Pratt to Help Try to Defuse King Issue, Bring Super Bowl to City

Wes Pratt, the only black member of the San Diego City Council, said Wednesday that he is being flown to New York at the expense of local officials to try to bring the 1993 Super Bowl to the city.

Pratt said he had been recruited specifically by the San Diego Super Bowl Task Force to meet with National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue today, in the hope of assuaging “any fears anyone might have” about San Diego’s controversy over a tribute to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Pratt, who is not an official member of the task force, said he will accompany local businessmen Leon Parma and Bob Payne, the chairman of the group, as well as newspaper executive Herb Klein and Assistant City Manager Jack McGrory.

Asked if Pratt were being invited specifically to deal with the King issue, Payne said, “That’s correct.”

Activists who have protested the city’s bid for the game were outraged at the councilman’s decision.

“It’s unabashed tokenism, Wes even said it--it’s naked tokenism,” said Greg Akili, president of the African-American Organizing Project, which last week held a demonstration in opposition to the city’s efforts. “We can’t fly people to New York like they (the task force) can, but believe me, we are going to be heard.”

Pratt said the goal of the trip, at least for him, is to assure Tagliabue and other NFL officials that San Diego is a worthy choice for Super Bowl XXVII, despite the lack of “a proper tribute” to the slain civil rights leader.

In 1987, San Diego voters changed the name of Martin Luther King Boulevard back to its original Market Street, after angry merchants succeeded in putting the issue to the test of a referendum.

In 1989, the San Diego Unified Port District ignored the suggestion of the San Diego City Council and refused to name the new bayfront convention center in honor of King.

All of this is relevant to the Super Bowl, since the January, 1993, event is being yanked from Phoenix--at the suggestion of Commissioner Tagliabue, pending the approval of league owners--after Arizona voters rejected a state holiday in honor of King last November.

Jim Jacobson, co-founder of the local Martin Luther King Tribute Coalition, said it is “absurd for San Diego to think it deserves this special event when it hasn’t done one iota of what it said it would in regard to a tribute.

“But it is especially absurd--it is irrational and insulting--to think they can get the game when they haven’t come close to meeting even the league’s criteria. Why pull the game from one city and move it to another, which has its own taint in regard to a tribute? If San Diego really thinks it can get the Super Bowl, it’s just kidding itself.”

But Curtis Moring, president of the local chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, disagreed.

“If I could get Wes Pratt 100,000 votes tomorrow, he’d have ‘em,” Moring said. “This is a foolish crusade, these people trying to stop the Super Bowl from coming here. We’ve got to look at the economics of the whole thing. I’m definitely in favor of the game and Pratt trying to bring it here, and believe it’s potentially a fantastic opportunity for black-owned businesses.”

At this point, San Diego’s only competition for getting the game is Los Angeles, which has no semblance of a controversy regarding King and has the much larger stadium in Pasadena’s Rose Bowl--101,000 seats, contrasted with the 73,300 for San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

David Simon, head of the Los Angeles Sports Council, which is trying to bring the game to Pasadena, noted that his group has the backing of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley. Simon said that, in the initial competition for Super Bowl XXVII, Pasadena finished second behind Phoenix. San Diego finished third. San Diego last played host to the Super Bowl in 1988, Pasadena in 1987.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said Wednesday from New York that both San Diego and Los Angeles will be represented in meetings today with Tagliabue and league owners Norman Braman (the Philadelphia Eagles) and Mike Brown (Cincinnati Bengals).

Aiello said it’s possible league owners will choose to overrule Tagliabue and keep the game in Arizona, although it isn’t considered likely.

“This is standard operating procedure,” Aiello said of today’s meeting. “The committees are coming in. It’s just part of the continuing discussion involving all issues pertaining to the Super Bowl.”

Last month, the NFL’s Site Selection Committee narrowed the field of finalists to San Diego and Pasadena and scheduled a vote on the host city at a meeting of league owners in Kona, Hawaii in mid-March.

Councilman Pratt said he agreed to go, at task force expense, after receiving assurances from city officials that, if awarded to San Diego, Super Bowl XXVII would become a showcase for businesses owned by minorities and women and by small, rather than large, entrepreneurs.

“I decided that $150 million in the economy of San Diego was not a bad investment,” Pratt said, referring to the economic windfall that makes the game such a sought-after event.

But Pratt said he knew he was being invited strictly because of the King issue.

“If Tagliabue has concerns about the Martin Luther King issue, I’ll be willing to discuss them,” Pratt said. “Sure, the rejection of the street was an embarrassment, but the fact of the matter is that there’s an ongoing effort to find an appropriate tribute.

“We’ve got a school (named after King), we’ve got the (Marina) Linear Park coming on line”--the Centre City Development Corp. has proposed to name it after King--”and we’ve got the Chamber (of Commerce) more actively involved in minority businesses.

“Things are happening, and things have been happening. The city of San Diego had a holiday in honor of King before the state had a holiday, and, although there have been some embarrassing events, we continue to try to move forward and keep the memory of Dr. King alive.”

Bob Payne, chairman of the San Diego Super Bowl Task Force, said he urged Pratt to attend the meeting with Tagliabue “to demonstrate that there is an active leadership in the African-American community in San Diego that represents the overall objectives” of the task force.

Payne echoed Pratt in saying that, if awarded to San Diego, the game would become a showcase for small and minority-owned businesses.

In regard to the King issue, Payne responded to local protests by saying it is “ridiculous” to think Los Angeles harbors “a racial edge” over its southern neighbor.

“Shortsightedness in dealing with minority communities is a problem that is universal,” Payne said. “To pick out San Diego and say that its problems are different from those of Los Angeles. . . . Why, heaven’s sake. Look at Watts, look at Compton, look at Inglewood, look even at Pasadena.”