‘Save the Rams’ Shifts Gears, Looks for Replacement Team : Football: Steinberg says group has proven that Orange County is a viable NFL market.

They won’t be calling themselves “Save the Rams” anymore, because that no longer can be done. But the group that has battled for 10 months to prevent the NFL team from leaving Anaheim will have a new mission: to help bring a new or existing NFL franchise to Orange County.

Leigh Steinberg and Jack Lindquist, co-chairmen of the organization, were optimistic in the wake of news Wednesday that league owners voted to approve the Rams’ move to St. Louis.

“Our emphasis shifted today to seeking a replacement team,” Steinberg said, “and we believe we’ve been assured by the league that whether it’s through expansion or relocation, there will be a reasonably quick replacement.”

Steinberg, a sports agent and lawyer, said time will be needed to further evaluate the possibilities of Anaheim Stadium improvements or construction of a new stadium.

“If it ends up being a couple of years, that will provide a window for some constructive activity,” Steinberg said. “My role won’t stop until there’s a commitment for a new team.”

Lindquist, a former president of Disneyland, said he had mixed emotions after learning that the way had been cleared for the Rams’ departure.

“I was disappointed with the outcome, but from another standpoint, I was greatly relieved,” Lindquist said. “This phase of the battle is over, and it might have ended up being for the best. It’s like in a marriage.

“There were irreconcilable differences between the management of the Rams and the marketplace. I just know that under Georgia Frontiere’s ownership, there was no way the Rams could have been successful in this market. This may end up being Orange County’s gain and St. Louis’ loss.”

Lindquist said he believes there will be a strong interest by the NFL in having an NFC team in the Los Angeles television market.

At least one AFC team, the Cincinnati Bengals, reportedly has been looking for a new home.

Steinberg said his group had been successful in reversing the Rams’ position that the area couldn’t provide support for an NFL franchise.

“I’m glad that rather than sitting and accepting a ‘done deal’ we put up a good fight,” he said. “The Rams made an argument that Southern California was a defective football market, that it was flawed. . . . I think we showed that the flaw was not in the market.”

He said he was sad about the end of an era in Southern California, “but the Rams that I grew up rooting for in the 1950s simply don’t exist anymore.”

For Frank Bryant, president of the Rams Booster Club, it will be an adjustment.

“I feel very bad that I’ll have to stop being a fan of the team, but I will,” Bryant said. “It’s just sad to see the tradition leaving. But we’re going to work hard to get a new team here.”

Meanwhile, other area fans weren’t exactly keeping a vigil Wednesday, waiting for the word. When it came, it barely made a ripple.

“You know, hurrah,” said Charles Adair of Cerritos, a Ram fan since the 1940s.

Added Chuck Sowers of Anaheim: “They’re going, huh? Well, I tried to act optimistic, but I wasn’t really. To tell you the truth, I’ve gotten kind of tired of the whole thing.”

And so they went. Most fans said they had written off the team months ago.

“You know, in my heart, I wanted to believe they would stay in town,” said Mark Raczek, who hasn’t missed a home game in three years. “But I knew they were gone.”

He and others didn’t even find a glimmer of hope when the owners overwhelmingly rejected the move in March. Said Don Comstock of Tustin: “We knew Georgia wasn’t going to play in Anaheim next year.”

Comstock and some others said they are already planning to fill their pro football void, perhaps by looking south to the AFC champion San Diego Chargers.

“I hope they do come here,” Charger General Manager Bobby Beathard said. “We welcome all of them. The fans got us where we were last year. We have warm weather, and we still have season tickets for sale.”

Some might take him up on the offer.

“I’ll probably go to San Diego,” Sowers said. “I don’t know if I’ll buy season tickets or if I’ll go every week. But I might ride the train down and see what it’s like.”

Said Kevin Steputis of Santa Ana, a Ram fan since 1971: “I used to live in San Diego, and there’s been a camaraderie between the organization and the fans. Even when the team wasn’t winning, the fans supported them.”

But for all the talk of new teams to follow and hearts broken by Ram management, at least one fanatic said Wednesday that none of what he had been through mattered.

“Oh, I’ll still watch the Rams,” Raczek said. “I’ll watch them from a bar at the beach.”