Platform : Luring an NFL Team: ‘The City Should Butt Out Totally’

Southern California has no NFL team and there’s no lack of debate about how to attract one (or more). Stadium sites have been offered from Burbank to San Pedro. There are proposals to build a football twin to Dodger stadium or re-refurbish the recently refurbished Coliseum. Anaheim Stadium stands ready. JIM BLAIR talked to fans, businesspeople and neighborhood activists about issues including how much public funds should be spent to lure a football team.

BOB WOLFENDEN

Builder and developer, Wilmington. Chairman, Harbor Interfaith Shelter, a homeless provider in the San Pedro area.

At Harbor Interfaith Center, we turn away eight to ten families a day. And if it were as simple as giving these multimillion dollars to building shelters to solve the homeless problem, then of course I would say forget the stadium. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s that simple. I don’t think the money they’re talking about spending on a stadium would be sufficient to cure the homeless problem, nor do I believe that there’s a cure that’s that simplistic. Job creation certainly has merit.

But I think [stadium development] should be done strictly with private money and the cities should not take on that responsibility and fund it with all of these incentives that they’re considering. I’m a private developer and I think that’s our job. The city should butt out totally.

If the owner’s not vested in the project, if he’s not financially tied to it, [then he may be tempted to treat it as a temporary venue]. Walter O’Malley owns the Chavez Ravine and he owns the Dodgers and he stays there.

MARCO HERNANDEZ

Senior, fullback, Eagle Rock High School

Los Angeles is a big city and does need an NFL team because there are so many kids here. When the Raiders and the Rams were around they had role models, you know? And I think kids here need that.

[Playing] football kept my mind straight. It taught me discipline. It taught me unity with the team. It taught me how to play with a team. It also taught me how to make friends. Football, any sport, helps you a lot in life. I have friends in other schools that stayed in school just because of football.

It’s very different now on Sundays. Football’s gone and it needs to be brought back. I watch the games on television but I’m not so interested as I was when they had the Raiders here or the Rams.

But it’s wasting money [to build a new stadium]. They have the Coliseum, they have Anaheim, they have the Rose Bowl, they have Dodger Stadium. They have a lot of stadiums here.

DON MYERS

Managing partner, Catch Seafood Grill, Anaheim

We’re right across the street from Anaheim stadium. Historically, we were probably the restaurant to go to before and after a Rams game, so we did tremendous business whenever they were playing. And now that they’re not playing it is a meal period in which we are closed. But we’re actually up in sales this year without the Rams and it’s because we’ve become better business people and focused our attention in other marketing directions. And I think we’re a better restaurant because of it.

Does that mean that I don’t want to have professional football right across the street from me? No, of course not. When you look back to 1985 through ‘89, I think the Rams were one of the best-drawing teams in the NFL so it’s not that we lost interest in the Rams--we lost interest in a very poorly managed and played professional team.

BRIAN JOHNSTON

Emergency physician, East L.A.

My father played for UCLA for four years. I’ve grown up watching football games and I love them; [but] whether we need a professional football team in this town is highly questionable. I certainly don’t think we should spend any public money to acquire a team as long was we have 2.6 million people without any health insurance dependent on a county system which is bankrupt and being reduced in size as we speak.

We need to spend money on health care, on schools, on law enforcement in preference to any professional sport--football, baseball--and particularly franchises which are movable.

KERMIT BENTON

Owner, Subway sandwich franchise, Inglewood

I’m a football fan. You know it’s hard to be loyal when you don’t have a team. I favor Inglewood for a new stadium because I am a small business owner in the area [and] for several other reasons. I think it will generate jobs in the community if [the development plan is] structured right. The stadium would be built as a football stadium which would attract franchise owners, as opposed to trying to renovate the Coliseum which wasn’t designed as a football stadium. I also believe that it will establish Inglewood as a significant city in the area. It needs to convenient, it needs to be a stadium built where there are no bad seats like the Coliseum, easy access and things like that.

VIRGINIA PINEDO-BYE

Communications Director, Solano Community Assn., Los Angeles.

This isn’t about objecting to football. It is about our objection to a second stadium at that location. [The] four streets that comprise the Solano neighborhood are located to the northeast of Dodger stadium, right up to the boundary of Mr. O’Malley’s property.

We already have one stadium in our community. For at least 35 years we know the difficulties that it has [caused]. The quality of life has definitely gone down.

The traffic, for example. They widened the main street in our little community and now the children may no longer play on the street, on the sidewalks because it has become a thoroughfare for people coming from the suburbs to downtown Los Angeles to circumvent the 5 [freeway].

This neighborhood is very old-fashioned and it tries to bring up good citizens. You don’t see very much “city” and as a result we don’t have a big deal problem with drive-bys. The kids in the neighborhood are good, stand-up kids. As a matter of fact, the young people are sincerely and seriously involved and concerned [in this issue].

After all the money FEMA put into it, football belongs in the Coliseum. It’s the only history we have. We’re proud of that. Let’s play ball there.