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Commissioner Tagliabue Press Conference Commissioner Tagliabue: I arrived a couple hours ago and I’ve had a chance to take a tour of the redeveloped stadium and the surrounding area and obviously it’s extremely exciting for everyone, not only here in Green Bay but throughout the league, to see Lambeau Field. I’m concluding my tour with my stop here at Lee Remmel’s press box, which of course Lee Remmel insisted I do. We’re looking forward to a great opening weekend. I was in Washington for the Redskins-Jets game on Thursday night and I’ll wrap it up tomorrow night in Philadelphia with the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers playing the Eagles, so it’s nice when you can get three games in one weekend. I’d be glad to comment on anything you have an interest in. Q: On changing the regular season and preseason schedule . . . PT: We’re thinking of whether we should have a study or not. We’re not even at the point of concluding that it should be studied. We’re talking to different teams. Some think it should be studied; some think the current system works extremely well and there’s no reason to study anything different. So we’re not even at the point of having decided to do a study. We’re going to discuss it with the members at our fall meeting in October whether there is any significant feeling that we should do a comprehensive study. If there is, we’ll do it; if there isn’t, we won’t do it. Q: On the most pressing issue facing football in the opening week . . . PT: The most pressing issue every year is the quality of football. Last year we had a tremendously competitive season. Many people in the league and outside the league felt it was the most competitive season ever and that it compared very favorably with some of the other seasons that have been viewed as legendary. So the real challenge is to keep that going every year. The fortunate thing is we have the playing talent in the league; we have a lot of great young players and veteran players who are continuing to extend their career; and we’ve got a system that spreads the talent around. So we’re very excited about what’s coming. That’s the number-one priority every year, the quality of the game on the field. Q: More on changing the regular and preseason schedules . . . PT: The basic question focuses on the way the offseason preparation has evolved in the last ten to fifteen years. We’ve been in an evolution where more and more teams have players who live in the communities where they play. In the last 10-15 years, more teams have players in offseason weight programs. In the last five years, we’ve really evolved the system with the Players Association so that it’s uniform for everybody in the league, so that we have not only the minicamps but the team activities that involve units working with units, organized team activities (the coaches call them OTA’s) and that has worked very well. Some coaches feel that their staffs are as productively engaged in preparing to play football in April, May and June as they are in September, October and November. So those teams feel the top 25 players that come into camp don’t have a need to play four preseason games. For the remaining 30 or 35 guys that are going to be on the roster, it’s a different set of issues because they’re fighting for spots. Many of those are players who have moved through waivers or free agency -- you’ve got a lot of young players in the system. So the question is: has the 12 months a year preparation regimen brought us to the point where we should restructure the preseason? Maybe shorten the number of games? If we get to that point, should we drop games from the preseason or should we add games to the regular season? What should we do? I think there’s still a pretty large majority of clubs who think the current format is working very well, but there are still some clubs, whether it’s more than a handful, I don’t know, who don’t. But that’s what we’ll be trying to assess as we move towards the October meeting. Q: On Lambeau Field and revenue disparity . . . PT: I don’t think the revenue disparity comes from stadiums alone. In some places we’ve got new stadiums but they’ve been largely privately-financed so when you’re finished paying the debt service, you don’t have a lot of leftover revenue. The biggest factor today in all of sports in terms of revenue is the size of your market and economic strength in your market. And of course the Packers have been great over the years in making it not just Green Bay’s team, but the state’s team and the nation’s team and the world’s team for that matter. But in terms of a market, it’s the broadest and a quite healthy market. We have some other teams in small markets with new stadiums and they have a tough situation. So it’s not just the stadium; it’s the total picture, including how you finance the stadium. And here, I think the team and the community long-term will certainly benefit from the fact that there was public financing for this stadium and that will be a major factor long-term for the stability of the Packers. Q: On negotiations for a new stadium for the Vikings . . . PT: I think the first step for any new stadium is dialogue and I think the governor has been very proactive with getting the dialogue going with the Vikings. And dialogue leads to understanding and understanding leads to a concept of what will work best for a community. If you build over 20 new stadiums or redeveloped stadiums in the last ten years and you have a lot of examples, ultimately it has to fit your community. I know in Minnesota it has to do with the Gophers too, not just the Vikings, in terms of two football teams. And we had that situation in Pittsburgh, with the Steelers and Pitt, and it worked out there that they not only shared the stadium but they shared the practice facility. So I’m encouraged by the fact that there’s dialogue which will lead to understanding which will hopefully lead to a concept that things can be acted upon Q: More expanding the playoffs . . . PT: I think I made it pretty clear at our league meeting that one of the things that distinguishes the NFL from other leagues was the strength of our playoff system, strength being the exclusivity of our playoff system. You have to play well during the regular season, and that adds meaning to the regular season in the month of December when you have the fights for those playoff spots. I think clearly adding teams would not add the best matches. Adding teams to the playoffs when your seeding system is to seed the highest against the lowest means if you added teams now it’s quite clear you would be creating mismatches rather than highly competitive games so I don’t see a purpose for doing that. Q: On letter written by Commissioner Rozelle . . . PT: We’ve always made clear that we accept Commissioner Rozelle’s letter as a commitment of the league. Q: Did you write that letter? PT: Some people say I did; some people say I didn’t. Q: Are you denying it? PT: Ultimately Pete Rozelle wrote his correspondence. I probably worked on it, meaning that I probably had discussions with some of the representatives of the state or league attorneys at the time. Q: On tampering charges involving Lawyer Milloy . . . PT: Not only can I not comment on it, this is the first I’ve heard of it. Q: On his impression of Lambeau Field and how it stacks up to the other stadiums around the league . . . PT: First thing I think you have to say is Lambeau Field is still Lambeau Field with all the appearance that makes it so distinctive. I think the blending of the new with the old is phenomenal and that’s distinctive. When you look at the new and the totality, it matches up with any stadium in the league, as far as football facilities, facilities downstairs for the teams, meeting rooms, all the practice zones down below and the field itself. It’s as good as any stadium in the National Football League now, and probably the most unique, in terms of history and preserving some of the original elements of that design. |