NFL Commissioner Tagliabue Meets with Street

With hours to go before a threatened teachers` strike, Philadelphia Mayor John Street is meeting with NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue about the city`s need for a new football stadium.

Tagliabue walked into the mayor`s office at City Hall at 12:15pm today, declining comment to the reporters gathered outside.

Tagliabue, who was at aging Veterans Stadium last weekend for a charity event, said then that he is surprised a stadium deal has not been worked out. He calls the financial package that Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie offered the city generous.

He said then: "The building is deteriorating, and it`s a troubling thing, especially with the deal that is on the table."

Both the Eagles and the Phillies hope to build new, separate stadiums, and had been negotiating with the city until the summer, when the talks apparently stalled.

Street said last month, as his own deadline for sending a proposal to City Council came and went, that he had to focus first on the teachers` contract.

Copyright 2000 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

Author: AP