Rams, Jilted by O.C., Courted by Baltimore : Football: Former home of Colts wants a new team, believes luring club can be a boon to local economy.

There’s a beautiful view of the baseball jewel that is Oriole Park at Camden Yards. But as Peter Angelos peers out his office window, his thoughts are on football and Southern California, where few seem to sympathize with the financial struggles of an NFL team he’s trying to buy.

“Based on what I’ve read, it seems Anaheim and Orange County public officials are not prepared to make any particular contribution or sacrifice to retain the Rams, and I respect that,” said Angelos, the Baltimore Orioles’ majority owner who is spearheading efforts to lure a football team here.

“That’s a decision they have a right to make, and they’re obliged to make it since they represent the public. Maybe the people in Orange County are wiser . . . but the attitude here is completely opposite.”

Still stinging from the Baltimore Colts’ move to Indianapolis in 1984, the state is ready to build a stadium, fans are poised to buy tickets and sell out expensive luxury suites and club seats, and the governor of Maryland has made personal appeals for a football team.

“What differentiates us from so many cities is our elected officials treat sports franchises as economic development,” said Herb Belgrad, chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority. “And we have the numbers to support it.”

Baltimore’s gung-ho approach could pay off. Ten days ago, Angelos met with Rams officials, and last week he said a deal to bring the Rams to Baltimore in 1995 was a possibility within nine weeks.

With just such a deal in mind, the Maryland General Assembly has kept a $160-million financing package, using a mixture of tax-free bonds and special lottery revenue, in place to construct a football stadium in Camden Yards should Baltimore land a team.

A similar financing deal was passed to construct the $105-million baseball stadium, which opened near downtown’s Inner Harbor in 1992 and has been widely acclaimed for its traditional design, intimate feel and state-of-the-art features.

The total statewide economic effect of the Orioles’ first season at Camden Yards was $226 million in gross sales, $77 million in employee income and the equivalent of 2,340 jobs, according to a Maryland Department of Economic and Employment Development Office study.

Statewide tax receipts from the 1992 baseball season were $9.4 million, and local tax receipts totaled $6.4 million. Tourism in Baltimore increased 12% from 1991 to 1992.

“These are very significant figures when you consider our tax base is eroding and when you have unemployment,” said Belgrad, who headed an unsuccessful bid to land an NFL expansion team for the city last fall.

The intangible benefits are significant as well.

“What the stadium has done for the city’s pride and excitement is unbelievable,” Belgrad said. “People come downtown all summer, you see them emerging from their offices and going to the park, and they’re happy, enjoying themselves. Isn’t that what a city’s all about?

“The stadium has revitalized the downtown area, and it attracts tourists, so it’s difficult to understand why other cities don’t appreciate those benefits. They think, ‘Uh-oh, there’s going to be more taxes going to help some rich owner.’ But the benefits are many.”

A 1991 state study estimated that an NFL team in Baltimore would generate $86 million a year for the local economy, and Angelos believes Baltimore fans, jilted when their beloved Colts left for Indianapolis in 1984, would welcome another team.

The local enthusiasm for football in Baltimore is not mirrored in Anaheim. Although a group of civic boosters was formed last week to work to keep the Rams in Orange County and Newport Beach-based sports agent Leigh Steinberg said he would also join the fight, a recent Times Orange County poll suggests that the group faces an uphill struggle.

The poll of 600 registered voters showed 75% oppose county government “financial assistance” to keep the Rams, and 68% feel keeping the Rams is unimportant to them personally. Some 37% say the team is unimportant to the local economy.

While negotiating to buy a minority interest in the Rams, Angelos is also attempting to purchase the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Colts “are still a tradition here,” said Angelos, an attorney whose firm has settled about $750 million in asbestos-related suits in the last decade. “They’re like an heirloom that someone spirited away--it’s gone, and people want it back. (The NFL effort) has gotten larger than just having a pro football team here. It has become a restoration of civic pride.”

But can the Rams or another NFL team replace the Colts in the hearts of Baltimore fans? Baltimore Sun columnist John Steadman, who wrote four books on the Colts and attended every Colts game, home and away, from 1950-84, isn’t so sure.

“Long ago, someone called Baltimore a big Green Bay, and that was right,” Steadman said. “There was a euphoria for the home team that gave you reason to wonder what fans’ priorities were. People used to name their children after Colt players. They had a stake in the games like they owned the club or were a part of it.

“But I don’t think you’ll ever see that kind of affection and enthusiasm for a team here again. Had we gotten an expansion team, I think fans would have felt they’d grow up with the team and be a part of it. But going after the Rams, it seems they’d lose a little bit of that ability to say they’re ours.”

The passion for football--even if it isn’t the Colts--remains, though. During the recent NFL expansion race, Baltimore was the first of five cities to sell out all of its luxury suites (100) and club seats (7,500) in the proposed stadium. Charlotte and Jacksonville eventually were awarded teams.

A new Canadian Football League team in Baltimore, called the CFL Colts, has sold about 20,000 season tickets as its inaugural season approaches.

“And that’s summer football,” Angelos said. “You look at that reaction, and you have to say to yourself, ‘Is there any better market for football?’ I say no. This is football country.”

Angelos is confident that if Baltimore can attract an NFL team and the city builds a stadium to rival Oriole Park at Camden Yards, fans will flock to football games as they do to baseball games--the Orioles ranked fourth in Major League attendance last year, attracting more than 3.6 million fans, and most games in the 47,000-seat stadium are sold out.

“It’s a festive kind of situation down there,” Angelos said. “People are all caught up in it. They like coming here. . . . I’d like to see an NFL team become part of the community like the Orioles are in the process of becoming.”

Some have wondered why Angelos would want to buy a minority interest in the Rams--why he’d spend millions for a share of a team he’d basically have no control over.

But Angelos said his primary goal is to land an NFL team and complete the Camden Yards sports complex, which, according to plans developed seven years ago, calls for a football stadium to go with the baseball facility.

“This is something urban areas should do throughout the country because it’s good for the economy, it’s good for young and old people, and you’re doing something that is not commonplace,” Angelos said. “And isn’t it about time we did these things in this country?

“Thirty years ago when everyone’s banner was flying, this country was going to do all these things. But this country has stood still for too long. The Camden Yards project is something we need to finish, so we can hold it out as an example for others to follow. That’s a part of America we should be showcasing.”