Seattle club to move to Milwaukee; owners decide to reverse decision
By MILTON RICHMAN UPI Sports Writer
TAMPA, Fla. (UPI) — The Milwaukee Brewers are about to become the American League's newest entry.
League President Joe Cronin already is in possession of the nine votes necessary to switch the distressed Seattle franchise to Milwaukee and official announcement of the transfer will come in a few days, it has been learned.
Only a few relatively minor wrinkles remain to be ironed out
and that largely was the reason a scheduled meeting of American League officials was canceled here Tuesday.
Cronin said there will be another meeting very shortly, probably in Cleveland. That could be the occasion for the formal announcement of what already has been decided privately.
A Milwaukee group, known as Milwaukee Brewers, Inc., and headed by Bud Selig and Judge Robert Cannon, already has agreed to pay $9.5 million for the one year-old Seattle franchise and put up an additional $1.5 million for working capital.
Coinciding with that agreement, workmen in County Stadium, Milwaukee, are getting the ball park ready for the American League season which opens April 6. Snow was cleared off the seats and the field last Monday, and to show how news sometimes travels quicker in the lower echelons, one of the workmen, when asked by a visitor why he and the others were bothering to remove all the snow, replied:
"Didn't you hear? The Seattle club is moving in here in a few weeks."
Actually, the decision to welcome Milwaukee back into the major league orbit after a four year absence was reached last week following a financial report on the Seattle Pilots by Roy Hamey.
The American League had loaned the Pilots $650,000 in February in order to get them
New pro football league organized
CHICAGO (UPI) — Organization of a new professional football league, the Transamerican Football League, Inc., was announced Tuesday by Arthur Arkush, publisher of a weekly sports newspaper.
Arkush, interested in the Chicago franchise, said the league with headquarters in Chicago, would include eight teams for the 1970 season. In addition to the Chicago franchises with fees paid have been assigned to San Antonio, Hershey, Pa. and Southern California.
The league will be capitalized for $1 million and will assist each franchise holder in management, public relations and will share TV and radio revenue and receive an annual franchise fee based on a percentage of receipts.
One of the prime obstacles involved in the transfer of the Seattle franchise to Milwaukee is the already made-out 1970 American League schedule. But Bowie Kuhn, the baseball commissioner, has been conferring with Cronin and other American League officials, and has been assured the necessary changes can be made in time.
Qualifications for a franchise were set at $50,000 franchise fee, a net worth of over $1 million and a city with minimum TV and fan exposure of $2 million.
The Milwaukee Braves of the National League were switched to Atlanta after the 1965 season.
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Arkush said several other applications were being considered for competition in 1970 with expansion of another four cities by 1975.
Cronin, at a news conference in St. Petersburg attended by baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, declined to give a definite answer on the change, although it was further learned that only a few minor details await settling before the official announcement.
through spring training. The loan was made with the intention of helping the club to at least start the season in Seattle.
That idea was abandoned however, after Hamey, the on-leave New York Yankees executive who was designated to oversee the loan, came back to the American League with his report.
Membership in the league was expected to consist chiefly of defectors from the Continental Football League, which was reorganized last week.
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"We love Milwaukee, but we're still in Seattle," Cronin said.
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Other cities expected to enter with stadium requirements were Fort Worth and Memphis.
The move is expected to touch off lawsuits by both the city of Seattle and state of Washington against the American League, alleging breach of contract and violation of anti-trust laws.
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