Seahawks Prepare For Flight North Owner Behring Appears To Have Failed In Plot To Establish Anaheim Presence

By April Fool’s Day, Ken Behring’s Anaheim No-Names will again become the Seattle Seahawks, unless a state of Washington judge agrees with Behring.

Coach Dennis Erickson and the front office staff spent most of Friday making arrangements to close Rams Park next week and ship weights and training equipment back to Seattle. Though NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue mandates April Fool’s Day as the end of this phase of Behring’s two-month folly into Disneyland, players won’t be asked to return to the team’s Kirkland, Wash., facility until April 2.

Vans are being ordered to move everything out of Rams Park on Thursday. The timing is such that the 34 players in California can work out at Rams Park for four days next week. Everything should arrive in Seattle over the next weekend, be set up on that Sunday and available for players April 2.

Though Behring publicly minimized his decision to close Rams Park and returned to Seattle, it’s a significant setback in his efforts to relocate the franchise. Behring and his Southern California lawyers, public relations people and advisers felt it was important to establish a presence in Southern California, the area he hopes to play the 1996 season despite having 10 years remaining on his Kingdome lease.

First, he wanted to establish a headquarters in Anaheim, which is close to The Disney Co., and bonded him with politicians trying to build Sportstown Anaheim. Second, Behring wanted to strategically claim squatters rights in Southern California, which lost the Rams and Raiders last season.

The retreat Thursday came at a huge price. For 49 days, Behring spared no expense to establish his symbolic presence in Anaheim. Attorney expenses have probably soared into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is not known the cost of nationally known public relations firm Hill & Knowlton.

Moving weights back and forth from Anaheim to Seattle is an expense estimated between $120,000 to $150,000, according to sources. The city of Anaheim paid for the expenses of painting Rams Park and installing new carpets. Behring is expected to eventually reimburse Anaheim, which might cover the limited two-month use of Rams Park in February and March for holding the weights.

Behring is paying around $2,500 per day for housing players and staffers in hotels near Rams Park during the training camp.

There were financial drains in Seattle. With no season-ticket money collected, the Seahawks didn’t have $12 million from season-tickets sitting around collecting interest and covering the expenses of signing bonuses for players.

The entire staff stayed in Seattle on full salary with little work to do. There were no layoffs. Only a handful of key executives had keys to the front door. Security guards have been hired to patrol the inside and outside of the Kirkland complex.

Also, don’t forget the $40 million to $45 million Behring committed in January to buy out minority partner Ken Hofmann.

NFL representative Roger Goodell and Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson fly to Seattle on Sunday for a Monday morning meeting with King County executive Gary Locke and King Council councilman Peter von Reichbauer.

A noontime meeting with Seahawks president David Behring is scheduled with Goodell and Richardson at the Seahawks offices.

The NFL is expected to strongly suggest that Behring begin selling season tickets in Seattle.