There’s Much To-Do Over 32

On the eve of expansion presentations by Los Angeles and Houston, NFL owners appeared to be wrestling with the most basic question: Do we want to acknowledge at this time that we are going to expand to 32 teams?

Although such an announcement seems no more enlightening than announcing that tomorrow is Wednesday, there appears to be a strong movement among some owners to use Houston and Los Angeles to extort better deals in their own markets.

Buffalo, Denver, Minnesota, Arizona, San Francisco and Oakland all have stadium issues, driven in part by the implied suggestion that, like the Browns who left Cleveland, anything is possible.

“What I’m saying is, there’s not much leverage in a team to get another stadium unless there are places like Houston and Los Angeles to go to,” said Bud Adams, who moved his team from Houston to Nashville. “I think every owner would like to get a new stadium in his hometown, but if there are no alternative solutions to it--there’s no other place to go--he can be told to get lost.”

Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones, like Adams, said he does not expect the NFL to pass any resolution at these meetings calling for a 32nd team, although it’s the hope of both Houston and Los Angeles that compelling one-hour presentations will change such opinions.

The New Coliseum Partners and a Carson-area project headed by Michael Ovitz, along with a group from Houston, took turns carting models, drawings and technical equipment into hotel conference rooms here to rehearse their sales pitches.

The New Coliseum will present a newly redesigned stadium different from the model they have carted to previous meetings, trying to impress owners with a throwback stadium similar to what baseball went to in Baltimore. The New Coliseum Partners will unveil pictures of their proposed new stadium to NFL owners before revealing them to the public in Los Angeles, primarily because the plans were finished just before arrival here.

The New Coliseum Partners, fighting a perception battle with owners who recall with disgust their Raider experiences in the Coliseum, will try to demonstrate the value of its location, and how it will tie into the city of Los Angeles, including the development of the Staples Center.

The New Coliseum Partners, who flew here on a chartered jet with a large cross-section of Los Angeles-area politicians, failed to convince the NFL to switch their presentation from early in the afternoon to later, thereby giving Mayor Richard Riordan time to honor previous commitments and be here.

Riordan will deliver remarks via videotape, which will undoubtedly raise serious questions about his overall commitment.

The NFL brass, trying to shape policy for the owners and trying to push through a resolution to move to 32 teams, rejected the request for a time change because they hope Ovitz will end the presentations in rousing fashion. It’s the NFL’s contention that if the owners, who prefer going to L.A. over Houston in a best-case scenario, become enthralled with what Ovitz can bring to the league, there will be a shift in attitudes, speeding up the expansion process.

Ovitz, who has kept his project in Carson under wraps for the most part, has brought along Laker General Manager Jerry West, who has joined Ovitz’s potential ownership group. Ovitz will try to convince the owners that he has a $180-million commitment in public money from the city of Carson, although he hasn’t made the specifics of his financial deal known and it’s not clear if Carson can deliver such money.

Houston will counter with a signed deal from city and county officials, including $195 million in public money and the backing of private businessman Robert McNair, who would own the team.

NFL owners acknowledge that Houston has a commanding lead on both L.A. groups at this time, but because of their reluctance to move quickly, they will afford L.A. every opportunity to catch up.

First, though, it might be a good idea if they actually decide to go to 32 teams.