ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 8, 1996 TAG: 9602080063
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHICAGO
SOURCE: Associated Press
The framework is in place. Art Modell will move a football team to Baltimore, and the Cleveland Browns' name and colors likely will stay where they are.
The details, however, are far from settled.
Negotiations among the NFL, the city of Cleveland and Modell continued into the evening, but NFL spokesman Joe Browne said an agreement was unlikely to be reached Wednesday night.
The talks come on the eve of the meeting at which the owners are expected to formally discuss the move. A vote is expected Friday.
Also on the agenda are approval of the extension of the league's labor agreement through 2002 and discussion of the fifth announced or actual franchise shift in the past year - Kenneth Behring's proposal to move the Seattle Seahawks to Southern California.
The main order of business for the first two days is ironing out the Cleveland agreement in meetings involving Modell, commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Cleveland mayor Michael White.
Modell is likely to get approval from the owners for the move. There appear to be only four negative votes, half the number needed to block it.
Even Jack Kent Cooke, owner of the Washington Redskins, appears ready to to support a move that would put a team just 30 miles from his proposed new stadium in the Maryland suburbs.
However, it's more likely that Modell's team will go as the Baltimore Mustangs or something other than the Baltimore Browns. That name, with the traditional team colors are expected to stay in Cleveland while Cleveland Stadium is renovated for another team.
But sources say Modell still has to be convinced. There's also been talk that the Indianapolis Colts, who moved from Baltimore in 1984, might be willing to relinquish that name to Modell and choose a new one for their franchise. Chances of that happening seem extremely slim, however.
There also are indications that the league might be willing to help Cleveland build a new stadium by augmenting the $175 million the city is raising in ``sin taxes'' to help finance the structure.
But there seems little chance that the owners will do much at this meeting to solve the long-term problem - franchise free agency.
``It's unimaginable what's happening,'' said Ralph Wilson, owner of the Buffalo Bills and one of the few solid votes against Modell's move.
Behring added to that when he decided last week to pack up and move.
``I have a dream for Los Angeles,'' Behring said as he negotiated with various Southern California locales. ``That dream is to play our games in the finest state-of-the-art football stadium in the world.''
As they were when Modell announced the Cleveland move, most owners profess to be shocked by the Seattle shift.
But they also seem to be unable to bring themselves to challenge it because they are afraid the courts would hold that Behring has the right to move his business.
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines KEYWORDS: FOOTBALLby CNB