DULUTH - A northern Minnesota city council member is dreaming big. Proctor councilman Travis White wants to attract an NFL franchise to the Twin Ports area.

Nobody's talking about anything up here. We wonder why in the 1920s when the Eskimos were here Duluth had a population of 100,000 and Green Bay was at 30,000. Well Green Bay is at 105,000 now and Duluth is at 85,000. We lost 15 percent of the population, Green Bay went up 300 percent. But nobody's talking about how to bring people here.

White introduced two resolutions during last (Monday) night's Proctor city council meeting, one asked for city support for the idea and the other is for city support for building an outdoor stadium in the region. The city council approved both resolutions. They'll now send copies of the resolutions to all 32 NFL franchise owners, as well as their local state lawmakers.

He says he knows it's a long shot, but the Duluth-Superior area has the land for any NFL owner that's looking for new investments.

Most NFL owners are looking to h ave businesses outside of just an NFL team. A lot of them are developers, real estate developers. We have the area up here to develop. I put in my resolution Minnesota is the 12th largest state in this country, yet there are six states smaller than Minnesota that have multiple NFL teams.

White says he's just beginning to explore the idea with the other city councils in the region. He says he'd love to see an outdoor stadium for the potential team.

The NFL's Duluth Eskimos left the league in 1927.

And, White wants more than just an NFL team, he's also interested in bring an NHL team and the Twins AAA affiliate to the Duluth-Superior area.

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