Anaheim’s Super Bowl Hopes Punted : Football: City officials have stopped trying to lure the game to the Big A. Rams’ lack of NFL clout and stadium size are cited.

When the Los Angeles Rams moved here nearly 12 years ago, city leaders thought it only a matter of time before Super Bowl Sunday--the nation’s largest sporting event--would be celebrated in Orange County.

The presence of a tradition-rich football franchise was thought to be the anchor that would assure the already-attractive tourist mecca a chance to cash in on the ultimate football game and the millions of dollars it generates for host cities annually.

Five years ago, some city officials were all but counting the profits when they commissioned a glitzy video starring network sports broadcaster Dick Enberg to extol Anaheim’s virtues for Super Bowl XXV.

Even with Enberg narrating the $10,000-plus production, the city was eliminated on the first ballot in 1987 when last year’s host city of Tampa was chosen. By all accounts, it was a bitter defeat that was due partly to Anaheim’s place in the shadow of the mammoth Los Angeles Coliseum and even larger Rose Bowl in Pasadena, where the next Super Bowl will be played.

But many, including City Councilman Irv Pickler and former Councilwoman Miriam Kaywood, believe the Rams’ lack of political clout with other National Football League owners may doom Anaheim’s dream of ever hosting the league’s showcase event.

The NFL owners “were drooling over our facilities,” Kaywood said, recalling the city’s last serious attempt to attract the event in 1987. “This may be confidential, but a lot of it depends on the team owner, and she (Georgia Frontiere) is not well-liked by the owners. That’s a fact.”

Even the ever-optimistic Mayor Fred Hunter, who never misses an opportunity to hype what he calls “Anaheim’s can-do spirit,” said the city has no hope of bringing the game to Anaheim.

“Nobody talks about it anymore,” he said.

NFL owners apparently agree, but not for the reason that city officials cite.

Rams and NFL officials say choosing a site for the Super Bowl has become a simple business decision. And when Pasadena was named the site for next year’s game, Anaheim Stadium’s 69,000-seat capacity could not compare with the Rose Bowl’s 103,000.

“Let me tell you this,” said Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Braman, chairman of the league’s Super Bowl Site Selection Committee, “if the determining factor was the local team in these decisions, the Rams and Anaheim would climb to the top of the list, absolutely.

Rams Executive Vice President “John Shaw is absolutely one of the most respected executives in the National Football League, one of the very, very most respected men we have,” Braman said. “Georgia, also, is very respected as an owner, without question.”

Shaw also believes the concerns raised by city leaders are “unfounded” and credited the Rams front office, including Frontiere, with playing a major role in bringing the 1993 game to Los Angeles; though not in Anaheim.

Despite it taking place outside of Orange County, the game and the added visitors will still mean a bonanza for local hotels, restaurants and Disneyland, translating into a respectable share of sales tax revenue for the city, Shaw said.

Because of its seating capacity, Shaw admits that Anaheim Stadium will always be a difficult choice for the selection committee as long as there is an L.A. Coliseum (football capacity 92,516) and Rose Bowl a short distance up the Santa freeways.

“Just bringing the game to Southern California is considered bringing it to the Rams,” Shaw said. “We’re considered a host city. When they come to Southern California, they are always going to take it to the larger venue.”

Of recent comments questioning the strength of Rams management, Shaw said: “It is as far from the truth as can be.”

Still, some can’t help but draw comparisons between the Rams ownership and the Anaheim-based California Angels who, under the stewardship of owner Gene Autry, have played host to Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game twice, and are reportedly gunning for a third.

Although baseball typically is not as demanding as the NFL on seating requirements, Anaheim Stadium General Manager Greg Smith said that the league has been so happy in previous visits that he “wouldn’t be surprised” to see Anaheim hosting its third All-Star Game before the end of the decade.

“Mr. Autry has been around for a number of years and is very influential,” Smith said. “The only comparison (between the two clubs) is that Gene has been around. I think it’s only fair to say that both John Shaw and Mrs. Frontiere have respect from owners in the way they run the ballclub. They are kind of a new generation, even though they’ve been around for 12 years.

“It’s a shame that Anaheim has never been awarded a game,” Smith said. “Considering what the Rams and Anaheim have given to the NFL, the NFL has passed us by too many times.”

Councilman Pickler said perhaps more than any other city, Anaheim--with its many hotels, a convention center that ranks as the largest on the West Coast and Disneyland--should more than make up for stadium size in attracting the bowl.

In its last attempt to get the game, the city offered to provide an additional 6,000 seats, along with what have become standard elements in Super Bowl site agreements: free stadium rental, hotel accommodations for teams and league officials, meals and transportation throughout the city.

Among other amenities, according to the Enberg video, Disneyland had offered NFL owners use of its exclusive Club 33 as a private dining and entertainment facility.

The video also touted the area’s proximity to local beaches, golf courses, other theme parks and racetracks as added attractions.

“It would have been phenomenal,” Pickler said. “We gave into everything they wanted. I don’t know if they have something against Georgia or not. She went all out.

And so, when the Buffalo Bills and the Washington Redskins tee it up today in Minneapolis, motorcycles will be buzzing the dirt floor of the Big A in a Super Bowl Sunday motocross event.

Greg Aiello, the NFL’s director of communications, said the league considers many factors when picking a site and has never viewed the location of a Super Bowl as a gift to a league franchise.

Discussing next year’s choice of the Rose Bowl, “when you compare it against Anaheim Stadium, the Rose Bowl has some very attractive features,” Aiello said, “and among those features the seating capacity is No. 1.”

Resigned to the city’s unsuccessful attempts to bring the game to Orange County, Hunter said Anaheim a few years ago joined the Sports Council, a Los Angeles-based coalition of sports and business figures that tries to bring major sporting events to the area.

“I feel like the other owners are not going to allow us to have it here,” Hunter said. “We joined because of the failures and felt we could at least get it back to the Rose Bowl.

“We get the hotel business, but we’re still not getting the whole pie.”

Times Staff Writer Tim Kawakami contributed to this report.