City, County Officials Echo Voters on Rams : Sports: Like most of those polled on the question of enticing the team to remain in Anaheim, they oppose spending public funds for the purpose. They cite the team’s indifference to the community.

Like the citizens they represent, Anaheim and Orange County officials said Monday that they oppose spending public funds to keep the Los Angeles Rams from leaving the area.

Reacting to a Times Orange County Poll that showed voters are overwhelmingly against county subsidies to the team, several county and city officials said they are unwilling to use taxpayer money to entice the Rams to stay.

The poll also found that only three in 10 voters feel keeping the team is important to them personally, while nearly 70% say it is unimportant. Some elected officials echoed that sentiment as well.

“The Rams have alienated so many people,” County Supervisor William G. Steiner said. “I don’t believe we should be using public money to retain them. It’s not because of the lack of a winning record. It’s because the team has not wanted to become identified with the county and is not more committed to the community.”

He said the poll, which was conducted by Mark Baldassare and Associates for The Times, reflected what he has been hearing in the community for quite some time.

Anaheim Councilman Bob D. Simpson said the poll “reflects a kind of indifference toward professional sports and is a statement that, in these economically hard times, keeping the team is not high on peoples’ list of priorities.”

Simpson said he opposes spending public money on the Rams but is still hoping that “private enterprise might step up” to help keep the team in Orange County.

“The poll doesn’t change my mind about wanting to keep the team,” Simpson said.

Councilman Irv Pickler said he, too, is interested in keeping the team, but not willing to have the public go in debt to achieve that goal.

“We can’t subsidize the team. It’s got to be a two-way street,” Pickler said. “We’ve got to get something in return. The way things are today I think they’re going to leave. They’re not even talking to us right now.”

Rams officials on Monday declined comment on the poll’s findings.

“Right now everyone is thinking about the ’94 season,” said Rick Smith, director of public relations for the Rams. “We think we’re going to have a pretty good team and we’re going to have a lot of good support.”

Last month, the Rams exercised a 15-month escape clause in their Anaheim Stadium lease and started seeking offers to move the franchise to another state. Rams officials, saying their arrangement in Anaheim is not profitable, want to move where they can make more money.

Team officials, however, have said they might remain in Anaheim if a sufficiently lucrative package can be cobbled together for them. But city and county officials admit that is doubtful.

According to The Times poll, three in four voters oppose any county government “financial assistance” to keep the Rams. Among other findings: Some 37% say the team is unimportant to the local economy, while 59% believe the Rams help the local economy. Slightly more than four in 10 call the franchise important to the county’s image, with 54% saying it is unimportant.

Interviews with some of the 600 poll respondents showed that county residents are frustrated with the Rams’ current ownership, losing seasons and lack of commitment to the community.

Steiner said he believes the team’s departure is just a matter of time. But, he said, Orange County should not be eliminated as a future home for another professional football franchise.

“We learned a lot of lessons from the Mighty Ducks,” the supervisor said, referring to the Walt Disney Co.-owned National Hockey League club in Anaheim. “Things can happen with the right team and the right owner. Orange County is a great sports market. There should be no damage to our standing as (an NFL franchise location).”

Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas F. Riley said the county faces too many other pressing financial problems to consider offering aid to the football club.

“I’m not even sure we can keep all the libraries open right now,” Riley said. “We have no money to give. And even if we did, I’m not so sure it would be an appropriate expenditure.”

Riley, once a regular at Rams games, said he has stopped going in the last several years because of heavy traffic and the increasing availability of games on television.

“I would be disappointed if they left. There are a lot of individual players who get involved in activities for underprivileged children. We would miss that. I don’t know what we could give them and I don’t know what they can offer us,” he said. “They don’t have a successful team on the field and the owners don’t have a reputation of being a good neighbor.”