NFL Seahawks Moving to L.A.--or Are They?

Los Angeles has become an unwitting pawn in an intense chess game between the Seattle Seahawks and Washington’s King County. Or Los Angeles is about to get another professional football team.

These conflicting news bulletins surfaced almost hourly Thursday, saying the Seahawks, who are prepared to break their Kingdome lease, are leaving Seattle for Los Angeles, or--hold on--the Seahawks are staying in Seattle.

After reports earlier in the day had Seahawks’ management telling their coaches they were moving to Pasadena to play in the Rose Bowl next season, Rose Bowl officials announced that they have never had conversations with the team.

Seahawk employees quizzed about the day’s events said they were advised to pack their personal effects because the team was going to lock its administrative and practice facility by noon in preparation for a move to Anaheim, using Rams Park as its headquarters. King County officials, meanwhile, emerged “encouraged” late in the day from a meeting with team owner Ken Behring.

“We’re still talking and that’s always a good sign,” said King County Executive Gary Locke.

Behring and Seahawk officials had no comment, but NFL executives who have had recent conversations with the team’s owner believe an announcement of the Seahawks’ move to Los Angeles is imminent.

One NFL executive said it is his understanding that King County has been given 24 hours to meet Behring’s demands for a renovated Kingdome or a new football facility, or the Seahawks will file a suit to break their lease and move immediately.

If Behring moves to Los Angeles and seeks a temporary home in the Rose Bowl, he will then be in the powerful position of negotiating with the Walt Disney Co., the city of Anaheim, Hollywood Park, the Dodgers and anyone else who would like to build a football stadium here with the opportunity to host a Super Bowl every three years. In effect, Behring will be able to hold Los Angeles hostage instead of letting the NFL dictate the football future of the nation’s second-largest city.

“It’s a brilliant and gutsy move,” said Marc Gannis, president of Sports Corp. Limited, who has done sports consulting work for both the Raiders and the Rams. “He’s going to do it. Sure, there is risk involved if the courts force him to stay in Seattle, but there are great gains if he can come to Los Angeles and own the entire marketplace.”

The Seahawks’ Kingdome lease runs through 2005, but a clause that calls for the facility to be maintained in first-class condition has given Behring grounds for departure. The 20-year-old Kingdome had to be closed a year ago because of falling ceiling tiles, forcing the Seahawks to play some home games at the University of Washington.

Behring has been demanding at least $100 million in improvements to the Kingdome, which is being abandoned by the Seattle Mariners in favor of a $320-million, baseball-only stadium to be built largely with public funds. Behring commissioned a study showing it would cost up to $90 million to fortify the Kingdome against a potential earthquake rather than the $10 million to $30 million the county has estimated.

“It’s totally outrageous,” said U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.). “Two weeks ago Behring was in my office assuring me the team was staying in Seattle. It is as plain as all-get-out that he planned this all along. And it has nothing to do with the Kingdome.”

Behring, a Northern California land developer who purchased the Seahawks from the Nordstrom family in 1988, commissioned Michael Ovitz and his Creative Artists Agency a year ago to find a new home for his team. Ovitz later left the agency to join the Walt Disney Co., but has continued his interest in becoming involved with the NFL.

There are no indications at present that Behring and Ovitz, or Behring and Disney, are teaming in a plan to return football to the Los Angeles area. Most observers believe Disney would have nothing to do with the anticipated legal struggle Behring will have to wage to win his team’s freedom from Seattle.

At the same time, Behring is in for a fight with the NFL if he jumps to Los Angeles. After the Raiders and Rams departed, league owners, to prevent the kind of rebel action being contemplated by the Seahawks, approved a resolution giving the NFL total control of the Los Angeles market. The NFL has called the construction of a new football facility in Los Angeles its primary priority.

League officials were preparing a statement Thursday night for release once Behring announces his intentions to move to the Los Angeles area. The league is expected to denounce such a move and remind the Seahawks’ owner that his fellow owners agreed to go in a different direction in Los Angeles.

“This seems to be a team on a shopping tour of Los Angeles and Orange County,” said Steve Soboroff, a real estate consultant and vice chairman of the Football LA task force. “But it’s not a surprise to me since this team may very well be using this [expected] announcement to improve their leverage in negotiating for substantial improvements to their existing venue. I really don’t think they are coming here.”

The Seahawks’ plans to make an early announcement Thursday of their departure for Los Angeles were apparently put on hold to give King County officials more time to talk. The team had plans to close its offices in Washington, set up residence in California, file a suit as a preemptive move to win favor from a California judge as opposed to a Washington-based judge, and then seek a lease to play either in the Coliseum or the Rose Bowl.

Staffers were advised that they would be informed of the team’s plans at an early morning staff meeting, which was later pushed back and then canceled because of lengthy talks between King County officials and Behring.

Behring met for more than three hours with county officials, and they will meet again today. Peter Van Reichbauer, budget chairman of the King County Council, said, “We had a long and constructive meeting, we had a frank and candid meeting. . . . We have a lease until 2005. We have a legal responsibility to maintain it. They have a legal responsibility to maintain it. I think each side will honor that contract at the peril of going to court.”

If there is a legal fight, Gannis said, Behring won’t blink.

“The one word I would use to describe this man is ‘tough,’ ” Gannis said. “Ask him sometime about the time he went fishing. A bear approached him, and Behring just stared him down. The bear left.

“This is a man with great wealth, who can hang in there longer than some. And there is no exit fee to contend with like the $35 million Tampa Bay will have to pay should that team leave. He can tell the fans of Seattle, ‘I’m leaving because King County has not lived up to the terms of its agreement. All I want is for you fans to be safe and have a first-class facility.’

“He can make a short-term deal in Los Angeles with the Rose Bowl and take control of Los Angeles and negotiate with the four parties who want to build a stadium. The NFL wants a team in L.A. for the next TV contract negotiations, so maybe they just go with him. That’s the smart play. If he’s forced back to Seattle, he can still do so. Either way he ends up being the big player in this whole thing.”

If Behring moves to the Rose Bowl or the Coliseum, there should be no problem arranging a lease.

“Give him my number,” said Pat Lynch, Coliseum general manager.

“As you know, we’re in the market for a transition team,” said Al Moses, president of the Rose Bowl operating company. “That’s well known around the league and among owners. We have not had any specific talk with Seattle, but a team could play here as the facility presently exists. It would take some additional mitigation of traffic and parking and some improvements, including a new scoreboard and new video boards, but it could be done.”

Seahawk staffers have already been told they would move into the practice facility used previously by the Rams in Anaheim, although Magnolia School District officials and Anaheim city officials have not been approached by the team.

Jim Ruth, Anaheim city manager, distanced the city from any involvement with the Seahawk situation. He downplayed the notion that Anaheim is in serious negotiations with the team and would say only that there have been “some discussions.”

Times staff writers Shawn Hubler, Kim Murphy and Greg Hernandez contributed to this story.