Flavor of the week

All eyes on Carson as NFL's L.A. stadium plans move ahead

PHILADELPHIA -- Checking in on league owners on the first day of their spring meetings, one thought kept running through my head: It just wouldn't be May without the NFL turning its thoughts to L.A.

In what is fast becoming a rite of spring, the league's return to Los Angeles took center stage Tuesday, as the masters of the universe met here to forward their latest, greatest plan to get the NFL back into the nation's second-largest TV market.

The one-word solution on everyone's lips Tuesday was Carson, as in the L.A.-area community that is back at the forefront of the fight for professional football in Los Angeles. Nobody runs the option in the NFL any more, but the league loves employing the principle when it comes to cultivating stadium development possibilities in Southern California.

That's why NFL owners voted Tuesday to spend up to $10 million to secure a two-year development option on a 157-acre tract of land in Carson, giving the league a very viable alternative besides remaining in bed with the city of Pasadena and a renovated Rose Bowl.

For the record, the league's poobahs on Tuesday maintained that Pasadena and Carson remain in a "dead heat" to win the distinction of being the NFL's chosen one in L.A. But it didn't take much to read between the lines of the league's freshly adopted G-2 Resolution and see that Carson is the new flavor of the week in Los Angeles.

NFL likely to pick Miami for 2007 Super Bowl NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said Tuesday at the league's meetings that Miami was "at the 97 percent or higher point of what has to be accomplished" for Pro Player Stadium to host the title game in February 2007. FULL STORY

Just like Philip Anschutz was last year at this time. Just like Michael Ovitz was in 1999, and before him, R.D. Hubbard with the Hollywood Park proposal.

Once again, the NFL's refrain is "We love L.A. We need L.A." And to that league owners added, tellingly, "And we're willing to spend money to keep our L.A. dream alive." Especially if you can deliver by 2006 at the earliest and 2008 at the latest.

That's why Carson nosed ahead in the perpetual horse race that is all about filling the void left by the departing Rams and Raiders in 1995. NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue repeatedly referred to Carson and Pasadena as "parallel tracks" or "symmetrical stadium projects," but I'll give you 10 million reasons why that's not an entirely accurate portrayal.

"I think when you spend up to $10 million, that's real money," New England owner Robert Kraft said, moments after he and his fellow owners voted 30-1 (with the Colts abstaining) to exercise the development option in Carson. "That's being proactive. Taking the option on the Carson site, that definitely puts us in play. We hope we can come out with a suitable stadium site in Los Angeles.

"I think what's happening in Los Angeles is good, and the league very much wants to be there. I know since I've come into the league we've been talking about re-emerging in L.A., and I think this is the beginning of getting a team placed there."

Here's how the league's arrangement with Carson will work: The NFL is giving the city's development group, GMS Realty, up to $10 million to figure out if the site works for a potential stadium construction. The league would pay for building the stadium, then transfer ownership to the team's eventual owner.

If the city of Carson and the developer do everything it says it will do and the site is approved for construction, the NFL would forfeit $3.2 million of the initial $10 million investment -- or $100,000 per owner -- if it walks away from the deal for any reason. But if Carson can't make viable the stadium site -- and the property is located on a landfill that has been earmarked for a shopping center -- then the entire $10 million must be refunded to the league.

So you see, the NFL is putting its money where its mouth is in Carson. In the nine-month effort to make the renovated Rose Bowl the league's No. 1 L.A. option, it has been all talk and no pay. Tagliabue said the league would be open to discussing the funding of part of Pasadena's developmental costs, but that's a step that will be clearly in response to the NFL's agreement with Carson.

John Moag, the point man for the Rose Bowl's renovation project, said Tuesday he was "blindsided" by the NFL's agreement with Carson -- an assessment that doesn't sound like he's convinced Pasadena still has equal status in the league's eyes.

Others, like Denver owner Pat Bowlen, came out and said the obvious.

"I don't know that Carson is the lead horse, but I think they've got probably the best proposal out there as far as we're concerned,'' Bowlen said. "But the Rose Bowl is still very much in contention and that could develop into the best option."

Of course, the NFL always does business by creating competition for its prestigious name brand. After all, the deals are always better when there's more than one suitor involved.

"There's a very strong feeling that both of these projects are symmetrical," Tagliabue said. "They both have the potential to be state of the art stadiums, and neither one involves any ownership. ... What we're interested is a state-of-the-art stadium, and one that has be unlinked from team ownership. Pasadena has always presented itself on that basis and now the Carson project is presented on the same basis."

Though the league tried to maintain that the Los Angeles Coliseum is still a viable possibility as well, Tagliabue acknowledged that it is a distant third option, at best. "I think it'd have to be fair to say that Pasadena and Carson, having worked with us for the better part of a year on parallel tracks, are considered further ahead," the commissioner said.

Added Bowlen: "I was here the last time around with the Coliseum, so I'm not real optimistic about the Los Angeles Coliseum."

With the earliest possible targeted return to L.A. by the NFL being in 2006, the league has no current interest in trying to identify the team that would occupy the market or the owner who would head that franchise. The NFL only wants to get the long-sought-after stadium piece in place, then let the other moves occur in due course. What that supposes is that teams battling for new stadiums -- such as San Diego, Minnesota and Indianapolis -- will have to make due in their current markets until then.

Whether they quietly will accept that fate, rather than make a grab for the ripe Los Angeles market, agreeing perhaps to play a season or two at the Coliseum while a new stadium is built, is a question that remains unanswered. The league never has successfully blocked a team from relocating, and there is almost uniform agreement within the NFL that whichever team or teams end up in L.A., expansion is not the likely method of filling the vacancy.

The Rose Bowl renovation is thought possible in time for the 2006 season, while the Carson project is said to be looking at 2007. Either way, there was real optimism Tuesday that the league is starting to zero in on the two stadium sites that stand the greatest chance of success.

"I guess the thing I like best about it [the Carson project] is it's something that could happen in a relatively short period of time," Bowlen said.

That accelerated timetable fits nicely with the remaining length of the NFL's TV contract, which expires after the 2005 season. The league wants very much to have the L.A. market back in play when it sits down for those much anticipated negotiations.

"I'm optimistic," Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said. "I think we need to be there [in L.A.]. Football is the most popular sport in America and some day soon I hope we'll see a team in Los Angeles.

"The league certainly has a passion and a dedication to try and make the L.A. market work, and I think there's enough people in Los Angeles who recognize there's an opportunity here. I'd like to think this is the beginning of the final phase, where good things happen in Los Angeles for pro football."

Good for pro football; bad for its owners. After all, without L.A., what would they focus on each May?

Don Banks covers pro football for SI.com

 

Related information

Stories

Previous Don Banks Columns NFL playoffs expansion tops owners' agenda NFL close to picking Pro Player for 2007 Super Bowl

Multimedia

Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video