Latest city with NFL ideas: ambitious Garden Grove

And now, it’s the National Football League live from ... Garden Grove?

Orange County’s fourth-largest city, a town best known for its annual Strawberry Festival, has never shied from thinking big.

City leaders once toyed with building a Las Vegas-style hotel-casino or a theme park in their struggling downtown. There was a plan to build a replica of London Bridge across a faux river, which later resurfaced as a plan for something called Music City Riverwalk, a music-themed entertainment complex. Middle Eastern investors once proposed an Oasis of Peace, a museum and cultural center dedicated to the late King Hussein of Jordan.

So, Garden Grove officials are now considering a late entry into the sweepstakes for a professional football franchise.

“We’ve gone out on quite a few limbs before,” said City Manager Matt Fertal, “and this would be a pretty far-fetched proposal.”

City officials said this week they would be interested in allowing the NFL to build a stadium on the city-owned Willowick Golf Course, which -- to be technical -- is actually in Santa Ana. Officials in that city said any proposal would have to go through their planning process.

Farfetched? Perhaps. But Garden Grove has entertained such football Sunday thoughts before. The city sent a proposal to the Minnesota Vikings when team officials were considering a move to another city more than five years ago, Fertal said. The golf course site, less than a mile from the city’s Harbor Boulevard downtown area, is currently being considered by city officials for a theme park.

“A stadium would tie in greatly to our entertainment district and link up to Disneyland,” he said. “If the NFL is interested and there’s an opportunity to have a conversation, we’d certainly welcome it.”

Fertal said he had not yet officially contacted NFL officials about the city’s interest.

Garden Grove’s curiosity comes at a time when the Los Angeles Coliseum and Anaheim are considering other options than being host to an NFL franchise. As the estimated cost of a renovated Coliseum climbs toward $1 billion, Coliseum and USC officials have begun talking about a long-term deal, possibly shutting the door on the NFL. And after two years of wrangling with the NFL, Anaheim officials are weighing a number of entertainment and residential proposals for their 50-acre stadium site next to Angel Stadium.

NFL officials wouldn’t discuss Garden Grove’s overtures.

“We remain focused on the two sites,” said Brian McCarthy, an NFL spokesman, “and decline comment on any other sites.”

For years, Garden Grove officials have hoped to cash in on the city’s proximity to Disneyland and the Anaheim Convention Center. As the Disney Resort has expanded with Downtown Disney and California Adventure, Garden Grove has added about 2,000 hotel rooms, a multiplex theater and several restaurants, hoping to capitalize.

The city’s latest goal is to further develop its entertainment district on Harbor Boulevard, just up the street from Disneyland, and call it International West, modeled after International Drive in Orlando. It would stretch from Chapman Avenue to south of the 22 Freeway. Some city officials once believed a casino could anchor their downtown, but casino talk has died down, in part because of an explosion in hotel bed tax revenue from Disneyland’s 50th anniversary.

Garden Grove is best known for its Strawberry Festival, which debuted in 1958. The festival is the second-largest community-sponsored event in the Western U.S., second only to the Rose Parade. The event’s most famous grand marshal, Bobby Kennedy, presided over the parade in 1964. This year, the grand marshal was Jerry Mathers, the star of TV’s “Leave It to Beaver.” The city’s most noteworthy landmark is the Crystal Cathedral.

Realizing that strawberries and the Crystal Cathedral may not be enough to sway NFL owners, Fertal said the 100-acre golf site would probably be offered to the league at a steep discount.

“That would be our carrot to get their attention,” he said.

City Council members Janet Nguyen and Harry Krebs said the possibility of an NFL team playing in Garden Grove was news to the council, but neither immediately dismissed the idea.

“I’d be very interested in looking at it in greater detail,” Nguyen said. “It’s a free market. Why not put the best opportunities and ideas into the site?”

Said Krebs: “We’ve given away enough stuff. I wouldn’t give that golf course away. But I guess if we can make a consistent increase to our bottom line, it’s worth looking at.”

Nguyen said a football stadium might be a less expensive option than the two theme park proposals being considered for the golf course.

“It could cost the city $100 million to tear down homes and relocate people for a theme park,” Nguyen said. “With a stadium, you don’t have to tear up the whole entire neighborhood. You could make millions and it would really enhance the area.”

david.mckibben@latimes.com