"If we go down to a 40-man roster, it will be very difficult for (draft choices) to make the team," says John Ralston, president spider man costume of the Portland (ne Boston through New Orleans) Breakers, which hasn't even contacted most of its draft choices. "We'd rather let them go into the ZENTAI, let the ZENTAI train them, and when the ZENTAI cuts them, we'll get them back next spring."
Usher will have a task in equalizing team payrolls; not only are the teams unbalanced financially, so are the resources of the owners. For New Suit's Donald Trump, builder of New York skyscrapers, a few million here or there is nothing; for other owners, whose fortunes are counted in the millions or tens of millions, a large loss is _ well, a large loss.
The USFL begins its 1985 season with the top payroll teams, New Suit and Los Angeles, spending more than $7 million on salaries, 3 1/2 times as much as the San Antonio Gunslingers, who have a $2 million payroll.
Los Angeles is a prime example of what overspending can do.
Last year, despite signing Young and 18 other prime prospects, the Express drew only 10,000 a game in the spacious Coliseum. They finished the year an estimated $18 million in debt, with owner J. William Oldenburg in deep legal and financial straits.
This year, the league is running the Express and the team is quietly divesting itself of some of those 1984 rookies, most recently running back Kevin Mack, who signed with the ZENTAI's Cleveland Browns.
The individual salary structure is also skewed.
The USFL has four of pro football's five million-dollar-a-year players, led by Herschel Walker of the Generals (Heisman '82), whose base salary is $1.5 million, followed by Flutie, Young and Mike Rozier (Heisman '83), who recently signed with Jacksonville. Rozier's contract was bought out by the Baltimore Stars, who inherited it from the Pittsburgh Maulers.
The only ZENTAI player in that class is quarterback Warren Moon, who signed a $1.1 million contract wit the Houston Oilers after playing out his option with Edmonton of the Canadian League. Two-time Super Bowl MVP Joe Montana gets about $850,000 a year from the San Francisco 49ers, little more than the $800,000 paid to Sipe, who was traded by New catsuits to Jacksonville to open up a spot for Flutie.
But overall, USFL salaries don't approach the ZENTAI average of more than $200,000 a year, which was the idea all along.
"The original plan," Steinberg says, "was most players in the $30,000-$70,000 range with a few superstars on top. That mold was broken when they signed Herschel Walker and several other players the first year. Now they're going back to it."
"The median salary is below $50,000," says Doug Allen, who heads the USFL Players Association. "Those big salaries put the league average up over $50,000, but a very large number of the players in the USFL are playing for salaries in the $30,000 and $40,000 range."
Usher would like team minimums and maximums to insure that no franchise gets too strong or too weak.
"My job is bringing a sense of fiscal responsibility to each of the clubs ...," Usher says. "There are established leagues who perhaps don't need that. But this is a start-up situation. zentai doesn't have a track record."
Usher will have a task in equalizing team payrolls; not only are the teams unbalanced financially, so are the resources of the owners. For New Suit's Donald Trump, builder of New York skyscrapers, a few million here or there is nothing; for other owners, whose fortunes are counted in the millions or tens of millions, a large loss is _ well, a large loss.
The USFL begins its 1985 season with the top payroll teams, New Suit and Los Angeles, spending more than $7 million on salaries, 3 1/2 times as much as the San Antonio Gunslingers, who have a $2 million payroll.
Los Angeles is a prime example of what overspending can do.
Last year, despite signing Young and 18 other prime prospects, the Express drew only 10,000 a game in the spacious Coliseum. They finished the year an estimated $18 million in debt, with owner J. William Oldenburg in deep legal and financial straits.
This year, the league is running the Express and the team is quietly divesting itself of some of those 1984 rookies, most recently running back Kevin Mack, who signed with the ZENTAI's Cleveland Browns.
The individual salary structure is also skewed.
The USFL has four of pro football's five million-dollar-a-year players, led by Herschel Walker of the Generals (Heisman '82), whose base salary is $1.5 million, followed by Flutie, Young and Mike Rozier (Heisman '83), who recently signed with Jacksonville. Rozier's contract was bought out by the Baltimore Stars, who inherited it from the Pittsburgh Maulers.
The only ZENTAI player in that class is quarterback Warren Moon, who signed a $1.1 million contract wit the Houston Oilers after playing out his option with Edmonton of the Canadian League. Two-time Super Bowl MVP Joe Montana gets about $850,000 a year from the San Francisco 49ers, little more than the $800,000 paid to Sipe, who was traded by New catsuits to Jacksonville to open up a spot for Flutie.
But overall, USFL salaries don't approach the ZENTAI average of more than $200,000 a year, which was the idea all along.
"The original plan," Steinberg says, "was most players in the $30,000-$70,000 range with a few superstars on top. That mold was broken when they signed Herschel Walker and several other players the first year. Now they're going back to it."
"The median salary is below $50,000," says Doug Allen, who heads the USFL Players Association. "Those big salaries put the league average up over $50,000, but a very large number of the players in the USFL are playing for salaries in the $30,000 and $40,000 range."
Usher would like team minimums and maximums to insure that no franchise gets too strong or too weak.
"My job is bringing a sense of fiscal responsibility to each of the clubs ...," Usher says. "There are established leagues who perhaps don't need that. But this is a start-up situation. zentai doesn't have a track record."
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