NFL Decision on Telecasts May Leave Sports Bars Scrambling : Football: County bistros would be among those having to pay up or lose games when are scrambled.

On fall Sundays, the ritual repeats itself in bars and restaurants from Dana Point to Newport Beach to Fullerton.

Fans decked out in the colors of their “hometown” team--Bears, Cowboys and 49ers, among others--huddle in clusters, sipping beer while watching National Football League games that they can’t see at home because they don’t own a satellite dish.

Come next season, the ritual may undergo a radical transformation, changing the viewing habits of thousands.

On Feb. 11, the NFL announced plans to “scramble” its satellite signals, meaning that fans hoping to watch out-of-market games will have to shoulder a new expense. Tavern and restaurant owners--as well as homeowners who own satellite systems--will pay a season subscription fee to have the games “unscrambled.”

League officials say the cost will be reasonable, although a price scale has not been determined. However, sources within the NFL said individual dish owners would pay as much as $150 a year, while bars and restaurants would be charged up to several thousand dollars, depending on size.

The news has jarred dozens of businesses, which may post a cover charge just to show the games that draw the bulk of their clientele.

“Pretty soon, watching a football game in a place like ours will be like going to a movie,” said Steven Zeller, general manager of Legends, a Costa Mesa sports bar and restaurant. “You’ll pay an admission price.”

“It definitely makes it tough,” said Jim Maresca, general manager of Charley Brown’s, an Anaheim sports restaurant. “We may not be able to show those games any more.”

“It epitomizes the greed mentality of the NFL owners, and all it’s doing is hurting the little entrepreneurs--like me--who are trying to run a business,” said Don Myers, managing partner of the Catch Seafood and Sports Grill near Anaheim Stadium. “It’s just another shot to the head of the fan . . . the little guy they don’t seem to care about.”

The NFL’s scrambling policy will have no effect on fans watching games on their network affiliates at home. Area stations will still carry the Rams, Raiders and other teams free.

But with the growing popularity of professional football and America’s growth as a mobile society, satellite technology has given transplanted fans from Chicago, Dallas, New York and other cities the chance to follow their favorite teams while living in Southern California.

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“This is going to have a devastating effect, not just on our business but on the Orange County economy on the whole, especially on weekends,” said Myers of the Catch, who hopes a budding protest will force a reasonable fee.

Orange County merchants have not ruled out a boycott of Anheuser-Busch and Miller brewing companies, a strategy that worked in 1990 when the league threatened to scramble televised games without offering a subscription alternative.

That effort was led by San Diego restaurateur Norman Lebovitz, who formed the Assn. for Sports Fans’ Rights as the umbrella organization behind the boycott that targeted the NFL’s biggest sponsors. Lebovitz’s crusade prompted network TV executives to fly him to New York in conjunction with the league canceling plans to scramble.

Last weekend, Lebovitz came to a gathering of satellite dealers at the Anaheim Convention Center to drum up support for his organization, which has a toll-free number and, he said, the backing of more than 20,000 sports bars and restaurants nationwide.

A potential member is Alan Fronke, owner of the National Sports Grill in Buena Park, who said, “I will use whatever means necessary to ensure my customers of getting to see the games they came to see.”

Fronke has begun building new outlets in Fullerton and Torrance, based largely, he said, on the drawing power of NFL Sundays.

“I can’t afford to lose that business,” he said. “It’s that simple.”

Sports bars such as Fronke’s--which features four satellite dishes, 44 television monitors and two “big screens,” all showing professional sports--have cropped up in cities across the country and, in his view, created a subculture that lives and breathes for pro football on Sundays.

It’s a subculture that will now foot the bill, with Fronke saying the cost may have to be passed along by higher prices for drinks and food.

That’s what irks San Diego’s Lebovitz, who said “we already have plans” for a boycott. “We hope not to use it, but it’s obvious they’re trying to figure out how much they can squeeze--and get away with.”

He said he was told at the Anaheim gathering that the NFL may charge some businesses as much as $8,000 a year for the right to show out-of-market games, a cost he considers prohibitive.

“The NFL should remember that the Assn. for Sports Fans’ Rights was created out of its arrogance, so do they want to continue to promote it by remaining arrogant with the sports fan? If they do,” he said, “then so be it. We’ve got something to battle. Sports fans are the most under-represented group in America, and this is the proof.”

Tola Murphy-Baran, a former satellite executive with the Showtime movie channel, has just been hired by the NFL to make the plan a reality.

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Murphy-Baran said the league is aware that, perhaps more than any area of the country, Southern California is made up largely of transplanted fans who continue to root for teams other than the Rams, Raiders and San Diego Chargers.

From the NFL’s perspective, bar and restaurant owners have--until now--obtained the league’s copyrighted signals for free and earned profits from greater patronage.

She said subscriptions will actually help business owners because NFL paraphernalia and signage will adorn their establishments, creating a kind of NFL super-store each Sunday. Murphy-Baran is an executive of the newly created NFL Enterprises, which will govern the home and commercial satellite market; in essence, minding the super-store.

“Our desire is to drive business into their establishments--not away from them,” she said of the Orange County circuit. “I probably can’t allay their fears until I quote them a price, and then their fears will be allayed.”

Not all bar and restaurant owners oppose the new system. “I’m glad to see it,” said John Morris, who owns Legends in Costa Mesa. “It’s long overdue. As long as it’s reasonably priced, I have no problem with it. Now I’ll be able to advertise and promote what we offer. It legitimizes our business.”

But many remain skeptical.

The manager of an Irvine sports bar, who asked not to be quoted by name, said scrambling by the National Basketball Assn. had made its games harder to get via satellite, lowering the demand among a once-rabid clientele. She predicts the same will happen with the NFL.

“I think it will have a major impact--a major negative impact,” she said. “Not so much for us, but for them.”

Murphy-Baran disagreed, noting that the NBA imposes “territorial restrictions,” meaning most out-of-market games are unavailable. Major League Baseball follows a similar policy.

The NFL will impose no such restrictions, she said, except for sustaining the home-team blackout rule. In other words, if the Rams fail to sell out 72 hours before kickoff at Anaheim Stadium, their games won’t be available in Orange County, even on satellite.

Fronke of Buena Park worries that a hefty fee will eliminate “a lot of small people. Believe me, Joe’s Bar and Grill won’t be able to afford thousands of dollars, if, indeed, it ends up being that. In the past, they’ve gotten it all for free, and the NFL hasn’t suffered a bit.”

“Any way you look at it,” said Myers of the Catch, “it hurts the fan the most. He doesn’t benefit a bit. And anyone who says he does is crazy. The NFL just signed a new television contract for more than $1 billion. How much money does it need, for gosh sakes? When is enough finally enough?”