Rams May Face Eviction From Practice Facility

The Los Angeles Rams have failed to come to terms on a lease agreement for their practice facility and have been told to expect an eviction notice as early as this week, officials said Tuesday.

City Atty. Jack L. White said the city and the Rams have failed to beat a deadline set by Magnolia School District officials, the owners of the property, to sign a lease or face having the National Football League team evicted from the site.

“It doesn’t look promising,” White said about reaching a lease agreement with the Rams and preventing the team’s eviction. “We’re at the mercy of the school district.”

As of late Tuesday night, White said, the city was still waiting to hear from the team about an 11th-hour proposal it had made. He said if the team accepts the offer today, he hopes the district will consider an extension of the deadline.

Magnolia School District Supt. Paul S. Mercier said the district had not been formally notified of the lease impasse but said if the Rams refuse to sign an extension, “the district will be forced to ask them to vacate the property immediately.

“We had hoped that this matter could have been resolved,” said Mercier, who noted that the district’s deadline for signing the lease already had been extended twice. “The Rams are making their decision. We’re not kicking them out, they’re walking away from a fair lease.”

John Shaw, Rams executive vice president, said he hasn’t “even contemplated looking for a new practice facility, because it’s incomprehensible to me that the city and school board would evict the Rams from their practice facility. Maybe I remain an optimist, but until we’re actually evicted, I won’t look for a new facility site.”

The lease dispute is further indication of strained relations between city and Rams officials, who have publicly said they intend to explore moving to another city with greater financial opportunities.

“This is a separate issue” from moving, said Shaw, who is in Orlando, Fla., this week for the NFL owners’ meetings. “But I feel the city is giving us a signal in the way this whole matter has been handled.”

City and district officials said they feel the same about the Rams’ negotiating style.

For months, the city and school district officials--who lease the site to the city, which then sublets it to the Rams--have tried unsuccessfully to meet the team’s demands over the extension of the lease.

One point of contention is who should pay up to $1.2 million to restore the site, formerly the Juliette Low Elementary School, to its original condition should the Rams leave. The school district wants that amount, plus a $250,000 penalty, if the team terminates the proposed lease early.

The Rams say restoration costs plus the penalty are too much. They said the city implied in the past that it would pay half the restoration. But, Shaw said, after school district officials toured Rams Park and came up with a worst-case figure of $1.2 million, the city amended its offer to something significantly less.

“That was not acceptable,” Shaw said.

The city has maintained that the Rams were obligated under their old lease, which expired Dec. 31, to pay for the restoration themselves. City Manager James D. Ruth said the city was willing to pay some restoration costs for changes made to accommodate the team when it moved into the facility 15 years ago, but the Rams have demanded more from the city.

“There’s no rational reason why we should pay for that,” Ruth said. “We feel we’ve made every reasonable effort to resolve this.”

The Rams say a larger issue causing a rift between the city and the team is the inadequate condition of Rams Park and promises the team believes the city has made.

“It was our understanding that the city would provide a new facility at the expiration of that lease or $7 million in improvements at Rams Park,” Shaw said. “We have said that Rams Park is an inadequate facility; that’s the whole issue.”

City officials say they made no such promises. They have said in the past that the city only agreed to provide a new facility if the school district decided not to lease the site and reopen it as a school.

Although Mercier said the district probably would ask the team to vacate immediately, he did not know when they would leave, noting that the Rams might try to challenge the action in court.

Asked if the Rams might consider legal action upon receiving an eviction notice, Shaw said, “We feel the city has breached a promise.”

The Rams have announced they intend to exercise an escape clause in their Anaheim Stadium lease on May 3. They are currently being courted by several cities, including Baltimore and St. Louis.

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