Rams Get Notice to Vacate Longtime Training Facility

Saying they face an “extreme hardship,” the Los Angeles Rams began contemplating life away from Rams Park on Thursday after being notified they were to vacate their longtime headquarters in seven days.

Legal wrangling could delay formal eviction for months, and business continued as usual on the practice field Thursday. But John Shaw, Rams executive vice president, said the National Football League team will begin a serious search for an alternative site.

In the statement, Shaw said he was “shocked and disappointed” by the actions of the city of Anaheim and the Magnolia School District, the site’s owner, in asking the Rams to leave the former Juliette Low School site by Thursday. But city and district officials, unhappy over the team’s unwillingness to sign a long-term lease extension, expressed little sympathy.

“I think anybody who looks at what has gone on over the months of negotiations can hardly characterize this as ‘the poor Rams are being evicted,’ ” said Paul S. Mercier, school district superintendent. “I don’t see this as a difficult IQ test. The Rams say they don’t want to sign the lease. They’re the ones walking away.”

The Rams’ statement did not say whether they would try to do so by Thursday. Shaw, reached by telephone later in Orlando, Fla., at the NFL owners meetings, said he will meet with the team’s attorneys upon his return to Los Angeles today to discuss options. He added that it would be virtually impossible to be relocated by the deadline.

While a number of players use Rams Park daily for weight work and informal practices at this time of year, the team is not scheduled to come together formally until a three-day mini-camp in early May. The Rams would next require full use of locker and practice facilities in late August, at the conclusion of training camp at UC Irvine.

The letter received by the Rams Thursday does not constitute a formal eviction. A team official said he expects the city and school district to begin official proceedings if the Rams remain after March 31 and that it was the Rams’ understanding it would take another 60 to 90 days before they could be forcibly removed.

The Rams’ statement Thursday expressed unhappiness over the eviction “in light of the oral commitments made by the city to spend $7 million for the purchase and renovation of Low School, and because of the Rams’ willingness to agree to a two-year extension offered by the school district in November, 1992.”

“Despite protracted negotiations on the extension of the Low School lease we find it incredible to believe the City of Anaheim evicted us from our offices and practice facility without providing an alternative site,” Shaw said in the statement.

But Mercier said Shaw was being disingenuous when talking about the Rams’ willingness to sign a two-year lease in 1992.

He said the district originally made the offer but changed it to a longer term at the Rams’ request. He said the district spent two years trying to accommodate the Rams, only to have team officials suddenly change their position last fall when it was clear they wanted to explore a move out of Anaheim.

Mercier said the district and city have gone to great lengths to try and address the Rams’ concerns but that the team keeps raising “non-issues” to avoid signing the lease.

City officials also disputed the Rams’ claim that Anaheim ever committed to make $7 million in improvements at Low School or purchase a new practice site for the team.

City Atty. Jack L. White said the city had promised only to find the team a new site if the district decided to convert the property back to a school while the Rams still held a lease.

“To me, that issue is somewhat of a red herring,” White said.

He said, however, that the city would be willing to “put that issue on the table” as part of negotiations to keep the team playing in Anaheim. But to expect the city to “spend $7 million of taxpayers’ money for a new practice facility at the same time the Rams say they are going to leave isn’t reasonable.”

Rams officials have told the city they will exercise an escape clause in their Anaheim Stadium lease May 3 and look to move to another city with greater financial opportunities.

Despite the district’s deadline, White said the city is still willing to try to complete the lease deal and then go to district officials and ask that they rescind their demand that the team vacate.

Under the present proposal, the Rams would have a 10-year lease with a five-year extension option. They could break the lease at any time with six months’ notice but would have to pay a $250,000 penalty. The proposed lease also has the city subsidizing up to $3 million in rental payments for the team over a 15-year period and paying a portion of the restoration costs the team would be required to make if it leaves the facility.

“The proposed lease is a substantial improvement over the team’s previous one,” which expired Dec. 31, White said.

But Rams officials say the proposal is still unfair. They say they have refused to sign the lease because they do not want to pay both a penalty for breaking the lease and the bulk of the restoration costs, which have been estimated between $1.2 million and $1.5 million and which they say should be shared equally by the city.

The Rams also contend that the present site, where the team has practiced for 15 years, is inadequate.

Rams Park includes offices for the coaching and administrative staff, a locker room, a weight room and football field.

* OPTION PLAYS: Colleges in O.C. willing to play host for a while, at least. A12