Stadium Funding Prospects Fail to Get Glowing Report : Financing: Bonds would pay for only a third of the $188 million needed for a new Rams facility in Anaheim, consultant says.

Local political and business leaders struggling to keep the Los Angeles Rams in Orange County are downplaying a consultant’s report that could further dim prospects of retaining the team.

According to the report by Public Financial Management in Newport Beach for county supervisors, public financing could pay for just one-third of a new football-only stadium in Anaheim. Bonds could muster only $60 million of the estimated $188 million needed, and it is improbable that private sources could make up the difference, according to the May report, which was released this week.

“There’s no question it would take a major private commitment to achieve new funding on a stadium, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible,” said Newport Beach sports agent Leigh Steinberg, co-chairman of Save the Rams. “A public/private partnership financing plan could still achieve the necessary economics.”

Made up of about 45 local political and business leaders, Save the Rams expects to unveil a final Rams proposal at the team’s annual booster luncheon Aug. 19. Until then, it’s “premature to judge our ultimate package,” Steinberg said.

However, earlier this week, the group shifted its focus from proposing a football-only stadium to an ambitious remodeling of the 28-year-old Anaheim Stadium. The group discussed using $50 million to $70 million in public funding to renovate the stadium. That proposal also would call for a public and privately funded new baseball stadium nearby for the California Angels.

“I know John Shaw and the Rams want a new stadium,” said Orange County Supervisor William G. Steiner, a member of a subcommittee looking at new stadium possibilities. “But the (remodeling) would be much more than just a face lift.”

But John Shaw, the Rams executive vice president, expressed disappointment with the remodeling proposal, saying it would not generate fan excitement the way a new stadium would.

St. Louis, Baltimore and Hartford, Conn., have offered the Rams football-only stadiums.

Rams executives expect to announce a decision in September about their future in Orange County.