PRO FOOTBALL ’95 : The Stadium Game: If L.A. Builds One, Will They Come? : The future: It seems mandatory to at least break ground before a team will commit to move here.

The Raiders are in Oakland, the Rams are in St. Louis and Los Angeles is in limbo.

Every week seems to bring a new rash of rumors about this team or that team loading up the moving vans and heading this way. Every week seems to bring news of another financial group gearing up to build a new stadium.

So who will come, when will they come and where will they play?

Heading into the start of the first season without pro football in either Los Angeles or Orange County in half a century, there are no definitive answers, but plenty of possibilities.

Keep in mind that when a team official threatens to move here, he is usually also sending a message to the folks back home in his own city that it’s time to start thinking about building a new stadium, or at least improving the old one.

The key to the whole process, however, appears to be the construction of a new stadium in Los Angeles. Raider owner Al Davis received heavy criticism for turning up his nose at the thought of remaining in the Los Angeles Coliseum, but NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue has also been among the most vocal critics of the 72-year-old structure.

It is doubtful that any team would agree to come to Los Angeles and play in the Coliseum indefinitely while the debate goes on over the construction of a new facility. It seems mandatory that ground be broken somewhere before any team will commit itself.

But who will build a stadium without some guarantee that there will be a team to play in it?

Talk about a Catch 22.

Mayor Richard Riordan is overseeing the formation of a committee called Football L.A. to explore the prospects for landing a team.

“I know what would work in Los Angeles, a stadium funded by the league with help from city and county officials on the land and infrastructures,” Carolina Panther owner Jerry Richardson, head of the league’s stadium committee, said earlier this summer. “I’m not sure how much support this has yet, but people were also skeptical when we said we wanted the Carolinas to have an NFL franchise.”

Said Tagliabue: “We will be prepared to use our resources to be a part of a financing package. . . . It’s something we told Mayor Riordan we’d be a part of.”

The league had committed itself to a site on property owned by Hollywood Park when the Raiders were still in the picture, guaranteeing up to two Super Bowls and the right to market Super Bowl tickets. That deal was contingent, however, on the Raiders staying in Los Angeles.

Hollywood Park officials plan to ask league officials later this month to resurrect that agreement, pledging anew the Super Bowls and other considerations.

If that is done, sources say, ground could still be broken this fall at Hollywood Park, although the stadium might not be ready now until 1998.

The two most likely teams to attempt the move are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Seattle Seahawks, but obstacles stand in the way of both.

Following are all the teams to have been rumored to be looking in this direction:

MAKING PLANS

Both the Buccaneers and the Seahawks have leases that tie them to their respective homes. The Buccaneers can get out of theirs at the end of this season if they pay a penalty fee of $35 million.

New owner Malcom Glazer, however, has indicated he hasn’t ruled out staying if stadium improvements are made in Tampa Bay.

The Seahawks have a longer-term lease but believe they could get out of it if their demands for stadium improvements and a new lease are not forthcoming.

MAKING NOISE

Houston Oiler owner Bud Adams has made it plain he’s contemplating a move. He can get out of his lease at the Astrodome at the end of this season for $6 million, but, although Los Angeles has come up as a possible destination, it is believed that he will go Nashville if he goes anywhere.

Los Angeles also came up in talk of the plans of the Chicago Bears, but they are believed to be using such talk as leverage in bargaining for a new facility.

MAKING DEALS

The Cincinnati Bengals and the Cleveland Browns were mentioned as possible replacement teams for Los Angeles, but both have received assurances from their cities that they will be taken care of.

In the end, Los Angeles may have to settle for an expansion team if the other teams get what they want where they are.

As for a future site, Hollywood Park is certainly not the only player in that game.

When they were still considering the possibility of staying here, the Raiders were approached by a dozen groups representing possible sites other than Hollywood Park and all might still be viable.

The sites are:

--A renovated Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

--Vacant land near the 710 Freeway in Long Beach.

--Land near the World Port in San Pedro.

--Aerospace property in El Segundo.

--Federal wetlands known as Playa Vista in Playa Del Rey.

--Two downtown sites, including one near Union Station.

--Property bordering Panorama City and Van Nuys in the San Fernando Valley.

--Land in the city of Hawthorne.

--A site near the 105 Freeway in Lawndale.

--Two sites in Burbank, including one across the 134 Freeway from Forest Lawn cemetery.

Then, of course, there is the whole question of Orange County. Michael Eisner, chairman of the Walt Disney Co., has long been considered the most likely candidate to acquire a team for Orange County should the NFL wind up there. Michael Ovitz, former head of the CAA talent agency, was known to be exploring the possibility of putting together a stadium deal to bring the Seahawks to Los Angeles. Now, with the news last month that Ovitz has gone to work for Disney, he and Eisner might combine their efforts to bring pro football back. But to where, Los Angeles or Anaheim?

Lots of teams. Lots of sites. Lots of speculation. Ultimately it will all come together because the league is determined to make it happen.

But not now. And probably not in the near future.

Times staff writer Bill Plaschke contributed to this story.