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Tags didn't wait too long to meet with city business leaders:

Tom Orsborn: NFL in S.A. 'a matter of time'

Web Posted: 01/03/2006 12:00 AM CST
San Antonio Express-News


Tom Benson's decision to return the Saints to New Orleans left some San Antonians feeling angry, betrayed and disappointed.

Henry Cisneros wasn't one of them.

The former San Antonio mayor and U.S. Housing and Urban Development secretary enjoyed a two-hour conversation with NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and other league officials Thursday night at a downtown hotel.

Cisneros said he left the meeting convinced San Antonio's four-month stint as host of Benson's displaced team forever changed how the league views the Alamo City.

"It is a fundamentally different ball game now and just a matter of time before San Antonio gets a franchise," Cisneros said Monday. "The only thing we don't know is whether it will happen because the Saints revisit us, another team relocates here or the league expands.

"But whatever the method, in due course, San Antonio will have a team."

Cisneros said he never thought the Saints would stay, mainly because he knew how much Tagliabue wanted the team to return to hurricane-ravaged New Orleans.

"This is not about being misled, because no one misled us," Cisneros said. "This is not about being used, because no one used us.

"I say get over it, grow up and recognize we used this opportunity to our benefit. The truth is we did everything we could with the hand given to us. We acquitted ourselves well and improved our position with the league. This has been a very productive four-month run for San Antonio."

So much so that Tagliabue no longer dismisses the city as a small market, Cisneros said.

"He knows we are ready to be an NFL city and is impressed by the growth of the region," Cisneros said. "I certainly got the impression that he and the other officials understand the economics of San Antonio are fundamentally different" than they were when the league last studied the market in 1999.

With that in mind, Cisneros said, Tagliabue is eager to meet soon with the city's corporate titans, including AT&T Inc.'s Ed Whitacre and Clear Channel Communication's Lowry Mays.

Cisneros said Tagliabue also cited the attendance for the three games the Saints played at the Alamodome. The contests averaged more than 62,000 fans, including a sellout of 65,000-plus for Atlanta on Oct. 16.

"But he was especially impressed that more than 63,000 fans attended the Christmas Eve game against Detroit," Cisneros said. "It was a game on a tough date between losing teams and the attendance was 63,000."

Cisneros said Tagliabue even expressed respect and admiration for Mayor Phil Hardberger, who lobbied loudly for the Saints to stay in San Antonio permanently.

"(Hardberger) played the appropriate role a mayor should play and the league respects that," Cisneros said.

Before leaving San Antonio on Friday, Tagliabue told reporters that, should the league consider expansion, "San Antonio would be on anyone's short list."

Cisneros took it a step further.

"I would say we would be on top of the short list, with only Los Angeles ahead of us," Cisneros said. "Instead of feeling betrayed, we should feel confident.

"San Antonio has to get over the inferiority complex that we can't do this. We proved this year in fan base and corporate support we can do it."

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/s...n.d042578.html