NFL to Be Presented New Coliseum Plan

Criticized stadium deals in Oakland and San Diego and a frustrated owner in San Francisco’s Edward DeBartolo, who is quietly making threats to move again, have become the foundation of hope for a new Coliseum and the return of professional football to Los Angeles.

Edward Roski, co-owner of the Los Angeles Kings, will present the outline for a $300-million financing plan for a new Coliseum to the NFL owners’ stadium committee here Tuesday morning. The plan, according to sources, includes the expenditure of $150 million in public funds.

The new Coliseum plan relies on the use of surplus state sales taxes to benefit not only Roski’s project, but other troubled “entertainment” interests in California, such as the 49ers.

Roski and his partner, Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz, who propose leasing the new Coliseum from the city for $1 a year, have also factored in a successful city-wide referendum as part of their plan.

“After 13 months and an exclusive opportunity to prepare a viable plan for the new Coliseum, we will be very interested to see what they have come up with,” said Roger Goodell, the NFL’s executive vice president for league and football development.

However, a Los Angeles city official who already has reviewed the financial plan, expressed disappointment. “Without the state piece of the deal, they don’t have a thing. It all hinges on getting the state money, and that’s downright speculative.”

NFL insiders, meanwhile, continue to cling to the hope that Dodger owner Peter O’Malley will get a supportive push from Rupert Murdoch, after O’Malley sells the baseball team to the media billionaire, and oversee the construction of a football stadium in Chavez Ravine.

“It wouldn’t be surprising to see O’Malley direct the construction of a stadium” said an NFL owner, “and Murdoch making it available to an NFL owner with no charge for the land just to give Murdoch that much more exposure and increase the value of his holdings. That makes a lot of sense for Los Angeles, and for the NFL.”

Roski, meanwhile, has been traveling to football games around the country trying to change that kind of thinking and the perception people have of the Coliseum.

“From a developer’s position, I do not see how it can be done at Dodger Stadium,” said Roski. “I couldn’t do it at Dodger Stadium.

“I think we are a lot further along than where we were when we started with the perception of the new Coliseum; maybe 80% there with the NFL front office and ownership,” said Roski, although most owners contacted in recent months have shown no inclination to return to the Coliseum. “We’re not talking about coming back to the Coliseum; we’re talking about coming back to the new Coliseum.

“And I think with the public [in Los Angeles] we have a gotten a tremendous amount of support for the new Coliseum. And it’s growing.”

Roski, who insists he is not residing in a dream world, said his interest in working on behalf of the new Coliseum has increased with every passing day.

“It’s going to happen,” said Roski, who along with Anschutz, stayed with a difficult political process in the expectation of winning City Council approval later this month for their proposed downtown sports arena. “The [NFL] knows we’re not going to go away.”

Roski and Anschutz have been criticized in Los Angeles for keeping part of their arena deal secret, which resulted in political repercussions. Roski said the developers have learned their lesson, “and so in bringing football to Los Angeles this needs to be a very open process.”

In the spirit of such openness, Roski was asked to offer details on the new Coliseum’s finance plan in regards to public funds.

“Let us finish up our plan first,” Roski said. “Let us work with the NFL and get everything together and then we will lay it out publicly.”

The new Coliseum, which has been unable to win support from NFL owners in three previous presentations and which has had more than a year to exclusively negotiate with the league, is hoping to gain momentum with immediate support from the 49ers and Chargers because of the proposed state solution.

The 49ers, seemingly happy and content after winning a $100-million city referendum to use public funds to help build a $525-million stadium-mall complex, have let it be known behind the scenes if they don’t get more financial assistance by the first of the year they might consider going elsewhere.

DeBartolo, who has had past business dealings with R.D. Hubbard, Hollywood Park’s top executive, recently took another look at the Inglewood site, which has necessary environmental approvals and promised city money for the building of a new stadium.

There has been some speculation in the NFL that the 49ers might endorse the new Coliseum plan as a way of using Los Angeles to gain state funds for their own project.

“Hopefully we can be used by them and work together in solving a problem that’s acceptable to the citizens of the state of California,” Roski said. “The whole state has to address this.”

The Chargers’ stadium expansion, which included a 60,000-seat guarantee, has already cost the city of San Diego more than $600,000 and has been a public relations disaster.

The Raiders, who have had as many as 20,000 unsold tickets to their new stadium, continue to have marketing problems. But no one in the NFL really expects owner Al Davis to expend much energy to help the new Coliseum.

“San Francisco, San Diego, Oakland, Los Angeles--we all have stadium challenges in front of us and we have a solution for all of us,” said Roski. “At the Coliseum, the historical tax credit we would get gives us a real leg up, the infrastructure work has already been done and there is no cost for the land. But with all that, we’re still going to need to look at a California statewide solution to solving our situation as well as a number of others.”

Roski’s plan is to ask state legislators to establish entertainment districts throughout the state, turning the additional sales taxes generated by a new facility in a particular area into money that can be used to finance the new projects.

“For example,” said someone familiar with the plan, “if the area around the Coliseum presently generates $1 million in sales taxes and then jumps to $1.6 million with the new Coliseum, they are talking about that additional $600,000. Presently 40% of that money is dedicated to education, which would remain the same, but they would like to use the remaining 60% of that money to buy bonds.”

Roski said surplus sales taxes also could be used for communities wishing to build triple-A baseball stadiums, for example, convention halls or other entertainment projects in addition to bailing out the 49ers, Raiders and Chargers.

“We’ve discussed the plans in detail with the NFL [front office] staff and they were very well-received,” Roski said. “We’re adjusting to their comments now in time to deliver our plan Tuesday morning.”

In addition to a finance plan for a new Coliseum, Roski will give NFL owners a 20-year operational plan for an expansion franchise. The complete stadium/team ownership package, topping more than $500 million, Roski said, will also include proposed expansion fees willing to be paid by Roski and Anschutz, which will top the $215 million paid in fees and TV money by the NFL’s last two expansion teams, Jacksonville and Carolina.

Roski will also ask the NFL to deliver at their annual owners meetings in March a specific list of demands to be met by the new Coliseum in the next two years in exchange for the promise of an expansion franchise. The city of Cleveland and the NFL are in the process of completing a similar agreement with the expectation that Cleveland will receive an expansion franchise to begin play in 1999.

“We would have the funds raised, the referendums being put forth and approved and everything done in a two-year span of time to get a team,” Roski said. “They need to have the NFL in Los Angeles, and we plan on showing them they need to work with us to get it accomplished.

“We’re talking about a two-year exclusive window to meet such conditions. I think it would be a mistake on the NFL’s part to open it up to other interests in Los Angeles. They are going to need to select the horse they are going to ride on.”

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Billionaire Philip Anschutz’s future involvement, if any, in bringing an NFL team to L.A. appears to be up in the air. C7