ANAHEIM : Rams Practice Field Accord Falls Apart

The city thought it had reached an agreement with the Los Angeles Rams on Tuesday for a new 10-year lease for the football team’s practice facility, and released a copy of the document.

But by the time the City Council met Tuesday night, the agreement had been scrubbed and both sides were heading back to the bargaining table.

“I think we are very close to an agreement. It’s basically one issue,” said City Atty. Jack White. He declined to elaborate.

Rams spokesman Rick Smith said the team would have no comment until an agreement is reached.

The agreement on a practice site, whenever it is reached, will not tie the team to the city and will have an escape clause allowing the team to break the lease if it carries through on its threat and moves out of Anaheim after next football season.

Since moving to Anaheim from Los Angeles in 1980 the Rams have practiced at the former Juliette Low Elementary School--a Magnolia School District campus that was closed because of declining enrollment.

The city leases the school from the school district and sublets it to the Rams.

Under Tuesday’s aborted agreement, the city would have paid Magnolia $250,000 this year in rent, up from the $120,000 the district had been receiving. The rent would have increased by $12,500 annually between 1995 and 1998. Between 1998 and 2003, the rent would have increased by the rate of inflation or by 4%, whichever was less.

The Rams would have continued to pay the city $120,000 annually, which has been the team’s rent since it began subleasing the school. The city would have paid the difference out of its $21-million stadium budget, which is financed primarily by rental payments from the California Angels baseball team, the Rams and other exhibitors such as concert and racing promoters.

To have broken the lease, the Rams would have had to give six months’ notice and paid the school district one year’s unsubsidized rent--$250,000.

The Rams announced last month that they will give the city notice in May that they may move at the end of the 1994 season. The team is being courted by officials from several cities--the most prominent being Baltimore and St. Louis--which are each promising new stadiums and low rents if the team will move to their city.

The Rams’ lease with the city for Anaheim Stadium expires in 2015, but it has an escape clause that allows the team to leave if it gives 15 months’ notice and pays the remaining $30 million owed on bonds issued to expand the stadium for the team when it moved there. Even if the team gives notice, team officials could change their mind and remain in Anaheim.