Council, Coliseum at Odds on NFL

As football game plans go, it may be time for the Los Angeles City Council to punt.

In separate actions recently, the City Council unanimously approved a motion to support legislation designed to stop teams from moving here, then authorized the expenditure of $25,000 to market the Coliseum, which is trying to lure a team to relocate here.

Pat Lynch, general manager of the Coliseum, was dumbfounded by Councilman Mike Hernandez’s motion to support the Fan Freedom and Community Protection Act and the Council’s subsequent unanimous approval.

“We are solidly against it,” Lynch said. “We are in the business of stealing a team and feel that is the Coliseum’s best opportunity--a team relocating here.”

The Fan Freedom and Community Protection Act, which won House Judiciary Committee approval Thursday, has been proposed to block franchise movement. The bill would require the NFL to deliver an expansion team to any city that loses a franchise and can produce a qualified investor within three years. The legislation would also empower the NFL to make it that much tougher on any team looking to move, and as a sidelight, would give the NFL the authority to dictate expansion opportunities.

“We were already a party in court with an owner [Al Davis] in trying to win a judgment to give a team the right to move to the Coliseum,” Lynch said. “It doesn’t seem right now to shift positions.”

Hernandez, who maintained this week he still supports the Fan Act--which received the City Council’s endorsement without discussion--was also instrumental in having the Ad Hoc Sports Franchise Committee dedicate $100,000 for the marketing of the Coliseum--$25,000 of which will come from the City Council. The marketing plan would allow Lynch to court prospective Coliseum clients, such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or the Arizona Cardinals.

But why spend money to market a facility in search of a relocated team when the city is against securing a relocated team?

“We want an expansion team,” Hernandez said. “We don’t want a team from another city.”

Why spend money to market the Coliseum when the NFL has gone on record as saying expansion is not under consideration now or anticipated being under consideration any time soon? And why spend money to market the Coliseum when the Coliseum’s general manager, who has had as much contact with NFL owners and officials as anyone in Los Angeles, has concluded that the Coliseum’s best chances for success are through relocation?

“Pat Lynch’s direction is not the Council’s direction,” Hernandez said. “He can bring that up at the next ad hoc meeting.”

The Los Angeles strategy to get a professional football franchise, which has been sabotaged right along by poor communication, political infighting and a lack of leadership, appears all too evident in the ad hoc committee’s endorsement of the Coliseum without knowing what the Coliseum’s plan for success might be.

“I can see some conflict in the Fans Protection and marketing the Coliseum, assuming we want a team from another city,” Hernandez said. “But we don’t. Los Angeles deserves to have its own team. It doesn’t deserve to be in the position of having the NFL dictate what happens.”

If the Fan Protection Act makes it difficult for another team to move here, then Los Angeles’ chances for football rest entirely on what the NFL dictates for the market through expansion.

“I’m sure the City Council is trying to be helpful, but they don’t seem to understand,” said Roger Kozberg, president of the Coliseum Commission. “We can sympathize with any city that loses a team, but we can’t favor such legislation. That would definitely make it more difficult for the Coliseum.

“I have talked to the league on many occasions and there doesn’t seem to be any appetite for expansion. Even if Commissioner Paul Tagliabue wanted expansion, it’s the owners who vote on it.

“They say it’s like taking a pie that’s been divided in 30 pieces and now you want to make it 32. Show us how it would be a better pie with a team in Los Angeles and we will forge ahead. If not, why take less just for having the privilege of having a team in Los Angeles? If there is going to be an expansion team, if any, I think it’s a long way out there.”

So why is the City Council spending money to showcase the Coliseum with the intention only of winning an expansion franchise?

“I don’t think it’s a healthy thing to steal a team from another city,” said John Ferraro, president of the City Council. “As we saw, Seattle wasn’t greeted with great enthusiasm [when owner Ken Behring tried to move his Seahawks here]. We’re looking at expansion, and I think the NFL will expand in the next two to three years.”

Said Lynch: “That would be great, but I don’t see it happening. The Coliseum is the cheapest and the best short-term answer for football in Los Angeles, and that’s through relocation. It’s important for the Coliseum to have as many options as possible, and what’s happening here just seems to close options.”