Coliseum Officials Show They Won’t Wait Forever

So what’s it going to be, NFL?

Deal or no deal?

That’s the bold message a few influential members of the Coliseum Commission sent this week, when they suggested exploring other possibilities for the 83-year-old stadium in case an NFL deal doesn’t get traction soon. That one option is handing control of the stadium to USC only makes the situation more intriguing.

The turn of events could mean a lot of different things to a lot of people:

To new NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who’s in Southern California today for separate meetings with the mayors of Los Angeles and Anaheim, it’s another reminder of how complicated and messy this whole affair has become. When complaints of foot-dragging start coming from the Coliseum -- an old standby with seemingly endless time to wade through on-and-off NFL negotiations -- you know the meandering has gone on too long.

To USC, it’s a delicate but enticing situation. If the school were to take control of the stadium with a long-term agreement, it could make necessary improvements with the comfort of knowing the Trojans would be playing there for years to come. The idea is a fragile one for university officials, though, because they don’t want a potential master-lease agreement to be viewed as a land grab. It bodes well for USC that the suggestion came from a commission meeting and not from the school.

To Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, it’s time for some tough decisions. Someone told him he should be at that May meeting of NFL owners in Dallas, the one billed -- yet again -- as a make-or-break moment for L.A. That someone steered him wrong. There was no deal to be made. Soon, the mayor may need to decide whether to move on or continue to throw his political weight behind a Coliseum deal that might not materialize. He could even come out in favor of Dodger Stadium.

To Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, it could be a very significant development. Coliseum backers have a reputation for discouraging other proposals, particularly ones within the city limits. Peter O’Malley gave up on building a venue at Dodger Stadium when then-Mayor Richard Riordan cast his lot with the Coliseum. Casey Wasserman and Tim Leiweke abandoned their downtown stadium project after the Coliseum made a timely announcement that it would allocate $1 million to woo the NFL.

But what if the Coliseum bows out of the NFL derby? Does that mean the door is open for a fresh proposal in L.A.? A stadium at Chavez Ravine? Next to Staples Center? Or in Eli Broad’s backyard?

If the Coliseum Commission does entertain other offers and winds up handing over the keys to USC, it might as well be a book club or coffee klatch. The university will deal directly with the state.

It’s clear that the NFL wants back into the nation’s second-largest market. What’s not clear is how much the league is willing to pay to return.

“California -- and Los Angeles -- is the gateway to Asia, to Central and South America,” said Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots. “How we cannot be in an urban area like Los Angeles.... “

No one in the NFL’s Park Avenue offices knows the L.A. landscape better than Goodell, who was a key player in the last go-round, when Houston billionaire Robert McNair outbid two local groups for the 32nd franchise.

But the latest twist serves as fresh evidence that California is a very tough place to do business. Even though it has the world’s sixth-largest economy, this state has three of the oldest and, financially speaking, least-competitive stadiums in the NFL.

“You have three teams relegated to the bottom of the league in gross revenues ... and they’re playing in the richest, largest and one of the fastest-growing states in the union,” said Carmen Policy, formerly president of the San Francisco 49ers and later a minority owner of the Cleveland Browns. “That creates a lot of frustration and confusion.”

California taxpayers are not going to open their wallets to help build a football stadium, and the NFL understands that. The league has made it clear that if it moves forward on a stadium in the L.A./Anaheim area, it would put up the estimated $800 million to build and pass that expense along to the team owner. However, it’s highly unlikely that team owners are going to pay for the construction of a stadium without a specific future L.A. team identified.

What that means for the other California teams is unclear. The San Diego Chargers and San Francisco 49ers want new stadiums. The Oakland Raiders are heading that way too, although they haven’t been able to sell out the luxury suites they already have.

The Chargers have given up trying to find a stadium development partner in San Diego, a city that recently had four mayors in the span of a year and is on the brink of bankruptcy. Team officials are discussing the construction of a privately financed stadium in Chula Vista or National City, but there’s no indication they’ll get anything done.

Under their Qualcomm Stadium lease, the Chargers can begin entertaining offers from other cities after Jan. 1, and they’re free to leave San Diego after the 2008 season. It’s conceivable they could wind up in Anaheim, which they consider part of their market.

As for the 49ers, they have been angling for a new stadium since the late 1990s. In 1997, San Francisco voters approved $100 million in publicly financed bonds for a stadium-mall project. That concept is long gone -- and so, probably, is the public money.

Now the 49ers are talking about building an urban village along with a stadium on the Monster Park site. But even legendary 49ers coach Bill Walsh said, “If San Francisco gets a stadium, it won’t be for 10 years.”

After Southern California, the next stop on Goodell’s tour around the NFL is San Francisco, where Sunday he’ll watch the 0-3 Raiders play the 1-3 49ers. The Raiders are 13-38 since 2003, the league’s worst record, and San Francisco is second worst at 14-38. It lends some truth to the argument that less-competitive stadium deals lead to less-competitive teams.

The league has much higher hopes for L.A., of course. It wants a great team, a great owner and a great stadium.

Now that’s some real California dreamin’.

sam.farmer@latimes.com