Eyes on L.A.

City's attempt to lure team likely will come via relocation

HOUSTON -- The Houston Texans have yet to play their first game, and already talk is heating up about the next former NFL city waiting in line to get a new team. You remember Los Angeles, don't you?

Here in Texas, the heart of football country, they don't much care about the plight of the City of Angels, the metropolis that Houston beat out in 1999 to win the NFL's latest expansion derby. But you can bet your luxury suite that the league is avidly watching the developments in Los Angeles, where a group headed by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz has told the NFL that it's ready to erect a privately financed football-only stadium near the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.

After seven seasons without a franchise in the nation's second-largest television market, league owners believe they see the end of that particular southern California drought in sight (chart below).

Just how close it might be started to come into focus Tuesday at the NFL's spring owners meeting, when the league took the somewhat surprising step of naming a five-man "commissioner's working group" (read: committee) to study "realistic alternatives" for the return of the NFL to Los Angeles.

Make no mistake, that return would be predicated on the construction of a new stadium and would involve the relocation of a current team, despite NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue leaving open the option of further expansion just a crack Tuesday.

Asked if he believed it was inevitable that the NFL is back in Los Angeles within five years, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was emphatic.

"I think sooner than that," Jones said. "It would surprise me if you don't have a playing team in Los Angeles sooner than that time frame, given the current economic framework. ... Certainly we need [L.A.] in the NFL, and it's very important to our sport to have a team in Los Angeles."

With the NFL and L.A., it always has been a case of if you build it, they will come (back). But for the first time since the Rams and Raiders left town in the spring of 1995, there appears to be real momentum for a stadium solution that doesn't involve the perpetual non-starter -- renovating the tired and decaying Coliseum.

Nobody's willing to declare Anschutz's group a virtual lock to get the NFL back into Los Angeles, but the owners who discussed the situation Tuesday made it clear that the league finally has a horse it thinks it can ride.

"It looks like they're going to get a stadium built in L.A., and I'm sure they'll be a team ready to move there, too," said Titans owner Bud Adams, who moved his Oilers to Tennessee in 1996, paving the way for the city's pursuit of an expansion franchise. "I do [believe it's inevitable that the NFL returns to Los Angeles].

"It'll either be San Diego, Minnesota or Arizona. It'll be one of those three, so you can kind of take your pick. I think Anschutz is quite capable of doing it, building a private-funded stadium. You've got a guy who Forbes lists as the fifth-or sixth-richest man in America. And he's already in the Staples Center out there. He's got the wherewithal and the money to do it if he wants to do it. I think he's serious about doing something."

Getting the likes of Jones and Adams on board the relocation train is one thing. Coaxing an old-school owner like Pittsburgh's Dan Rooney onto that platform is quite another. Rooney has traditionally been opposed to moving franchises, but even he admits there's some real positive buzz emanating from Los Angeles these days.

"I know this, with the people I've talked to from L.A., there seems to be a lot more interest there for the NFL than when those teams left," said Rooney, who along with Cleveland president and minority owner Carmen Policy, Miami owner Wayne Huizenga, New England owner Bob Kraft and Carolina owner Jerry Richardson was named to the commissioner's five-man working group to study L.A.

"I think it's going to have to take a lot of conversation about what's best for the league. I've been one who's not for moving teams. But there might be a case that qualifies."

Especially if the NFL votes to extend its G-3 program -- a special league fund set aside to help finance the construction of new stadiums -- past its scheduled 2003 expiration. The fund is not in place to help teams relocate, but it could be used if a current owner sold all or part of their stake in a team to the Anschutz group, which would then move the franchise to L.A.

"I haven't gotten the details of the [Anschutz stadium proposal] yet, but the most impressive thing about it is the quality of the people that are involved," Jones said. "I would say there are more than one team that I could see, if they don't resolve some of their issues where they are right now, ending up in L.A."

In my experience covering the NFL, I've learned this much. When folks in the league start talking about the quality of the people in regards to potential owners, those people usually wind up owning teams.

Carolina's Richardson and Jacksonville's Wayne Weaver wer described that way just before they were granted membership in the exclusive club, and Houston's Bob McNair got the same exact treatment.

Translated, what those code words mean is that these are substantial, big bucks people, with a high probability of being approved for ownership. You can now officially add Anschutz's name to the list.

"Getting Anschutz involved is a big plus," McNair said. "I think if you get people like that who have adequate resources, which certainly Anschutz does, if he wants to get it done, I don't know any reason why he can't get it done. If he's really committed to it, I would think he has a good chance to be successful.

"But the stadium is going to be the necessary ingredient. Without that, nothing's going to happen. They're going to have to show that they have a viable stadium plan, that's in a good location, and the economics of the stadium makes sense. Those are the basic ingredients that are going to have to be there."

While Tagliabue wouldn't publicly rule out further expansion, lest the fans of several teams rightfully jump to the conclusion that the league on Tuesday agreed to begin studying the process of relocating one team, you can forget that option. The NFL didn't just go through all the work of realigning to a nice, neat 32-team format in order to add a 33rd team to the schedule any time soon. For L.A., it's relocation, or nothing.

In terms of the NFL, the city has tried nothing for the past seven seasons, and it's getting itchy to get back in the game. The alternative? It looks like relocation's time has almost come.

Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.

I Love L.A.?
Our short list for the NFL's relocation derby to come, with rankings based on how we read the tea leaves at this point
Team	Reasoning
	Owner Red McCombs has a track record for dumping teams -- he owned both the NBA's Spurs and Nuggets at various times -- and his stadium situation just isn't going to get resolved in the Twin Cities. Even some of his fellow owners have him No. 1 on the relocation list. "I think Red might sell," Titans owner Bud Adams opined Tuesday. "He's been known to sell before."
	The Chargers have the easiest lease situation to get free of. It ends in two years, after the '03 season. But the city has a right of first refusal and might find a way to keep the Chargers at home with the promise of something on the stadium front. Many, however, have the Chargers the odds-on favorite to play in Los Angeles in 2004, especially after San Diego signed a five-year deal last week to move its training camp to an Anschutz-owned sports facility near L.A. in '03.
	If the Cards can't get their new stadium going, owner Bill Bidwill will have an great case for continuing his westward migration.
	The Saints got some short-term relief from the city and state last year, but owner Tom Benson will look for more help at some point.
	The Colts probably will work it out in Indy, but owner Jim Irsay has concerns about the size of his market and stadium, both of which he views as being too small to compete over the long haul.

 

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