6B
Friday, February 2, 1996
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NFL
Seahawks ready to trade Kingdome for Rose Bowl
Seattle plans to play 1996 season in Los Angeles
The Associated Press
SEATTLE — The Seattle Seahawks, faced with high costs of renovating the aging Kingdome, are leaving for Los Angeles and will play next season in the Rose Bowl, team sources said yesterday.
Seahawks owner Ken Behring met with King County officials yesterday to notify them of the move.
The Seahawks would be the fifth NFL franchise to change cities in the last year. The Raiders and Rams moved out of Los Angeles last year. The Cleveland Browns have announced they will play next season in Baltimore, and the Houston Oilers will move to Nashville.
Since the Rams and Raiders moved out of Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest TV market is without an NFL team. Other teams still considering moving are
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reportedly had a study indicating it could cost as much as $90 million to fortify the Kingdome against earthquakes — at least three times more than earlier estimates.
That amount, along with other improvements sought by the Seahawks, could send the cost of renovating the domed stadium past $200 million.
Earlier estimates of seismic repairs to the county-owned stadium have been $10 million to $30 million.
If the county couldn't afford to make those improvements, Behring conceivably could use it as an excuse to break the team's lease, which runs through 2005.
Behring has repeatedly complained that the 20-year-old stadium is not the first-class facility guaranteed in the team's lease and has pushed for $150 million worth
of improvements.
If Behring were able to break the lease, he would be free to negotiate with the league to move the team to another city.
Teams need NFL approval to relocate, and league spokesman Greg Alello said owners voted last year to collectively control the Los Angeles franchise opportunity.
bengring's call for today's meeting had prompted a closed-door session Wednesday night that included King County Executive Gary Locke and Councilman Peter Von Reichbauer.
HOK Sports Facilities Group of Kansas City, Mo. has been hired by the county to study the dome. A report is due next month.
Seattle's NBA and major league baseball teams either have or are getting new venues.
The city-owned Seattle Center Coliseum was redesigned as Key Arena for the SuperSonics.
A firm was chosen this week to design a new baseball stadium for the Mariners, whose owners had vowed to sell the team if it was forced to keep playing in the Kingdome.
NFL Super Bowl web site sets cyberspace record
By John Nelson The Associated Press
It looks like the NFL's Super Bowl web site now holds the single-day record as the most visited Internet address ever, for whatever that's worth.
And thats exactly what the NFL is trying to find out.
"It's the kind of thing that might take 11/2 minutes to eclipse, but in the short history of the web, it's a milestone," said Ann Kirschner, vice president of programming and media development for NFL Enterprises.
Through the end of the January, the site (at http://superbowl.com) registered about 28 million hits, 6 million alone on Super Bowl Sunday,
ANALYSIS
which is thought to be a record. The site will stay open through the end of February.
"It's more then I expected, and the final number will actually be closer to 7 million because it was scattered on so many servers." Kirschner said. "The power of an integrated television show and online program is what this really demonstrates. What's the old saw? 'A rising tide lifts all boats.' The Super Bowl had an astonishing following on TV and on the Internet."
The web site was done in conjunction with NBC, which televised the Super Bowl, and Microsoft, which provided the technical expertise.
Also accessible from the site were live, RealAudio broadcasts of the game in Japanese and German, each of which were heard by about 2,000 people. RealAudio broadcasts of the public address and press box announcements were accessed by about 30,000 people.
"This is a very promising area for the Internet — its international audience," Kirschner said.
Among the things on Kirschner's wish-list would be a breakdown of where these people were listening from and why. Also, she said, the industry needs to come up with some sort of reliable standard to convert hits to actual users. Hits represents the number of times an actual piece of information is accessed and is the current norm
"I'd love to know how many individual users we had. Hits might be the industry standard, but it's not as satisfying as knowing the total number of users," Kirschner said.
for judging traffic through a site
"The accountability of the Internet is an area that, from an advertiser's point of view, is extremely important. And we are preparing numbers for advertisers that will tell them how many times their ads were hit."
