The Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS - The Indianapolis Colts more than quadrupled their sales and marketing staff Tuesday.

Calling on a group of some 90 business leaders to help broaden the NFL team's fan base and revenue, members of the new Colts Business Alliance met with Colts officials at the team's practice complex.

"When you're a smaller market, you can be very successful, but you have less room for error," Colts vice president Ray Compton said. "We have to go out and uncover every potential client we can."

The Colts have said their revenues are among the bottom third of the league, and their current lease to play in the downtown RCA Dome, which runs through 2014, requires the city to make payments to bring revenue up to the league's median average within the next two years.

Those payments could exceed $10 million each year, and if the city does not make the payments, the Colts could break their lease after the 2006 season.

The alliance was formed in response to comments by NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who spoke to The Economic Club of Indianapolis in October and urged greater community and business involvement.

Mayor Bart Peterson began talks last month with Colts owner Jim Irsay on the possibility of a new stadium, a renovation of the RCA Dome or a city subsidy to increase the team's revenue.

Compton said the business alliance was not a public relations tool to gain concessions from the city.

"It's more that we're dealing with today and not tomorrow," Compton said. "From a sales and marketing perspective, we've made great progress the last five years. But we need to increase that under today's circumstances."

Part of that, Compton said, is to increase the fan base beyond central Indiana, home to 85 percent of the team's season-ticket holders.

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