L.A. Is in the Middle of NFL’s Delay of Game

Two years ago, the NFL was looking at three potential stadium sites in the Los Angeles area. A year later, there were still three competing sites.

And now? Three sites, even after Carson dropped out of the race.

“What’s that tell you?” Buffalo Bill owner Ralph Wilson said as he walked through the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton hotel. “Not much happening.”

The league wrapped up another May meeting Wednesday without making a decision on when to return to the nation’s second-largest market, a place estranged from the NFL for the last decade, or where to build a stadium. Three stadium concepts are under consideration -- at the Coliseum, Rose Bowl and Anaheim -- but the progress has been glacial at best.

If there’s a solution in sight, it’s not apparent to every owner.

“I don’t see one any time soon,” said Baltimore Raven owner Steve Bisciotti, citing “the apathy of the L.A. market” as one issue holding up the process.

Pittsburgh Steeler owner Dan Rooney said he was confident the league was on track to return to the L.A. area, which has been without an NFL team since after the 1994 season.

“The ball is moving forward,” he said. “Everybody sees it, everybody wants it to happen.”

Said Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets: “I think we want to be in L.A. It’s a big market. We should be represented there. There’s a huge appetite for football there that hasn’t been satisfied for years. Ultimately, we’ll be there.”

But the league, which has said it’s ready to pay for the stadium, is operating on its own timeline. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue has told owners that before picking an L.A. site the league must first resolve its pressing financial issues of revenue sharing, the future of the stadium-loan program, and an extension of the collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union. Tagliabue has scheduled five meetings, one per month from June through October, to work out the extension of the collective bargaining agreement.

How that will affect the L.A. timeline is unclear.

“Right at the moment,” he said, “the only timeline I have in my head is for the five meetings.”

The clock is ticking, however, in New Orleans and San Diego. The Saints have broken off negotiations with Louisiana officials over the size of subsidies the state should pay to keep the franchise in New Orleans. The Chargers want a new stadium and are hoping to get a measure for one on the November 2006 ballot. Over the last decade, several teams have used the threat of relocating to L.A. to spur their cities into action. The league, meanwhile, is holding out the option of putting an expansion franchise in L.A.

For now, the priority is deciding where an L.A. team will play.

“We’ve been trying to get that done for as long as I can remember and it hasn’t happened,” Denver Bronco owner Pat Bowlen said. “So until that happens, I’m not going to start worrying about whether it’s going to be an expansion or a relocated team.”