Philadelphia Bell

The Bell was one of just two WFL teams that maintained the same ownership in both 1974 and 1975 (the other being Canadian millionaire John Bassett's Memphis Southmen). The group was headed by John B. Kelly Jr., a respected business and sportsman in Philadelphia and part of the well-known Kelly family, which included his sister Grace Kelly, movie star-turned-princess of Monaco. The major money contributor behind the ownership group was John Bosacco, who came forward during the first season and took over the operations of the franchise. Bosacco believed that the WFL could survive and was instrumental in the removal of Gary Davidson as commissioner following the 1974 season.

Led by head coach Ron Waller, the Bell appeared to be the most popular team in the fledgling league, announcing crowds of 55,534 for the home opener and 64,719 for the second home game (which was nationally televised as syndicated programming by TVS). These figures meant that at least on the surface, the Bell was outdrawing the NFL's Eagles, which averaged 59,206 fans for their seven home games the previous autumn.^[2]

Two weeks later, though, Frank Dolson of The Philadelphia Inquirer revealed that the Bell had inflated the gate on a scale previously unprecedented in professional sports. In his August 4, 1974, column, Dolson revealed that the Bell had sold block tickets to several area businesses at a discount. In turn, many of these businesses had given away the tickets for free or at reduced prices. Bell executive vice president Harry Leib admitted doing this in hopes of piquing interest, but when the Bell paid city taxes on the gates for the first two games, the actual paid attendance for the home opener was found to be only 13,855 (less than a quarter of the announced 55,534); the second game's paid attendance was an even smaller 6,200 (less than 10% of the announced 64,719).^[3] According to Leib, roughly 20,000 people got into the season opener for free, while another 10,000 received block tickets. The proportion was similar for the second game. Even worse, WFL administrative vice president Ted Palmquist admitted to the Philadelphia Daily News that the league was aware of the inflating of attendance, and that league commissioner Gary Davidson had approved it. Palmquist said that team and league officials feared the opening-day crowd would be swallowed up in the cavernous environment of 100,000-seat JFK Stadium. The Bell had only planned to do it once, but was forced to inflate the gate again for the second game when it learned the game would be nationally televised. In both cases, no one expected that most of the people who received the giveaways would actually show up. Palmquist said that he had told the Bell repeating the scheme would be "ill-advised".^[4] Nominal team president Kelly claimed that he was unaware of the plan, and was outraged both when he heard about it and about Leib's cavalier attitude. Nevertheless, the damage was done. "Papergate" (as it was dubbed by the press)^[5] made both the Bell and the WFL look foolish and proved to be a debacle from which neither recovered.

After the scandal broke, the Bell lost what goodwill it had. The draw was a total of only 62,126 fans for the last seven home games combined, or 2,000 fewer fans than the supposed crowd for the second home game. If only paid attendance for its first two games is counted, the Bell drew a paltry average of 9,131 fans per game for the season. The nadir came on October 16, 1974, when only 750 fans found their way to JFK for a Wednesday-night game played in a torrential downpour.^[6]

On the field, the Bell was mediocre; the team was led by flashy quarterback (QB) King Corcoran, who had spent most of his career in the minor leagues due to his refusal to accept a backup QB slot (Corcoran had even played under Coach Waller with the Pottstown Firebirds of the recently closed Atlantic Coast Football League). Philadelphia managed only a 9–11 mark in 1974, one game behind the Charlotte Hornets for the final playoff spot - the Bell was actually 8–11 on the field, but was awarded a win by forfeit when the Chicago Fire dissolved before it could travel to Philadelphia for the season finale.

At the request of WFL officials, though, the team advanced to the playoffs, anyway. The Hornets were originally slated to play the Florida Blazers, but the Blazers could sell only 1,000 advance tickets for the first-round matchup in Orlando, not nearly enough for the financially troubled Hornets (which had moved from New York City in midseason) to justify the trip. The Hornets would have been unable to cover their hotel and travel expenses, and the players would have been lucky to get $100 each for the game. The Bell, in contrast, was somewhat better financed, and could cover these expenses. The team traveled to Orlando, where it lost to the Blazers, 18-3, in front of less than 10,000 fans.