Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 28, 1994 TAG: 9408180041
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
The NFL resurrected the World League on Wednesday by adding three new teams to holdovers Barcelona, Frankfurt and London. The new entries will be in Amsterdam, Netherlands; Dusseldorf, Germany; and Edinburgh, Scotland.
The league will begin play on April 8, 1995, with a 10-game schedule and the World Bowl set for June 17.
In its first two seasons, 1990 and 1991, the league had teams in the United States, Canada and Europe and was hurt by poor televison ratings.
This venture is a combined effort between the NFL and Fox Inc.-News Corporation, the media conglomerate run by Rupert Murdoch. Fox and the NFL will invest $40 million in the league over the next four years.
``The last World League was geared to the U.S., not Europe where it was more successful,'' NFL president Neil Austrian said Wednesday. ``The seven U.S. franchises didn't work, but in Frankfurt, Barcelona and London we averaged 20,000 attendance at each game.
``No one thinks it's going to happen overnight. It's a long-term thing and it will take 10 years to establish the league, by which time we hope to have eight or 10 teams.''
The World Bowl will match the first-place team after the first five games against the best team over the second half. Should the same team win both halves, the second-place team in the second half would play for the title.
by CNB