Marching to Georgia

Not since William Tecumseh Sherman wheeled 100,000 Union soldiers south under a May sun 101 years ago have so many Northerners been in such a hurry to get to Atlanta, Ga. Last week the city was under siege from both professional football leagues: A.F.L. Commissioner Joe Foss announced a franchise for an A.F.L. team next year; N.F.L. Commissioner Pete Rozelle, on Peachtree Street at the invitation of Atlanta's Mayor Ivan Allen, talked glowingly about N.F.L. expansion to Atlanta by the fall of 1966. And baseball's Milwaukee Braves made a hopeful lunge. Already destined to play in Atlanta next year, the Braves offered Milwaukee $500,000 to drop a court injunction and let them carpetbag south to Atlanta's new $18 million stadium, after next month's All-Star Game.

The circumstances that lured all three groups toward Atlanta were, in a way, the same that impelled Sherman. Atlanta is the hub of the South; it has fine transportation (good roads, superb air service), and is an important center of population. Within a 200-mile radius live 10 million folks who yearn for major league sport. The closest baseball team of significance is the Cincinnati Reds, 450 miles away; the nearest pro football is in St. Louis, 550 miles away. The city's handsome new stadium seats 51,000 for baseball, 57,000 for football. And that is just the beginning. With club owners more interested now in the tube than the turnstile, Atlanta is a TV promised land so hungry for something to watch that Washington Redskin games and major league baseball games are piped in by coaxial cable.

The Atlanta Braves will get handsome TV income from Anheuser-Busch and home-brewed Coca-Cola among others; and J. Leonard Reinsch, who offered the A.F.L. $7,500,000 for a football franchise, happens to be president of Cox Broadcasting Corp., owner of Atlanta's biggest station.

Ghostly Silence. The television potential, along with the South's sports-minded population, explains why the N.F.L.'s Commissioner Rozelle is so anxious to beat the upstart A.F.L. into Georgia. The stronger N.F.L. has already lined up equally prestigious backers to support a franchise. Among the members of a syndicate dickering for a team: Texas Oilman John Mecom Jr., Indianapolis Speedway Owner Tony Hulman, Coca-Cola Heir Lindsey Hopkins Jr. So far, Atlanta's Stadium Authority has been playing it cozy, says only that no decision on rental rights will be made until July 1.

With all those fans waiting in Atlanta, baseball's Braves are sadly losing both money and prestige in Milwaukee. Powered by such sluggers as Eddie Mathews, Joe Torre and Hank Aaron, the Braves were only 2 1/2 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers last week and tasting World Series. Milwaukee couldn't care less. Attendance has fallen as low as 913 people at one game, and in contrast to the mid-1950's when Milwaukee packed in 2,000,000 fans a year, the total this year after 22 dates is only 125,600.

Fortnight ago, when the Braves beat the Dodgers three games to one in a weekend series, they averaged less than 9,000 spectators in a stadium that holds nearly 45,000. With their noses out of joint because of the Braves' decision to leave, Milwaukee county supervisors last week scorned Owner William Bartholomay's $500,000 offer to let the team blow town, thus dooming the Braves to lame-duck along in the ghostly silence of Milwaukee County Stadium, winning games and whistling Dixie.

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