He faced 120 media filling the room to standing room only from around the United States, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Australia, and Europe. Ten seconds after Packer's pitch, he said: 'It's so wild, it's got to work.'Įight months later, on May 4, 1989, the realtor sat at a table in a hotel conference room in Albany, New York alongside LeMond and a half-dozen other cyclists as brilliant and high-priced as the crystal, marble, and brass adorning Trump's four-star Atlantic City hotel. He garnered more publicity in the USFL's single season than in a decade in real estate. Five years earlier he had spent more than $10 million for the New Jersey Generals football team and players in the short-lived United States Football League. He paused and gazed out his office window, offering a spectacular view of Manhattan Island.