made this clear when he heaped praise on Londoners in 2013 for the support shown for the few NFL games played there since 2007: “You are proving you are worthy of a franchise.”

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