Fan Blitz Might Help In Saving Hawks

National Football League owners who approved the move of the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore at league meetings Thursday don’t believe they’ll be doing the same thing for the Seattle Seahawks’ proposed jaunt to Los Angeles, if Northwest fans and civic leaders will only show them they care about their team.

“The distinct impression I got from the owners was that they think the (Kingdome) lease (with King County) is so tight, coupled with the letter of agreement he (Ken Behring) signed, that there’s no way he can get out of it,” said an NFL source who spoke exclusively with The Bremerton (Wash.) Sun on the condition of anonymity. “But the people out there need to wake up and get active if they want to keep the Seahawks.

“All you have to do is look around and see what’s been happening. In Cleveland, the week after (owner Art) Modell’s announcement, Michael White (Cleveland mayor) was in New York talking with the commissioner. People in Cleveland have started fax campaigns, faxing the league and other owners about keeping a team in Cleveland; they have a Save the Browns campaign going on and it’s all worked. They don’t get a team next year, but they’ll get a team that will be called the Cleveland Browns for the 1999 season. Everything the community has done has had an effect.”

The team executive said if Seattle fans and elected officials doubt that the NFL is responsive, they need to see what’s happened to the expected move of the Houston Oilers to Nashville.

“The people in Houston have been almost totally apathetic,” said the source. “That team is gone.”

According to the source, NFL owners at Thursday’s meeting are not particularly concerned about Behring’s bad image in Seattle or about what Seahawks fans think of the Northern California land developer.

“If the message from Seattle is ‘We love the Seahawks but we hate Ken Behring’ that’s fine. Nobody has any sympathy for Behring, they’re just waiting to see if fans want that team. If there’s no response, or very little response, (the owners) will let the problem go to California, or let Behring battle it out in court.

“Rest assured, the best chance to keep the Seahawks in Seattle is for those fans to start making noise, to build a campaign.

The NFL owners are keenly aware of potential buyers of the Seahawks who would want to keep the team in Seattle. And that might be the best news of all for Northwest football fans.

“Paul Allen’s name has come up and so has John Nordstrom’s and Chuck Knox’s name,” said the source. “If those three could work together somehow to build an ownership group, it could be a return to the heydays for the Seahawks. Paul Allen, John Nordstrom and Chuck Knox, with Knox being the general manager? That would be a tremendous group, the kind of (ownership) team that could galvanize support for the Seahawks in an incredible way.”

Allen, the Mercer Island, Wash., billionaire who helped start Microsoft with Bill Gates and is now the owner of the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers, and Nordstrom, the managing partner of the original Seahawks ownership group that eventually sold the franchise to Behring, are highly respected by NFL owners.

Knox also has a group of potential owners and has said privately he would be interested in getting back in the league as a general manager.

There was one other lasting impression from Thursday’s meeting that will play well to Seahawks fans.

“There’s no doubt (the owners) think Behring has the kind of personality to be pressured into selling, that came across loud and clear,” said the source. “He’s put himself into a vice with a tight lease and lawsuit, breaking the agreement he signed with the other owners and the opportunity to have solid owners making a proposal to keep the team in Seattle. The feeling is this guy will crack if they keep the pressure on him.

“He will be in a position to ask for a premium price. So if the team is worth $160 million, they might have to pay $200 million to get it. But (Thursday) the owners gave almost $50 million back to Cleveland (actually $48) million, so there’s the chance if the fans stand up to be noticed and they’re supported by local officials, then maybe the league can do something for Seattle like it did for Cleveland.”

The source also said there was talk among the owners about the possibility of the University of Washington’s Husky Stadium (capacity 72,500) being used for the Seahawks, either as an interim or permanent facility.

“If you get the right owners in there, the feeling is that something could be worked out with the school,” the source said.

But nothing will be worked out with anybody if fans and civic leaders won’t first work to make it happen.