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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Nfl Road Show Leaves Nbc Wary

First, the Raiders go to Oakland, and now the Browns want to go to Baltimore. Pretty soon, the Oilers could be in Nashville, too. If this is a trend, NBC would like to buck it.

“It would be very troubling if we found ourselves, on a regular basis, leaving top 15 markets to go to top 20 or top 30 markets,” said NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol, whose network carries AFC games.

If the Cleveland-to-Baltimore move is completed next season, NBC will be leaving the nation’s 13th largest TV market to go to the 23rd largest. And, if Houston moves to Nashville, it’s a drop from No. 11 to No. 33.

“They have good music in Nashville, but I don’t think Loretta Lynn will be returning kickoffs,” Ebersol said.

Through the first nine weeks of the season, NBC’s football ratings in Cleveland have averaged 22.2, second among the country’s 33 largest markets only to Kansas City’s 23.0, and way above the national average of 10.2.

“Cleveland has been, year in and year out, the No. 1 or No. 2 market for us in terms of the level of fan support,” Ebersol said.

Still, ratings in Cleveland are off 17 percent from last year, partially because there have been four local blackouts due to non-sellouts in dumpy, old Cleveland Stadium, which can seat as many as 78,512 uncomfortably.

“That’s troublesome,” Ebersol said, “and a problem we didn’t have last year. But you can’t ever make a hard and fast decision or carry away a hard and fast opinion about these things until you’ve lived through them.

“Maybe the first year or two we’ll have huge numbers in the new city and still there will be enough of an emotional attachment in Cleveland to keep ratings up there as well,” Ebersol said.

Out takes

Who has the best short game, Bon Jovi or Van Halen? Are the Black Crowes as long off the tee as rumored?

Those questions and many, many more could be posed - if not answered - this weekend on VH1’s second annual “Fairway to Heaven” pro-am celebrity golf tournament from the TPC Summerlin course in Las Vegas.

Pat O’Brien and Ann Liguori host, beginning at 9 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. And I didn’t even know Toad The Wet Sprocket could play golf.

Bob Costas says he was “pleasantly surprised” when NBC suddenly became part of the major league baseball TV package, but he had advance warning.

“I had a strong notion before Game 6 of the World Series, but until that point I thought there was no chance,” Costas said.

Costas said the $1.7 billion deal baseball negotiated with NBC, Fox, ESPN and Liberty Media was “something to be positive about. Baseball got a huge amount of money, Fox is willing to restore the Game of the Week and to do a pregame show, and all the postseason games will be available.”

In addition to his papers and his programs, Paul Maguire of NBC has another piece of paraphernalia he takes to football games each Sunday when he goes to work with Dick Enberg and Phil Simms.

It’s a washcloth, and he uses it to signal Enberg if there’s a penalty on the field away from the play, where Enberg can’t see it right away. And that’s where we get the expression, there’s laundry down in the press box.