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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Nashville, Atlanta, Charlotte and Cincinnati may be closer. But the Indianapolis Colts have something those NFL teams don't -- Peyton Manning. That's why Colts owner Jim Irsay traveled 300 miles Wednesday to promote his team to the fans of the hometown Tennessee Volunteers. "We've owned the team for 27 years, and we've never had an opportunity like this," he said. "It is not something that comes along every day.'' Manning, the heralded Vols quarterback that Indianapolis made the No. 1 draft choice and the richest rookie in the history, is "a legend in these parts," Irsay said. Irsay hopes Manning's following will be the ticket to a regional audience for the Colts and his performance will take the team even farther. WHILE THE TENNESSEE OILERS struggle to fill 41,000-seat Vanderbilt Stadium in their inaugural year in Nashville some 2½ hours away, the Colts have already sold that many season tickets and are hoping "Manning mania" will sell some more. Asked whether the Colts are interlopers, Oilers spokesman Tony Wyllie directed calls to marketing vice president Don MacLachlan, who didn't call back, and to the NFL. "There is clearly a lot of interest in Tennessee in Peyton Manning," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said. "Indianapolis isn't all that terribly far, so it makes some sense." Calling it "probably a short-term development," Aiello said the NFL nevertheless has advised CBS that it is in the network's "best long-term interest to televise Oiler games in Tennessee, as many as possible." The CBS affiliate in Knoxville, WVLT-TV, plans to broadcast just about as many Colts games as Oilers games this fall. "It is very important not to be hurting anything they are trying to do in Nashville or anywhere else around the region," said Irsay, who conveyed that message as well to Volunteer coach Phillip Fulmer. "(Oilers owner) Bud Adams is a friend and we are cautious not to do anything except what is appropriate in terms of the context of what other NFL teams do and how they market in their areas." BUT THE COLTS CLEARLY SEE the Tennessee market outside Nashville as wide open, and the early signs are encouraging. Ray Compton, the Colts executive director for business development, said Tennesseans have snapped up about 10 percent of the 5,000 tickets the Colts have sold by phone for their Labor Day opener against Miami. About 100 business executives from across East Tennessee attended a rooftop restaurant reception hosted by the Colts Wednesday night to promote ticket packages. Knoxville travel agents are calling. Sports bars in Knoxville, Johnson City and Memphis are signing up to carry Colts games. And the Colts are already talking about turning their Nov. 1 game against New England into a Tennessee fan weekend. "I don't know how this is going to materialize," Compton said. ``We may end up having five people or 500 people or 5,000 people at our home games from Tennessee. But the thing we don't want to do is wake up in December and kind of kick ourselves for not coming after this market." |