Raiders Fail in Attempt to Alter Brown’s Status : Pro football: Team will probably have to pay more to retain receiver.

Raider receiver Tim Brown will remain a transition player after an attempt by the Raiders to make him a franchise player failed late Tuesday, according to sources close to the situation.

Had Brown, whose contract expires Thursday, been designated a franchise player, he could not have fielded offers from other teams.

As a transition player, Brown can test the free-agent market, but the Raiders can match any offer.

A franchise player must receive the average of the top five players at his position, about $2.3 million per year in Brown’s case.

The minimum for a transition player is the average of the top 10 at his position, about $2.1 million for receivers.

But Brown is expected to receive an offer in excess of both figures after a 1993 season in which he made 80 catches for 1,180 yards, both career highs.

It’s ironic since Brown spent the last off-season trying to get out of his contract.

The case of Brown vs. the Raiders began in 1992 when he signed a two-year deal. That contract included a clause that released him if free agency for five-year veterans was agreed upon.

Sure enough, a new collective bargaining agreement was signed in late 1992. But instead of setting Brown free, the Raiders made him a transition player.

The issue went all the way to Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who ruled in the Raiders’ favor for the 1993 season.

But when the Raiders attempted to make Brown a franchise player on Tuesday, the deadline for such a designation, the matter went before an arbitrator, called a special master, who reportedly ruled that the Raiders had chosen their course when they made Brown a transition player and could not deviate from that course.

What that all means is that Brown will probably remain a Raider, since the team cannot afford to lose him, but that it will be more costly for owner Al Davis.

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The Rams bypassed their 13 unrestricted free agents and instead secured the rights of first refusal on cornerback Todd Lyght once his contract expires in 1995.

And for the second consecutive year, the Rams declined to designate a “franchise player,” indicating that they currently have nobody who deserves to be paid the average salary of the top five players at their position.

Times staff writer Mike Reilley contributed to this story.