Relocation Gives Anaheim an Open Field

They may have lost the Rams to St. Louis only five months ago, but city officials here were cautiously optimistic Friday that the Los Angeles Raiders’ plans to return to Oakland will improve their chances of attracting another football team to the city--with or without a new stadium.

“This makes the whole [National Football League] picture in Southern California wide open again for Anaheim,” said Greg Smith, general manager of Anaheim Stadium. “I think it absolutely helps.”

With the Rams’ depar ture, the Walt Disney Co.’s partial purchase of the California Angels last month and the Raiders’ announced move, Anaheim officials are spinning as they try to keep up with the possible scenarios and attempt to figure out what each development means for the city.

“There have been so many changes,” Councilman Bob Zemel said. “It seems like there has been a change a week. It’s hard to have a concrete plan when you don’t know where everything is going to land.”

City officials are negotiating to build a new, state-of-the-art baseball stadium for the Angels and have discussed renovating Anaheim Stadium for football-only purposes. A factor in the Rams’ decision to leave was the city’s refusal to build them a new stadium.

“We think the existing stadium could do well for either football or baseball,” Smith said. “The question is, what do the [NFL] and other potential teams think? If their interest is in new facilities, then of course we are open to discussing that as we have shown with the Angels. It has to make financial sense for us.”

Added Zemel, “If we can build a new football or baseball stadium without using the taxpayer’s money, we’d love to do that. I can see it happening.”

With so much uncertainty in the air, Smith said that what happens next is anybody’s guess.

“Anything could happen,” he said. “As of now, nothing has happened. We hope something happens with the Angels who are still studying our offer. But in the meantime, we still want to be in the football business.”

Whether a new baseball or football stadium is eventually built, Smith and others said they feel an added attraction for any NFL team will be ambitious plans to build a sports complex in and around the area of the Big A and The Pond.

The city hired a consulting group in February to develop a master plan to revitalize the 807-acre area. Disney’s partial purchase of the Angels has only heightened expectations for the area.

What exactly would be built in the area is undecided. But among the ideas discussed have been restaurants and shops surrounded by water canals and lushly landscaped walkways. The consultants, who are expected to complete their plans by August, are also charged with exploring the city’s sports facilities to other tourist destinations, such as Disneyland and Anaheim Convention Center.

The Angels are still mulling an offer made by the city for a lease extension that would include a stadium. But Disney’s involvement has put that offer up in the air, and the two sides have not met for months.

Meanwhile, the Raiders’ plan to move back to Oakland is the opening Disney has been waiting for in its pursuit of an NFL team.

Disney insiders have said since the Rams’ departure that a decision by Raider owner Al Davis to leave the nation’s second-largest television market without an NFL team would be the catalyst for stepped-up talks with the NFL--and ideally an NFL decision to award an expansion team to Southern California.

But even as word came that Davis signed a letter of intent Friday to return to Oakland, Disney officials were still wary.

“It’s still early to speculate,” said Bill Robertson, director of public relations for Disney Sports Enterprises and the Mighty Ducks. “We’re interested in being interested. We’ll formulate more ideas and opinions and move forward. Right now we don’t have a comment as to what could happen or should happen. It’s kind of inappropriate to say because we don’t know.”

Though Disney ideally would like to land an NFL expansion team for Orange County, the company might be interested in buying an existing team, and owning a team that plays in Los Angeles or the proposed Inglewood stadium might not be out of the question.

Among the obstacles to Disney adding football to a burgeoning sports empire that already includes the Mighty Ducks and an agreement to become part-owner of the Angels are NFL rules against corporate ownership.

Disney Chairman Michael D. Eisner is considered wary of personally owning a sports team because of perceptions it would divert from his direction of the entertainment conglomerate.

“The NFL hasn’t said anything about expanding or [changing its rules against corporate ownership], all those kind of things,” Robertson said. “The NFL hasn’t come out with any plans of expanding, but hopefully this would push the process. All those rumors about Cincinnati or Cleveland moving would start again. Nobody knows what’s going to happen.”