PRO FOOTBALL / BILL PLASCHKE : The Average Fan Is Disenfranchised

When the president of the largest bank in Charlotte celebrated the arrival of the NFL by jumping into a downtown fountain fully clothed Wednesday night, he unwittingly provided a symbol for working stiffs throughout the South.

As far as they are concerned, the Carolina Panthers are all wet.

When the team opens its new 72,300-seat stadium in 1996 (after playing the first season at Clemson’s Memorial Stadium), the average fan has as much chance of getting a seat as he does of getting a seat on the next space shuttle.

To finance the $160-million stadium with private funds, all but 7,200 seats are being sold in the form of “permanent seat licenses.”

This innovation involves charging fans an average of $2,200--with a high of $5,400--for the right to buy a seat.

This isn’t a football franchise, it’s a country club.

Once fans have paid for the seat, which can be owned for a lifetime, then passed on to heirs, they can buy season tickets, for $190 to $600 each. The cost of a couple of season tickets on the 50-yard line for the Panthers’ first year? $12,000.

Dennis Easterling, 44, has mixed emotions.

Easterling hangs wallpaper in Charlotte and has long been dreaming about an NFL team for his town. He was so excited about Charlotte being awarded a franchise Wednesday that he dressed in a gorilla suit and shoulder pads and ran through a downtown square.

Will he wear the same outfit to the games? Fat chance. He doesn’t think he will ever be able to afford to attend a game.

“I just don’t make enough money to buy a PSL,” he said. “It’s just not an investment I can handle right now.”

The sad thing is, Easterling is used to it.

When the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets offered a similar seat-ownership program after coming to town several years ago, Easterling resigned himself to buying single-game seats from scalpers.

“Hey, I never have to pay much more than $10-$20 over face value,” he said.

He has joined the growing legion of fans attending autograph shows, store openings and pep rallies because it is the only way they can ever see the players in the flesh.

“I know a lot of people like that around here. . . . They will stand in a long line for Muggsy Bogues’ autograph because it is the only time they will see him in person,” Easterling said. “So we can’t go to the Panther games. By now, that’s just the way of life around here.”

EVEN THOSE 28 RICH FOLKS ARE AMAZED

The NFL owners publicly applauded the PSL scheme, then shook their heads over what this means to the state of sports in America.

“I’m going to start selling condos in the Dog Pound,” Art Modell, the Cleveland Browns’ owner, said with a laugh. “Three-hundred bucks a condo, what do you think?”

Modell then turned serious. “I have as much chance of selling (PSLs) in Cleveland as you have of building an igloo,” he said.

Ralph Wilson, owner of the Buffalo Bills, was asked if this method would work there.

“Are you kidding me? For Buffalo’s six-pack Joe?” he said. “I try this, they run me out of Tonawanda!”

According to Mayor Richard Vinroot of Charlotte, it is silly to denounce PSLs when the only other form of revenue would be taxation.

“Down here we feel, why should taxpayers build luxurious stadiums when we should be educating children and paving streets and doing other things?” he said. “Hey, you tell me, how many average fans attend Washington Redskins games (with 14,000 names on the season-ticket waiting list)? If you want a privately financed facility, this is what has to happen.”

Even the name of the stadium is being sold to the highest bidder for several million dollars.

Considering that majority owner Jerry Richardson also owns Denny’s restaurants, maybe they will call it the British Burger Bowl.

Or how about Southern Slam Stadium?

WE HEAR THE BROWNS ARE HEADED BACK TO THE CENTURY DIVISION

In order to accommodate Charlotte and the second expansion team, probably St. Louis, Commissioner Paul Tagliabue will appoint a realignment committee this spring.

He will hand that committee a list of options drawn up last summer, although it can also devise its own scheme, as long as it comes up with something by the end of next year.

The two best preliminary choices:

--Simply add the new teams to the two four-team divisions.

Charlotte would join Pittsburgh, Houston, Cleveland and Cincinnati in the AFC Central. St. Louis would join the Rams, San Francisco, New Orleans and Atlanta in the NFC West.

--Add Charlotte to the NFC East, allowing Phoenix to take its rightful spot in the NFC West. Add St. Louis to the AFC Central.

This second scenario makes more sense because NBC, which televises AFC games, will probably demand the expansion team from the larger market.

Throughout the process, owners will be fighting to keep old rivalries together--Cleveland won’t go anywhere without Pittsburgh--while trying to start new ones. Houston, for instance, would love to be with Dallas.

“We will never get radical realignment,” Modell said. “There’s no way I can convince some owners they should move out of their present alignment of divisions, even though it makes sense geographically, with television, and economically.

