Another Stadium Contender Defers to Coliseum Plan

Adding still more momentum to the drive to bring a new National Football League franchise to the historic Los Angeles Coliseum, officials at Inglewood’s Hollywood Park said Friday they will suspend their own NFL quest and support Los Angeles’ proposal.

Hollywood Park’s announcement came as the Coliseum site’s leading booster released details of a proposal to build a free-standing, state-of-the-art stadium within the walls of the venerable Exposition Park structure that has been host to two Olympics and two NFL teams.

“A groundswell of support is growing daily,” said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who has worked feverishly during the past three weeks to marshal support for a site that only recently had been considered a near-hopeless longshot.

The NFL had been cool to putting a team in an aging structure several blocks south of downtown Los Angeles and had been entertaining proposals for a brand new complex elsewhere--with Dodger Stadium, Inglewood and downtown’s South Park among the possibilities.

But Ridley-Thomas has urged backers of competing sites to let Los Angeles’ political leaders, united behind the Coliseum, have their shot. Earlier this week, proponents of the South Park proposal agreed to step aside in favor of the Coliseum, and Dodger owner Peter O’Malley is weighing a request to do so.

NFL team owners will hear a proposal for a new stadium within the Coliseum during their Oct. 30-31 meeting in New Orleans.

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According to a rendering shown to The Times on Friday by Ridley-Thomas, the stadium would be a highly flexible oval-shaped structure that could expand and contract within a scooped-out Coliseum’s existing walls and unique peristyle. For smaller sporting events and theatrical productions, it could shrink to a 15,000-seat facility; it would normally hold about 67,000 fans for football games, soccer and track-and-field competitions. For really big draws, such as a Super Bowl, it could be stretched to 85,000 seats.

The stadium would also contain 140 luxury suites and 8,000 club seats. “It is completely flexible and state-of-the-art, which is exactly what is required to make it competitive,” Ridley-Thomas said. “There should be no ambiguity about this--this is a brand new stadium.”

The facility would cost about $185 million, not counting the cost of building parking facilities or adding amenities, such as a community center and public playing fields, to an expanded Exposition Park. The new facilities would join existing museums, the Rose Garden and the Olympic Swim Stadium to create a vast sports, recreation and cultural complex, Ridley-Thomas said.

He said city fiscal officials are already working with an economic consultant on ways to pay for the stadium, designed by architects H-O-K Sports, and he said a model will be finished in plenty of time for the NFL meeting.

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In response to Hollywood Park’s announcement, Mayor Richard Riordan’s press office said the mayor “is encouraged to see the growing support for Exposition and the Coliseum.” Riordan has spearheaded efforts to build a basketball and hockey arena complex next to the Convention Center downtown and joined other city leaders in embracing the Coliseum as their first choice for football.

However, R.D. Hubbard, chairman of the Hollywood Park racetrack, sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue on Friday making it clear that he will renew his bid for an NFL team if the Coliseum proposal is turned down.

Inglewood officials, who are competing with Los Angeles for a new arena to house the Kings and Lakers, downplayed the announcement that Hollywood Park--the site for a new arena as well as a stadium--was dropping out of the football contention for now.

Assistant City Manager Norman Cravens, noting that officials in his city already knew about the football decision, said, “I don’t think it affects anything much right now. I don’t think there is a real direct relationship between [a football stadium and an arena]. . . . “The way things work in Los Angeles, it would take them longer to renovate the Coliseum than build a new one.”

He acknowledged that Inglewood has no alternative site for a stadium. Hollywood Park officials “are the ones who have the 400 acres of property,” he said.