Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 8, 1993 TAG: 9307080129
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BALTIMORE LENGTH: Medium
But Gov. William Donald Schaefer said the Baltimore-based civil rights organization turned its back on the city, which also is seeking an expansion team.
"There was an endorsement of Charlotte," Schaefer said. "To have Dr. Chavis say there was not an endorsement is not true."
Chavis spoke following a meeting in Baltimore with Mayor Kurt Schmoke, Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., and other national and local NAACP members.
"There was never any intent to ignore Baltimore and the other cities nor to provide any one city with a competitive edge over any other," Chavis said.
Chavis said the NAACP had endorsed only the two "fair-share agreements" signed last week with Flagstar Corp. and Richardson Sports/Carolinas Stadium Corp.
Chavis and Jerry Richardson, chairman of Flagstar Corp., signed a sweeping agreement in Baltimore on July 1 regarding the restaurant company's hiring of minorities. The two then flew to Charlotte to sign a similar agreement with Richardson Sports, the group Richardson has set up to win an NFL franchise for Charlotte.
"The national NAACP is going to work hard throughout this state, throughout South Carolina, where we have branches in the United States, to send a clear signal to the NFL that we want the franchise here in Charlotte, we want it under Jerry Richardson," Chavis said at the news conference in Charlotte.
Schaefer and other supporters of a Baltimore franchise criticized those remarks as an apparent endorsement of Charlotte. Schaefer has pointed out the city rescued the nearly bankrupt NAACP in the mid-1980s with a $1.1 million grant, allowing the organization to move there from New York.
"I don't like the way we were treated, not at all," said Schaefer, who was not invited to Wednesday's meeting.
Dr. William Gibson, chairman of the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the agreement with Richardson Sports would not prevent the signing of a similar agreement with any of the three partnerships competing for a team in Baltimore or groups in other cities bidding for an NFL expansion team.
The other cities competing for a team, expected to be awarded in the fall are: Jacksonville, Fla.; Memphis, Tenn.; and St. Louis.
Dan Lohwasser, a spokesman for Richardson Sports, said Wednesday the Charlotte group had no comment on Chavis' statement.
Herbert Belgrad, chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority and a key figure in the effort to bring football back to Baltimore, also declined comment.
Keywords:
FOOTBALL
by CNB