Will NFL Play Dodgeball? : O’Malley Wants ‘Sparkling, Shiny, Extraordinary’ Facility for Possible New Team, and He Has Just the Place For It

Peter O’Malley directed attention to the goal posts as he stepped to his office window overlooking the baseball field at Dodger Stadium. “Right there,” he said with insistence, and while it appeared there were only bulldozers spreading dirt in preparation for new sod, his vision appeared clear.

“I can see it. . . . I thought about marking the field with white lines and putting in goal posts,” he said, and he said it with excitement, like a man who has been thinking of nothing else. “Right there.”

O’Malley’s Dodgers, of course, will continue to play baseball “right there,” but follow O’Malley’s visionary gaze beyond the left-field wall, across the parking lot and just shy of the Police Academy--and there is an aggressive plan under way for the return of professional football to Los Angeles.

Although he faces community opposition, and his idea of owning an expansion team does not mesh with current NFL plans, O’Malley is undaunted in his desire to go forward.

“I think the National Football League is as excited as we are about this site for the state-of-the-art football facility,” O’Malley said. “In my opinion Los Angeles will enthusiastically adopt their own team, an expansion team, grown from the beginning with an organization put together and introduced in a sparkling, shiny, extraordinary stadium.

“I’m not interested in building another football stadium; my keen interest is in building the finest football stadium in the world. The city deserves that, the citizens deserve that and that is the only basis in which I am interested.”

O’Malley, who went public in early September with his interest in the NFL, said he is now committed to not only taking the lead in building a new football stadium, but to owning a team as well.

“I think that makes the most sense,” said O’Malley, who spends time almost every day working on his football project. “Whatever success we have had here is mainly attributable to the fact that we own and operate the team and the stadium. That is the ideal situation.”

The NFL, expected to announce soon that the Coliseum and all other established venues here will not be considered for a team, has narrowed its focus to four sites for a new stadium: land adjacent to Dodger Stadium, a 47-acre plot in El Segundo, Hollywood Park and Anaheim.

But the NFL, insiders say, has put O’Malley’s interest, which involves an estimated $300-million football stadium, at the top of its list.

The El Segundo site, owned by Rockwell Industries, is considered a close second, drawing interest from as many as 10 entities, with the most serious being the Walt Disney Co. Representatives of Disney have met almost weekly with the NFL and will meet again in New York this week.

Bart Christensen, a local sports and real estate consultant who tried to persuade the Rams to use the El Segundo site before they moved to St. Louis, had an option to buy the property, but it expired earlier this year.

“I know [Disney President] Michael Ovitz has been there and really likes it. There are 47 acres and another 29 adjacent to the property that could be included. . . . It has great freeway access, the Green Line stops right there, it is within a mile of 8,000 hotel rooms and is close to the airport.”

A Rockwell spokesman said the land is for sale, but declined to set a price. A real estate developer, familiar with the property, said the frenzy for football might drive the value from $12 a square foot to $20.

“It’s a site that makes too much sense to pass up,” Christensen said. “I think the NFL has it down to two sites: Dodger Stadium and El Segundo. If O’Malley really wants to do it, I’m sure he will be the No. 1 choice because he will have downtown’s blessing. But I’m sure O’Malley would need a partner in the deal.”

The NFL has mentioned various partnerships, including O’Malley and Disney combining their resources, but who becomes minority owner? O’Malley and Disney have not discussed the possibility with each other.

Hollywood Park, meanwhile, has had conversations recently with the Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers about relocating here. Hollywood Park, which was prepared to build a stadium for the Raiders, is in position to begin building more quickly than the other contenders, but at this time it does not have NFL approval.

The NFL is prepared to award the Los Angeles-area venue of its choice as many as three Super Bowls in a nine-year span, an essential component for the financing of a new stadium.

One NFL club official familiar with the Hollywood Park negotiations with the Raiders said, “They were trying to guarantee $180 million in debt with $3.5 million in cash flow. The money isn’t there.”

Said Christensen: “Hollywood Park still has gambling and is trying to increase it. The other two sites are certainly more acceptable to the NFL and have better freeway access.”

Anaheim remains viable because of Disney’s interest, though it is considered a last resort.

A site near the Convention Center, which could also include plans for the building of an arena, has also come under scrutiny, but appears a longshot.

Once a site is selected, who plays there? NFL owners, at their recent meetings in Dallas, indicated they have no immediate plans for expansion, but O’Malley is undeterred. He is operating like a man who knows something, like a man who believes the NFL will be forced to expand by at least one team for the benefit of Los Angeles.

To that end, he has the upcoming TV negotiations working in his favor. The NFL’s TV contract expires in 1998, and it is believed the networks will want a solution to the void in Los Angeles before completing a deal. NFL insiders say the league may move by the spring to grant perhaps a three-month window to one site in the Los Angeles area to complete a deal for a team. That deal could include moving an existing team here.

