Billionaire Still Backs Bid for NFL at Coliseum

Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz remains committed to bringing professional football back to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and welcomes competition from any other possible site, including the area around Dodger Stadium owned by Peter O’Malley, according to the president and chief operating officer of Anschutz Corp.

In interviews and a letter sent this week, representatives of Anschutz Corp. and other Coliseum supporters said they believe pro football will return to Los Angeles sooner if there is an open, freewheeling competition for the franchise.

“We do not believe Peter O’Malley or anyone else should be asked to hold off on making a proposal, and we would urge Mr. O’Malley and others to make their proposals as soon as possible,” Anschutz Corp. President and Chief Operating Officer Cannon Y. Harvey said in a letter to state Sen. Richard G. Polanco (D-Los Angeles). “We are confident that the Coliseum is the right venue and that the consortium forged by Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas has the best capacity to achieve a successful result.”

In the delicate, nuanced language of the Coliseum negotiations, that represents a subtle but important shift in emphasis by the project’s backers. Initially, they had asked potential rivals to back the Coliseum, but some Coliseum supporters now believe that approach is hurting the effort by allowing NFL owners to believe that if they reject returning to the Exposition Park site, they can later turn to O’Malley or someone else for a Southern California stadium.

Harvey would not characterize his letter as a change in the negotiating position of the Coliseum group, saying instead that it was an expression of the Anschutz Corp.’s understanding that the bid for Los Angeles football has always been an open competition.

Ridley-Thomas, whose district includes the Coliseum, concurred. “If they have a better project, then they should put it forward,” he said of the Coliseum’s potential rivals. “But they will be in direct competition with the new Coliseum. . . . Either their support for the new Coliseum is earnest or it is not. If it is not earnest and they are waiting for it to fail, they will be waiting a long time.”

Through a spokeswoman, Mayor Richard Riordan said he, too, believes that competition would be healthy for the football sweepstakes. Riordan, the spokeswoman said, is convinced that the Coliseum will prevail.

Among other things, Coliseum supporters say they believe their effort is the only one that can win public and political support in Los Angeles. Residents of the neighborhood surrounding Dodger Stadium have opposed any effort to bring football to Chavez Ravine and have written to the National Football League to protest any plans for such a stadium.

“It was a mistake to put a stadium in Elysian Park in the first place, and nobody wants to make this bad situation worse for everybody,” Jeff Brighouse, president of the Neighbors of Dodger Stadium, said in a letter to the NFL last week. “We will use all our resources to fight the NFL moving onto Dodger property and into Elysian Park. We urge the NFL to share in the win-win prospects of football in the Coliseum.”

O’Malley was not available for comment. A Dodger publicist said officials had not had a chance to review Anschutz Corp.’s letter and, therefore, were not able to respond to it.

Although some NFL sources have questioned Anschutz’s commitment to the Coliseum, Harvey said in an interview Thursday that there has been no change in his boss’ determination to see that effort through.

Asked whether Anschutz remains committed to the Coliseum, Harvey responded: “Very much so.”

In his letter, Harvey wrote, “for the past six months, we have been working with Ed Roski and other civic leaders to bring NFL football to the new Coliseum. We remain committed to making that happen.”

Roski, a Los Angeles real estate developer, is Anschutz’s partner in both the L.A. Kings and the sports arena to be built south of downtown. The project received final approval from the Los Angeles City Council this week.

Harvey’s letter was prompted by an inquiry from Polanco, who wrote to Anschutz earlier this month to ask whether the Denver billionaire remains committed to bringing football to the Coliseum.

Harvey’s letter was welcomed by Coliseum supporters, whose hopes for renovating that facility and attracting a football team depend on finding wealthy backers. Within the NFL, Anschutz’s involvement has been considered particularly important because while Roski is wealthy, many owners do not believe he could carry the financial burdens alone.

“They’re there,” Ridley-Thomas said of Roski and Anschutz. “I’ve talked to them in several different ways, and they’re there.”

Still, even with Anschutz on board, the group lobbying for football at the Coliseum has presented a financing plan for renovating the facility that relies on changing state law to allow sales tax revenue to be devoted to the project. That may find tough going in Sacramento, where legislators would have to be convinced that it is in the state’s interest to give up tax money in order to bring football back to Los Angeles.

Moreover, the proposal would sap some of the economic benefit that a team would bring the city, because some of the taxes generated in the surrounding community would be rolled back into the facility itself.