(FORTUNE Magazine) – Forget the Super Bowl. The National Football League's real big-money game took place recently when representatives from ten cities opened their play books to the league's expansion committee in hopes of gaining one of two new franchises to be awarded this year. The cost of gridiron figures to be at least three touchdowns north of $100 million. The wannabe players: Baltimore, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Memphis, Nashville, Oakland, Raleigh-Durham, Sacramento, San Antonio, and St. Louis. The NFL prohibits corporate ownership, but corporate biggies can still keep their eye on the ball. Examples: From St. Louis came Anheuser-Busch Cos. executive VP Michael J. Roarty, who helped make the pitch for an ownership group that includes James B. (as in Busch) Orthwein, a board member for the brewer, and former Chicago Bears great Walter Payton. Memphis countered with Federal Express CEO Fred Smith, fronting for an ownership squad that includes former Packer Willie D. Davis, now CEO of All Pro Broadcasting, a group of radio stations. Baltimore has three competing groups. One includes Lenny Weinglass, chairman of the hot retailer Merry-Go-Round Enterprises. His challengers include spy book author Tom Clancy and Malcolm I. Glazer, owner of First Allied, a Florida investment firm. The addition of an NFL club could add up to $450 million to a municipal economy. More important, the have-not burgs consider an NFL franchise the sine qua non (pigskin fans, write us for a translation) of the Big Time -- and a lure for corporations providing real jobs. The league will narrow the list in March and announce the final cut in the fall.