NFL Receives an Overture From Ovitz

Former Hollywood agent Michael Ovitz, dismissed by his Los Angeles rivals, the New Coliseum Partners, as nothing more than a shooting star, had NFL owners gushing about his Carson stadium project Tuesday as they opened their annual May meetings.

Ovitz, pushing for a league commitment this year to expand to Los Angeles and begin play in Carson in 2002, bulldozed his way into the NFL’s New York offices last week and sought a private meeting with some of the league’s most influential owners, who had gathered to discuss the placement of a new team in Cleveland.

By all accounts, Ovitz put on a show, his agent/salesman skills hitting home with owners who appreciate sizzle, which included stadium plans calling for mission-like bells on top of the stadium that ring every time the home team scores a touchdown.

“I thought his presentation was very imaginative,” said Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys. “I share a lot of his vision about the future of the NFL and football in Los Angeles again.

“The Los Angeles opportunity in general is something special, an opportunity for someone to step out there and do something historical in the sports business, and I think Ovitz sees that.”

Los Angeles Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, the point man for the New Coliseum Partners and walking the halls here to shake hands with NFL owners, doesn’t challenge Ovitz’s vision, but instead his ability to deliver.

“Interest can often be fleeting,” said Ridley-Thomas in rejecting the attention the NFL has been showering on Ovitz in the past month. “Glitz is just what it is. The devil’s in the details.

“In the final analysis when you look at the issues objectively and examine the criteria that have been advanced by the NFL, no one has been able to put as much together as the New Coliseum, and we’re talking about South Park, Hollywood Park and Elysian Park. Carson has even more obstacles than those other sites.”

Ovitz, while dazzling NFL owners with plans for his stadium, which will have an open end facing the 405 Freeway and which will be decorated to resemble a Southern California mission, is working for a go-ahead from NFL owners at their next scheduled meeting in October.

“I have been very encouraged by the NFL’s interest,” Ovitz said. “This is a big project that is going to take a long time, but I’m in it for the long haul.”

NFL owners, currently distracted by ownership problems in Minnesota and setting a franchise fee for the league’s 31st entry, a new team to begin play in Cleveland next year, have yet to set a timetable for expansion to Houston or Los Angeles.

While Los Angeles tries to stay one step ahead of Houston, also vying for an expansion franchise, Cleveland Mayor Michael White accepted an additional $15-million donation from the NFL here on top of a $48-million advance to help defray the costs of the city’s new football stadium.

White, unlike Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, immediately went to battle with the NFL on the departure of the Browns and forced the league to make the unprecedented promise to put a new team in Cleveland.

Ovitz’s project sidesteps the Los Angeles political process, and now it’s his intention to speed up the process by delivering a Los Angeles deal too good to pass up.

“Very impressive,” said Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots. “We still have to see how things come together, but we know this: We have to have a team in Los Angeles at some point, and this is very interesting.”

Denver Bronco owner Pat Bowlen, who studied and rejected the same land site that Ovitz is now focusing on for his stadium-mall project, has reservations about the property but admiration for Ovitz’s enthusiasm.

“The idea of what he wants to do is really intriguing,” Bowlen said. “The only thing I was not convinced about was the site. I’ve had experience with that site, and at that time it was a highly toxic dump. Maybe it’s no longer like that, and I understand the city of Carson is cooperating, something that wasn’t there 20 years ago when I was involved.

“The reservations I have are really can Michael get that site together, and if he can, then in my mind it’s an attractive deal.”

Ovitz made a number of representations to the NFL owners in his presentation that must be verified, and he still must deliver a financing plan, something that cannot be assembled until after the league has set a sales price for the Cleveland franchise, which will undoubtedly be the starting point to buy a new team in Los Angeles or Houston.

Representatives for the New Coliseum Partners, who joined Ridley-Thomas here, do not believe that the city of Carson can muster the public money Ovitz has indicated will be forthcoming. In discussing Ovitz’s project with media from across the country here, they also have raised questions about Ovitz’s ability to purchase the land he has proposed for a stadium site, and the sincere interest of investors he has reportedly gathered.