Coliseum Panel Puts NFL Rights Bid on Hold

In an abrupt reversal, the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission on Wednesday opened its deliberations on the stadium’s future to the public and put off a decision on awarding developer Edward Roski and his partners exclusive rights to negotiate for the return of an NFL team to a modernized Coliseum until the contract can be revised.

Facing criticism for negotiating the deal in secret, the commission moved to strengthen the agreement, in the words of county Supervisor and Coliseum Commissioner Zev Yaroslavsky, to protect the publicly owned Coliseum from financial risk.

“I don’t think we wanted to give away a penny of public money, and we haven’t,” Yaroslavsky said.

The proposed agreement, which must return to the commission for final approval later this month, would open the way for Roski and his partners to negotiate a long-term lease to renovate and manage the aging facility.

Under the agreement, if the Coliseum lands an NFL team, New Coliseum Venture, as the partnership is called, would commit $200 million or more for a renovated Coliseum with a capacity of 67,000 seats, expandable to about 80,000 seats, including a luxury seating concourse providing up to approximately 15,000 club seats and up to approximately 150 suites.

The amount that the private group would pay the Coliseum to take over management of the facility must still be negotiated.

The commission is rushing to approve the agreement in advance of a meeting of NFL team owners this month in Kansas City. A group led by former Disney executive Michael Ovitz will present a proposal for a new stadium in Carson near the Harbor and San Diego freeways. Houston also is seeking a franchise.

John H. Semcken III, executive vice president of New Coliseum Venture and who attended Wednesday’s commission meeting, said he needs to discuss the changes with his partners. He added that he believes the proposal is exciting. “We think we’re going to blow them away when we get to Kansas City,” he said.

The agreement, negotiated last week in talks between Coliseum commissioners Mike Roos and Sheldon Sloan and the Roski partners, was being revised right up and through Wednesday’s midafternoon meeting.

One of the first issues addressed was concerns over who would make a guaranteed payment of up to $5 million to the Roski group if an NFL team comes to the Coliseum, independent of Roski’s efforts, during the two years of the agreement.

The commission staff sent out a memo Wednesday advising that the $5-million payment would come from the future NFL tenant, not the Coliseum, though the draft of the contract circulated Tuesday was silent on that question.

“The commission doesn’t have $5 million,” said the memo. “We can’t promise what we don’t have.”

At Yaroslavsky’s urging, the commission instructed its attorneys to incorporate in the agreement a provision entitling Roski and his partners to as much as $5 million in reimbursements for expenses, but only if the business group can verify their charges and if they do not include the price of political lobbying.

Of the $2 million spent by the partnership, much of it has been for legal fees, lobbying, public relations and marketing.

In one of the few matters to divide the commission, Commissioner Lisa Specht, an attorney and lobbyist, urged that the agreement include a “performance guarantee” to ensure that the business venture will do what it has promised. “They’re not obligated to spend $1 to promote the Coliseum. All they’re agreeing to do is use their best efforts,” she said.

“The provision is the reputation of these leaders who have essentially said, ‘We are going to do our level best to get a team here,’ ” said Roos, the commission president. “When you enter into an arrangement with anyone, you look at a variety of things: Are they an entrepreneur? Do they have a track record? Do they have standing and respect in the community?

“They’re taking a risk by laying their capital and their reputations on the line to make this work. . . . We believe we get leverage by relating to a group of proven entrepreneurs and people who have standing in this community of getting things done.”

Some commissioners also pointed out that no one else was knocking at the peristyle to take charge of promoting the Coliseum.

The commission took the matter up in public session after receiving a letter from Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs. “As we should have learned from our experience with the Staples Arena,” he wrote, “public support from the outset is essential for any plan to succeed. If the plan is a good one, it will withstand scrutiny from those who may have to pay the bill.”

Roski is a partner in a separate group that owns the Kings and is building the Staples Center downtown for the hockey team and the Lakers professional basketball team.

The Coliseum has been without an NFL team since the Raiders left in 1995 to return to Oakland. The Rams left the Coliseum for Orange County in 1980.

Although the agreement cites a $200-million figure, Semcken said the Roski group proposes to spend $350 million on the Coliseum. Of that, about $20 million would be public subsidies provided by the Community Redevelopment Agency and $20 million would come from a surcharge on tickets to Coliseum events.

Semcken said that if the group obtains a 55-year lease on the Coliseum and its surrounding property, the group hopes to transform the site of the Sports Arena into “some exciting attraction.”