If the NFL were to back relocating an existing team in L.A., it’s unclear what O’Malley’s or Disney’s next step would be, since they both favor an expansion team.

“There is no sentiment for expansion, and all it takes is one starry-eyed NFL owner who is willing to take the chance he will hook up with Michael Ovitz or Michael Eisner once he gets there,” said Marc Ganis, who worked closely with John Shaw, Ram president, on the team’s move to St. Louis. “If someone comes now it’s likely to be one of three teams: Arizona, Tampa or Seattle. The most likely is Seattle because of their owner’s [Ken Behring] background in real estate.

“But coming to L.A. is not a slam dunk. It’s going to be harder to put a deal together there than anywhere else. Selling personal seat licenses will be a real challenge.”

O’Malley, who has been president of the Dodgers since 1970, said he faces challenges of his own.

“I think the process will take time, but no one is interested in delaying or preventing it,” O’Malley said. “That doesn’t make any sense. It’s too important to the economy of this city.

“We are very appreciative and almost overwhelmed by the across-the-board response throughout the community for this property to be the site of a state-of-the-art stadium. We have some neighborhood issues that we’re identifying, that I believe are solvable, and we have met with various community groups and elected officials. I believe this city, including our neighbors, can be extremely proud of this facility if we are chosen to build it on this property.”

O’Malley said he has not contacted architects for bids, bankers or conducted conversations with a long list of entertainment executives and business leaders wishing to become partners with the Dodgers in this enterprise. He said his first priority is working with the concerns of the neighborhood surrounding Dodger Stadium.

O’Malley has visited with Jackie Goldberg, city councilwoman for the 13th District, adjacent to the area neighborhood, and he has had three meetings with Michael Hernandez, city councilman for the First District, which includes Dodger Stadium.

Roger Goodell, the NFL’s point man in negotiating the return of football to Los Angeles, met last week with Goldberg in Los Angeles, then in Phoenix with Hernandez, who was there on business.

“We had a good exchange on the issues and it was helpful for me to hear directly from the councilmen,” Goodell said. “Wherever we build a stadium, we’re looking for a win-win situation with the community. Dodger Stadium has excellent potential, and there are also several other exciting alternatives in the Los Angeles and Anaheim areas.”

In an interview last week, which included a tour of his district and a view of Dodger Stadium from Angels Point above Echo Park, Hernandez said he is opposed to O’Malley’s plan for football in Chavez Ravine.

“I have no choice about the Dodgers being here, but if I had to choose again I wouldn’t allow it,” said Hernandez, who is conducting public hearings on the viability of a new stadium in his district. “It’s a tremendous intrusion in our community.

“The Dodgers are a good corporate regional business, but at the local level they haven’t done as much good as I would like to see. I planted a seed in the Dodger organization that they should start looking at mitigation. That’s what should be presented at these community meetings we are having so they can win some support.”

If O’Malley provides a checklist of community improvements in exchange for the community’s support, might that convince Hernandez? “If the Dodgers convince the community people to support it, then I would have no choice but to support it,” Hernandez said.

The Dodgers have made local contributions and have a long list of accomplishments, but Hernandez said it is too selective and nowhere near as much as they should be doing.

O’Malley said he will not wage war with his neighbors for the opportunity to build a stadium. He said he will withdraw his interest if local citizens cannot be accommodated.

“We were asked by the city to help solve the football problem in Los Angeles, and that’s what we are trying to do,” O’Malley said. “I think as a result of this exercise, for example, the traffic patterns for both baseball and football will be more compatible to the neighbors. We’re learning by this experience, and the neighbors will benefit by it. There’s clearly an upside to this entire process.”

Unlike Baltimore and St. Louis, which recently offered new rent-free stadiums to entice teams to move, there is no public money available for the return of professional football to Los Angeles. Los Angeles can offer the Coliseum, but the problems that forced Al Davis to take the Raiders back to Oakland remain: a lack of luxury boxes and club seats and poor sight lines.

The NFL, which passed a resolution among owners giving it the right to determine who will play in Los Angeles, has advised several parties quietly that it will not allow a team to take up residence in the Coliseum. The NFL said it would be open to the idea of a new stadium being built on the existing site, but no one has expressed an interest in such a project.

An announcement ruling out all existing stadiums in Los Angeles is expected to be made by Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Jerry Richardson, Carolina owner and chairman of the NFL’s stadium committee, in the coming weeks.

“Ever since the beginning we have been under the impression the NFL wants a new state-of-the-art facility like the other exciting stadiums that are being built around the country,” O’Malley said. “Something is happening in stadiums that wasn’t happening 10 years ago. Look at Denver, Dallas and Baltimore. Dramatic things are happening, and that’s the type of facility the NFL wants. That’s the type of facility I am interested in.

“So now we will continue to work within the process that the mayor and the city council have established. And we will give it our good-faith best shot.”