St. Louis, Charlotte Favored : Pro football: Meeting in Chicago this week, NFL owners will add two teams for 1995 season.

Wade through the demographic studies and economic impact reports and public seat licenses, and the NFL expansion race really comes down to a guy named Joe Muscarello.

The Charlotte banking executive desperately wants a pro football team for his hometown, and recently entered a contest to prove it.

Muscarello won first prize when he taped 216 Alka Seltzer tablets to his body and jumped into a downtown wading pool.

“He choked and gurgled and then jumped out of the water, punching his fist into the air and shouting, ‘Carolina Panthers,’ ” recalled Max Muhleman, managing consultant of the Charlotte NFL campaign. “It was so awesome, we considered changing our name to the ‘Effervescents.’ ”

Stranger things could happen this week as the league’s owners gather in Chicago to vote on expanding the league for the first time in 16 years. From a list of five finalists, they will add two teams that will begin play in 1995.

Charlotte, with no NFL competition within four hours in any direction, and St. Louis, the country’s largest market without an NFL team, remain the heavy favorites.

The other finalists are generally considered too small with stadiums that are too old (Memphis and Jacksonville) or too geographically close to other NFL teams (Baltimore).

But it only requires eight owners to squelch a proposal, and because chaos usually reigns when those who run the NFL attempt to agree on anything, nobody is certain what will happen.

“There are favorites, certainly, but there are no locks,” said Art Modell, owner of the Cleveland Browns and member of the expansion committee, which will make its recommendations today. “Because we need more than just a simple majority, this thing could take two months.”

But the “yes” or “no” voting on the recommendations could be completed as early as tonight, when the 28-team league will grow to 30 with the addition of Panthers, Jaguars, Stallions, Bombers or Hound Dogs.

Yes, Hound Dogs.

“Hey, I had somebody from Melbourne, Australia, call me yesterday and ask about that name,” said Pepper Rodgers, a spokesman and designated coach for the Memphis group that includes the estate of Elvis Presley as one of its investors.

“You can bet they weren’t calling Charlotte and asking about the Panthers, or calling St. Louis and asking about the Stallions,” added Rodgers, 60. “And let me ask you this, how many songs have you heard written about Baltimore or Charlotte? There are 130 songs with the word Memphis in them. This place is a perfect example of America, and perfect for the NFL.”

Jacksonville had better hope nobody calls about the Jaguars.

At the time the name was devised several years ago, the Jacksonville Zoological Gardens owned what was believed to be the oldest female jaguar in captivity in this country.

She has since died.

It has been a long, strange trip as five cities have spent at least the last five years competing for a chance to pay a $140 million entry fee and have one of the worst teams in the NFL until the 21st century.

--The Baltimore Bombers have two competing majority owners, one who goes by the nickname “Boogie.”

Until a last-minute addition of millionaire Stan Kroenke Monday, the St. Louis Stallions had no majority owners.

--The new stadium in St. Louis already has a first floor. The new stadiums in Charlotte and Baltimore haven’t even turned over a shovel of dirt.

One reason the Charlotte team will be known as the Carolina Panthers is because they will play their first season 130 miles away at Clemson University in neighboring South Carolina.

--The St. Louis and Jacksonville franchises openly feel they are helped by the presence of minority ownership. Walter Payton owns a small piece of the St. Louis effort, while former Kansas City Chief defensive back Deron Cherry owns a bit of Jacksonville’s.

Charlotte, meanwhile, spent last summer putting out the fires caused by the discrimination suits filed against Denny’s restaurants, which are owned by Charlotte majority owner Jerry Richardson.

Instead of fighting the charges, Richardson signed a fair share agreement with the NAACP that would provide for minority employment in his restaurants. He then held meetings with 44 civil rights leaders.

“When we presented all of this to the NFL owners and asked if they had any questions, nobody said a word,” Muhleman said. “That told us that it was a closed issue.”

Several ownership sources privately agreed with Muhleman. This means Charlotte should get its chance to do for the NFL what it did for the NBA, where the Hornets have sold out 198 consecutive games while leading the league in attendance in four of their five seasons.

Charlotte’s only remaining roadblock is the $60 million that is still needed to build its privately funded $160-million stadium. But the league is expected to accept one of several creative ways that Richardson has proposed to account for the money, including keeping a larger share of ticket revenue in the first few years.

Money seemed to be the only problem facing St. Louis, which appeared to have solved that problem Monday with the addition of Kroenke, a Columbia, Mo., businessman worth more than $500 million.

For those who say the city does not deserve another team after losing Bill Bidwill’s Cardinals six years ago, note that the Cardinals sold 90% of the available tickets at Busch Stadium during the team’s final 14 years there, 1% above the league average.

“I believe Mr. Bidwill’s problems were not with the town, they were with the stadium size (50,000) and things like that,” said Allison Hawk, spokeswoman for the St. Louis effort. “With a new stadium for just football (70,000), that problem is no longer there.”

The Baltimore advocates will quickly point out that there are 40,000 names on the waiting list for Redskin season tickets. After the stunning success of the downtown Camden Yards baseball park, where virtually every game is a sellout, they wonder why there is fear that football wouldn’t work as well.

“Baltimore is a passionate football city, we have no doubts it would work,” said Joel Glazer, son of corporate investor Malcolm Glazer, who is dueling clothing magnate Leonard (Boogie) Weinglass for the team there.

Owners feel sorry for the town that Robert Irsay abandoned in early 1984, taking the legendary Colts with him. But they don’t feel that sorry.

“If Baltimore doesn’t get it, we’ll feel bad for them, but we have a lot of other things involved,” one owner said.

Joe Muscarello will feel even worse if Charlotte doesn’t get a team.

“My wife is not pleased. It’s like every time we go out, somebody says, ‘Hey, there’s the Alka Seltzer man,’ ” Muscarello said. “I hope what I did helped bring attention to how badly we want a team . . . because a lot of times, I just want to go hide in a corner.”