Kirschner said numbers also eventually will reveal which parts of the site were most popular.
"My sense so far is that cybercast itself was extremely popular," she said. Gil Brandt, Randy Cross and Jeff Hostetler produced a live, chat-style commentary during the game.
"It was play-by-play but more in depth," Kirschner said.
MISSING LINKS: In a one-day poll taken on ESPNET SportZone, 57.5 percent of those who responded said they were glad Magic Johnson came out of retirement to play in the NBA with the Los Angeles Lakers again.
A total of 7,933 votes were cast. The Internet address for SportsZone is
http://epa.sports.com
The Blood-Horse Inc., a weekly magazine covering the throughbred industry, has launched a new web site on equine health at http://www.thehorse.com.
The site will include most of what already is the monthly magazine, "The Horse: Your Guide to Equine
Health Care."
The site also will include an "Ask the Vet" section, a glossary of equine medical terms, editorsials and a directory of equine-related Internet resources.
The Blood-Horse, a weekly magazine about thoroughbred racing and breeding, can be accessed on the Internet at http://www.bloodhorse.com.
"The Internet allows us to do things that are simply not practical in print," said Charles Manson Jr., director of new media development for The Blood-Horse. "Print publishing forces us to freeze our content at a single moment in time. The virtual world of the Internet allows us to track fast-moving developments in real time."
Big 12 to decide on new quarters
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Will it be Dallas or Kansas City?
Many Big 12 insiders felt Dallas would be the choice. The presidents were to confer this morning and vote after hearing final reports from a team of consultants.
After delaying their decision once already, the presidents of the Big 12 schools promised to make up their minds today on where to base the new conference.
It's one of the last, and perhaps the most nettlesome, decisions they have faced since February 1994, when the Big Eight linked up with Southwest Conference members Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas Tech.
Since then, the presidents have hammered out revenue-sharing plans, resolved a bitter dispute over academics, separated their schools into two divisions and voted to put a conference football championship game in St. Louis.
But where to locate the conference headquarters became a political tug-of-war drawn generally, but not strictly, along northern and southern lines.
The original list of bidding cities was narrowed to Kansas City and Dallas, longtime headquarters of the Big Eight and SWC, respectively, when the presidents met Nov. 30 to hear final bids.
Kansas City's package was acknowledged to be almost $1 million higher than Dallas'. But the
decision was delayed for another two months.
"If I were one of the college presidents, I'd think we made a superior bid," said Gil Bourke, co-chairman of Kansas City's Big 12 retention committee. "I wouldn't know how my associates and I could turn them down. But then I am also a realist and I recognize there are political issues I am probably not completely apprised of."
The Big 12 will begin competition in August and has already signed
football television contracts worth more than $100 million.
"Whatever their decision, we will certainly support it," Bourke said. "We may not like it if it doesn't go our way. But we won't pout and sulk."
The conference has always been held in Kansas City, but the Big 12 is only committed there for two more years.
"I expect we'll still be a major player in Big 12 happenings over a long period of time," Bourke said.
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Sunday is the day we've all been waiting for. Time for a little payback to our friendly, in-state rivals from Manhattan. It's been a few months and old wounds have finally healed. We've got a new sport, a new team, and a new way to back up Roy's Boy's. That's right, it's the 1996 KU Basketball Poster Series.
As you may have noticed, the News section today contains a two-page full color spread of one of your favorite players. What we need you to do is to pull this poster out, take it to the game on Sunday, and shake it in support of our noble team. Then, when the 'Cats have been trounced, you can keep the poster as a fond reminder of the 1995-6 KU Basketball season.
Watch for the rest of the posters on each home game day and collect the whole set. Whatever you do, just remember to show your support.
Go Hawks!
Look for Your Poster in Today's News Section
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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