Commissioner Tagliabue Prepares For New Challenges At Start Of 10Th Year With NFL

NEW YORK - National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said he promised his wife, Chan, that he'll retire when his contract expires in 2005.

Until then, he'll have his hands full.

Three weeks before he starts his 10th year as commissioner, Tagliabue is positioning the NFL to own or promote everything in the world related to football. His challenge is to convince the 31 team owners to remain united, rather than compete for a bigger share of their current market.

"A league is a partnership and if you think you are in this alone, you don't understand the business you are in," Tagliabue told Bloomberg News. "It's not us versus us, it's the league against all other forms of entertainment."

Since Tagliabue replaced the congenial Pete Rozelle in November 1989, the NFL quadrupled its revenue to $3.5 billion from $970 million. Franchise values rose to $530 million for the expansion Cleveland Browns in September from the $140 million paid for the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers, which began play in 1995.

The NFL also started a league in Europe that helps develop players, referees and an international appetite for American football. The league has added three expansion teams, and hopes to select a fourth, probably in Houston or Los Angeles, within a year.

When he took the job, Tagliabue had a reputation as a sharp lawyer who was especially good with contracts. His business skills were a question.

"We needed labor peace, we needed TV contracts negotiated, we needed a top-notch lawyer. And that's what we got," said Green Bay Packers Chief Executive Bob Harlan.

Tagliabue recognized his weakness in business, said New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson, and hired Neil Austrian, former chairman and chief executive of Showtime/The Movie Channel as president, giving the NFL a top-notch business man "with a fine mind to solidify his team."

The commissioner got a vote of support recently: Owners signed him to a five-year extension through June 2005 that will pay him an average $5.5 million a year, NFL officials said. That doesn't mean, however, that every owner supports his vision.

Some owners said the league's revenue-sharing in particular, will become a major point of contention in the coming seasons. The plan is unlike any in major North American sports, and it ensures that teams in small markets don't get squeezed by wealthy franchises in major cities.

Currently, the 30 NFL teams (Cleveland doesn't start until next season) split revenue evenly. The only exception is such stadium revenue as money from concessions and parking, which is negotiated with each individual city, and money from luxury boxes.

Some NFL owners complained privately that many of their fellow owners aren't working on innovative ways to increase revenue when they know they're assured a percentage of the league's combined take.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he wants Tagliabue to allow owners who work the hardest to keep a bigger share.

"Given the money that is being spent to buy and maintain clubs, we need to create more incentives for owners who are working the hardest to increase their revenue," Jones said. "I wish (Tagliabue) would be more sensitive to the challenges and opportunities individual clubs have."

Jones has worked to increase his revenue, even taking the league to court.

In 1995, Jones angered NFL owners when he signed a 10-year, $40 million contract giving PepsiCo Inc. the pouring rights and official sponsorship title to Texas Stadium, even though the NFL had an exclusive contract with Coca-Cola Co.

The NFL sued Jones for $300 million, Jones countersued for $750 million. The suits eventually were dropped, and the contract stood.

Tagliabue has made his position clear: Revenue sharing is critical to the viability of the league.

"Who's got the best Coke deal, who's got the Pepsi deal, if people start getting concerned with that, guess what? You will start heading in the wrong direction," he said.

Nothing has been more wrong to Tagliabue than watching teams abandon their fans and move to new cities for better financial packages.

Tagliabue said that when teams left Cleveland, Los Angeles and Houston it affected him personally, and he continues to cite franchise movement as his biggest failure.

"Continuity, tradition, fan loyalty, those things sometimes become so overused they sound trite, but that's what it's all about," Tagliabue said. "It's my team against your team, my city against your city. Having four teams move is the most disturbing thing that's happened since I've been here."

Tagliabue said as the league increases its revenue and grows globally, it has to be careful not to lose touch with the people who made it successful.

"The biggest issue is connecting with the fans," he said. "Most of our exposure is on TV. We get 125 million fans watching games per week, compared to maybe one million going to a game live, and then you ask how many of those fans can actually shake hands with a football player or get an autograph?"

No one knows what the next seven years will bring. Some analysts say the networks paid too much for football, rising ticket prices make it difficult for younger people to attend games and labor peace could end when the collective bargaining agreement expires in 2003.

When Tagliabue wants to gaze into his future, he walks to his bookshelf and picks up a picture of his home on Squirrel Island off the coast of Maine.

It has a big deck on the back that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean.

"I'm under contract until I am 65, then I am going to start my second career. I tell my wife it's going to be a new, exciting, 20-year career, but I don't know what it is. Maybe lobstering."