NFL Decides New Stadium Is Only Way for L.A.

The NFL stadium committee has issued a report identifying four potential sites for a new football stadium here and officially ruled out the Coliseum and all other existing stadiums in the greater Los Angeles area for the return of football.

In a letter submitted to each member of the stadium committee this week, Jerry Richardson, owner of the Carolina Panthers and committee chairman, indicated that potential developers of football facilities at Dodger Stadium, El Segundo, Hollywood Park and Orange County will be asked to make presentations within the next three months.

“The Committee will then consider these presentations in formulating a specific development timetable,” wrote Richardson. “The Committee hopes to have that timetable in place at the time of its next update report, which will be delivered by the NFL Annual Meeting in March.”

Richardson’s committee reviewed the existing sites in the greater Los Angeles area in recent months and concluded “that a new, state-of-the-art stadium is necessary for the success of the NFL in Southern California.

” . . . It is clear to the committee that none of the existing facilities in greater Los Angeles will provide the necessary elements for the league’s greater Los Angeles franchise that would be provided by a new state-of-the-art facility.”

The NFL report clears the way for Peter O’Malley, owner of the Dodgers, to proceed faster. O’Malley has made it clear from the outset that he would not consider building a football facility next to his baseball park if that meant competing with or taking business from the Coliseum.

The opportunity to deliver a presentation in the next three months to the stadium committee should also be a boon to Hollywood Park. Hollywood Park is the only site under consideration that could begin construction this year, with play possibly beginning in a new facility there in 1998.

The El Segundo site, 47 acres owned by Rockwell International Corp., has caught the fancy of Walt Disney Co. executives.

Orange County, still looking for a developer to finance and build it, unveiled its grand plan for a sports-entertainment complex in Anaheim earlier this week.