NFL Refuses to Limit L.A. Team to Coliseum

WASHINGTON —  Apparently dashing the hopes of city officials who want to see professional football back in the Coliseum, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue on Wednesday threw open the bidding for a new Los Angeles franchise to all comers--most notably the Dodgers’ Peter O’Malley and the owners of Hollywood Park.

In fact, as the NFL’s fall meetings adjourned, Tagliabue denied that the league ever agreed to consider only a renovated Coliseum, as Mayor Richard Riordan requested 13 months ago.

“I don’t think we have ever had an exclusive focus on the Coliseum,” said the commissioner, though proponents of the new Coliseum--particularly City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, whose district includes the stadium--repeatedly have alleged otherwise. “We were asked by the mayor to work with the Coliseum people and we have done that, and will continue to do that.”

But “if other concepts emerge that are sensible within the L.A. community, we will look at those too,” he said.

The NFL’s now clear lack of enthusiasm for the Coliseum’s Exposition Park site, which is in a poor, mainly African American neighborhood, reopens the door for competing proposals. They include construction of a pro football venue adjacent to Dodger Stadium at Chavez Ravine northwest of the Civic Center; in South Park, site of the Convention Center and of the proposed new sports arena immediately south of downtown; and on land adjoining the Hollywood Park racetrack in Inglewood.

Riordan was returning to Los Angeles from an educational summit in Detroit on Wednesday, but Deputy Mayor Robin Kramer responded to Tagliabue’s remarks by

saying, “When you are working to win on the merits, competition is a healthy thing. The mayor has made the case, the city leaders have made the case, that the Coliseum can be won on merits. . . . It is a competitive site, and will continue to be so.”

However, other city officials involved in the ongoing negotiations with the NFL said Wednesday that the Coliseum will remain noncompetitive in the eyes of most of the league’s owners unless its backers find a way to secure at least some public financing for the project.

“This is not a Coliseum issue,” said Steve Soboroff, vice chairman of Football L.A. and a Riordan confidant. “It’s a finance issue. It is clear that there is no public appetite in Los Angeles for subsidizing professional sports projects. We’ve known that since we began the sports arena project. The lack of that subsidy is a problem for some people in the NFL.”

According to one city official deeply involved in the stadium question, the issue of public investment in a new NFL franchise for Los Angeles looms large in the minds of many owners because “about 14 of them will need to renovate their own stadiums over the next five years or so. They all need public help. None of them want to be asked to explain why they can’t do without taxpayers’ money when the new team they approved for L.A. can.”

But Pat Bowlen, owner of the Denver Broncos, echoed the public sentiments of many of his NFL counterparts when he said he is mystified by Los Angeles’ persistent support of the Coliseum.

“I don’t know if there’s a great deal of support for the old Coliseum as the stadium they use in L.A.,” Bowlen said. “They’re campaigning for it, but they’re not getting a lot of attention.”

What apparently does interest many NFL owners is the prospect of dealing with O’Malley and broadcasting, film and publishing magnate Rupert Murdoch, who is close to completing his purchase of the Dodgers. Murdoch’s Fox television network broadcasts NFL games, and the league expects Murdoch to use O’Malley’s credibility and expertise as a professional sports executive to present the Dodger Stadium site as the ideal choice for the return of the NFL to Los Angeles. It is not known whether O’Malley would act on behalf of Murdoch or on his own. But he has shown a deep interest in both an NFL ownership and a possible facility near Dodger Stadium.

A longtime member of the city’s negotiating team, who asked not to be identified, estimated that building a new dual purpose football/baseball stadium at Chavez Ravine would cost Murdoch between $500 million and $600 million. “If O’Malley and Murdoch stand up and say, ‘We can do it without any public money,’ that’s a knockout punch,” the official said. “But they won’t. The truth is none of the deals involving L.A. sites work without public money.”

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That according to a highly placed City Hall official, who also asked not to be identified, means “the likelihood of pro football going to Inglewood is now more than a distinct possibility.”

In fact, R.D. Hubbard, Hollywood Park’s chief executive officer, said Wednesday that “I think our position would be that we are going to actively pursue a stadium for the NFL at Hollywood Park. Now that things have officially been opened again, we will begin immediately laying the groundwork with discussions with interested investors.”

O’Malley, moving a bit more carefully, said he will talk to city officials today to clarify their position in regard to Tagliabue’s call for open competition.

“Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas deserves a lot of credit for his passion in trying to have a new state-of-the-art stadium at the Coliseum site,” O’Malley said. “I know city officials are traveling back to Los Angeles, and since it was the city officials who asked us to table our proposal, I cannot comment further until I talk to them.”

Although the NFL might be interested in broadening its search for football sites and ownership groups, there is concern that political support for the new Coliseum will continue to inhibit any new efforts in the greater Los Angeles area.

“Peter O’Malley and R.D. Hubbard have kept their word and not interfered in the process,” said Ridley-Thomas. “The only other entity in the market--South Park--has been a flagrant violator, and oddly enough, is the least likely site to get consideration.”

Representatives from South Park could not be reached for comment.

The new Coliseum’s exclusive opportunity to court NFL favor began with talk for a new downtown sports arena. Riordan had asked O’Malley to explore the possibility of building a football facility next to Dodger Stadium more than two years ago, but the mayor backed away from the Dodger owner’s bid when it became apparent that O’Malley was not willing to wage the political fight to overcome neighborhood opposition to expansion of Chavez Ravine.

Ridley-Thomas also sought such support from South Park and Hollywood Park, and received assurances that they would no longer pursue their plans.

A short time later, Edward Roski and Philip Anschutz, owners of the Kings and the developers for the proposed downtown sports arena, stepped forward to lead the campaign for the new Coliseum.

“What the commissioner said does not impact us at all,” said Roski. “I always thought we had competition. You can do this project at Hollywood Park, but the new Coliseum is the only place in Los Angeles that it can be done. So we welcome the competition, the fact that it is there, has never been a factor in my thought process.”

Roski and Ridley-Thomas delivered a finance plan to the NFL’s stadium committee this week for a $300-million football stadium that would include $150 million in public funds to be collected by having the state create zones around sports facilities in which sales taxes would be used for the project.

“The fact that L.A. people are willing to work at the state level, and not something that would just work in L.A. but something that over time would work through California, was a very significant step forward,” said Tagliabue.

The NFL, however, appeared more impressed with the finance plan and state solution to stadium problems in Oakland, San Diego and San Francisco than with the new Coliseum’s ownership group.

“Who says the state funding idea couldn’t be used to raise funds to make it work at Dodger Stadium,” said one NFL official.