“I believe Buffalo belongs with Cleveland and Pittsburgh, not Houston. Houston belongs with Dallas. But Dallas is not going to drop Philadelphia or Washington or the Giants to take Houston. I don’t blame them.”

GO FIGURE

--You must run to win: So far this year, NFL teams are 70-29 in games in which they have rushed for more than 100 yards.

--What do the Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers have in common besides an affinity for Paul Gruber? They have each rushed for 100 yards only once this season, a league low.

--San Francisco’s defense is so porous, the 49ers have yet to win this year without scoring at least three touchdowns.

--Catching up to the rookie: Derek Brown of the New Orleans Saints gained 400 yards in his first five games, and 27 yards in his last two. His rushing average dropped from 4.4 yards to 1.4.

--In 30 of the Chicago Bears’ 63 offensive plays Monday night against the Minnesota Vikings, the Bears failed to gain a yard.

--The Wade Phillips-coached Denver Broncos have been outscored 55-7 in the first half of their three defeats. And you think this team is as prepared as it was under Dan Reeves?

--During his 24 years as the Miami Dolphins’ coach, Don Shula has had seven starting quarterbacks. In the last two seasons in Atlanta, Jerry Glanville has had four.

--This season’s most impressive touchdown-scoring wide receiver? Ricky Proehl of the Phoenix Cardinals, of course. He has caught at least one touchdown pass in five consecutive games.

--Maybe Jeff George’s offensive linemen aren’t as forgiving as the rest of his teammates. In George’s first start last week, he was sacked four times. In the previous five games combined, Jack Trudeau was sacked three times.

--Boy, did Tony Bennett ever show the Green Bay Packers. When the linebacker ended his 102-day holdout this week, becoming the last player in the NFL to sign, he had cost himself $450,000 in salary.

--If the Buffalo Bills return to the Super Bowl again, this will be one reason: In their previous three games, they have 15 take-aways, as many as any other team in the AFC East has had all season.

QUICK KICKS

* NOW THAT’S A 12TH MAN: When Barry Foster scored an apparent touchdown for the Pittsburgh Steelers on a four-yard run at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium last weekend, the game was temporarily halted when a yellow penalty flag was spotted flying through the air, landing in the end zone.

The officials briefly conferred before realizing that all their flags were still in their pockets. They had no choice but to call it a touchdown.

Only in reviewing the television replay was it discovered that the flag was thrown out of the Browns’ infamous end zone bleachers known as the Dog Pound.

“One of their best ideas yet,” Brown linebacker Pepper Johnson said.

* TAKE A GUESS: What four NFL teams have never played in the Super Bowl or played host to it?

* THAT MENSA SOCIETY APPLICATION WILL HAVE TO WAIT: First, they offered to pay a teammate if he would vomit on the opposing center during the game

Now, Denver Bronco offensive linemen Brian Habib and Gary Zimmerman have been wearing shorts during practice, even though it has been snowing.

The reason? The first one to give in to the weather and wear regular football pants has to pay the other $20.

“I think I can last into the low teens,” Habib told reporters.

* A FEW MINUTES LATER, HE WONDERED WHAT INNING IT WAS: Ken Behring, the Seattle Seahawk owner who has been criticized for his lack of football knowledge, was knocked down on the sideline recently when a falling player hit the front of his knees.

“I was clipped,” he said.

* NEXT TIME, STICK TO THE SPORTS SECTION: John Guy, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ special teams coach, has been reading Pat Riley’s new book, “The Winner Within.”

On the bus trip to Cleveland last week, where Eric Metcalf later returned two long punts to give the Browns a dramatic victory, Guy read the chapters “The Choke” and “Complacency.”

* ABSOLUTELY OUR LAST EXPANSION NOTE: The phones were so busy this week at Muhleman Marketing in Charlotte, the consultants for the new NFL franchise, that executives there couldn’t get a phone line out .

One man from New Jersey called to say he was driving south immediately to get a good place in line for tickets. He had better bring his lunch. Tickets won’t go on sale until next year.

Another woman called and said her husband wanted to try out for the team. He should have plenty of time to get in shape. The first mini-camp is still 19 months away.

“Except for the crazies, this is a pretty neat thing,” said Dan Lohwasser, senior president at Muhleman Marketing.

* APPLIANCE UPDATE: William (the Refrigerator) Perry is probably in his last days, certainly his last season, with the Chicago Bears. He has already lost his starting job on the defensive line to Chris Zorich, whose quick, aggressive style is a better fit for Dave Wannstedt’s new defense.

What will Perry do next? Professional wrestling, of course. As long as he can be a good guy.

“(Good guys) make more money,” he said.

* TRIVIA ANSWER: Cleveland Browns, Atlanta Falcons, Seattle Seahawks and Phoenix Cardinals.