New Coliseum Parts NFL Seas

And the winner is: Los Angeles.

It might only be a one-day victory, but in Hollywood style, Los Angeles went to the sizzle Tuesday, calling on the voice of Moses to remind NFL owners just where the promised land is located.

And while the selection of Charlton Heston, the National Rifle Assn. president, to narrate the New Coliseum video presentation might have fed the NFL’s foreboding gunfire image of previous visits to play the Raiders, it was L.A.’s only fumble on an otherwise brilliant day.

Houston still has the best deal, the most complete package to offer the NFL, but this day was dedicated to reminding everyone that Houston is not Los Angeles. At the same time, L.A.’s dazzling show appears to have pushed the league onto a faster track in awarding an expansion franchise--something that could happen as early as next year.

“It’s pretty important to put a franchise in L.A. with it being the second largest city in the country,” said Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots and chairman of the NFL’s powerful finance committee. “We can’t let another generation of young men grow up without a team there. That’s just my personal feeling.”

There’s one vote for L.A.--only 23 more to go.

In separate presentations sandwiched around Houston, the New Coliseum Partners and Michael Ovitz, who wants to build a stadium-mall in Carson, impressed upon NFL owners the TV, financial and marketing need to be in Los Angeles if they wish to remain successful.

“That was a great new model presented by the Coliseum group--very imaginative, very exciting,” said Cleveland Brown President Carmen Policy, who just went through the expansion process. “The Ovitz group had some stereotypical L.A. panache connected to it. Sizzle, is that a better word?”

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who organized this unprecedented meeting with presentations for expansion before the league has even declared it will expand to 32, did so to energize the league’s owners. And the order of delivery was no accident: The New Coliseum Partners, Houston and Mr. Showmanship.

Did it work?

“Yes,” said Tagliabue with a grin, indicating the league will now probably call a special meeting in February to work further on Houston and Los Angeles with the real possibility that NFL owners might award a team in March to begin play in 2001 or 2002.

Remember, this is the NFL, and “might” is the operative word.

Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones, who was saying a few days ago that there is no urgency to expand, said here the league could pick between Houston and Los Angeles as early as the end of the year.

That would seem unrealistic at this time, although Ovitz told the owners that he is insisting on a decision by year’s end or he won’t be around for further meetings.

The NFL won’t cave in because Ovitz runs short of patience, but as Detroit Lion owner William Ford Jr. said, “I think the final decision is going to be relatively soon because both cities deserve an answer and have a timeline that won’t last forever. So I think as a league we have to be responsible and get going.”

The next regularly scheduled NFL meetings are in Phoenix in March, and the league still must deal with a number of owners who are reluctant to rush into adding a 32nd team. One thing that helps, however, is the recent wire transfer of $17 million to each owner--their share of the $476-million franchise fee paid by the Browns.

“I would be surprised if there is a serious effort to reach a decision by March,” Policy said. “I have a very strong feeling about football being in the larger markets that have been vacated, and Houston was very impressive.

“They seemed to have all their ducks in order, and there’s a very strong attraction to having a unified position by a community--one group of ownership and all the public officials and the business community pointing in one direction--and by the way, here it is, the site and financing and nothing left to do, but you the NFL make the decision. That’s very appealing and compelling.”

Eighteen paragraphs into this story and Al Davis’ name hasn’t been mentioned, and indeed it was a good day for L.A., but how “might” that change the NFL’s timetable for a final decision.

Davis, who claims he still owns the L.A. market while also telling people he has designs on leaving Oakland to return to Southern California, dropped in for the last half of the New Coliseum presentation and skipped out on Houston and Ovitz.

“Every presentation is very nice,” Davis said, “but about three or four years too late for me.”

The NFL has yet to advise the prospective L.A. expansion owners how Davis’ lawsuit against the NFL regarding ownership to the market might affect them. But the league’s lead attorney, Frank Rothman, said the league might be inclined to wait for a resolution to the legal differences with Davis before moving back into L.A., although he remains confident a judgment will go the NFL’s way any time now.

“Listen, I’ve [said it] 10 different times, these people destroyed my negotiations at Hollywood Park,” Davis said before leaving. “Everyone has presented beautiful edifices; that’s what we were going to have at Hollywood Park. There was no public money, it was privately funded. It would have been state-of-the-art beautiful, no parking problems, no environmental problems.”

Does Davis have any plans to try to work a deal to return to Los Angeles?

“I’ll see you,” Davis said, in what may or may not have been only a figure of speech.

Tagliabue, asked about Davis’ contention that he owns the L.A. market, said, “We know what he alleges, and we don’t think he has one.”

In an odd sidelight, Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden was holding court for unsuspecting members of the national media, who could not quite comprehend why he was standing next to the New Coliseum stadium model while extolling the virtues of Davis.

In reality, it was just another glimpse of L.A., which ruled the day, beginning with a New Coliseum presentation that had owners emerging from closed doors to admit they had changed their opinion of the project.

“It’s really come a long ways,” said Denver Bronco owner Pat Bowlen, openly critical of the Coliseum after previous presentations before NFL committees. “They’ve really got their act together on the financial side of things. What I see there now is a very doable deal.

“Ed Roski brings a lot to the equation just by the fact they are doing a successful deal at the Staples Center. That makes the whole concept more believable.”

Roski, a tireless campaigner for the New Coliseum despite a less-than-enthusiastic reception before this meeting, has been meeting privately with NFL owners around the country and apparently making progress.

The New Coliseum unveiled a new Exposition Park-wide concept that would include a permanent home for the Grammy Awards and a music museum alongside the football stadium. The Landmark Entertainment Group, which created “Jurassic Park: The Ride” for Universal Studios, showed NFL owners the Grammy layout complete with an aerial tram system that would run throughout the park.

“We have had significant lift-off today,” said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, the driving force behind the Coliseum project as long as four years ago. “We presented a new stadium model, a new financial plan, and the report for the people in Los Angeles is we’re getting a lot closer and our investment today has not been for naught.”

Several of the NFL owners said the major difference in the Coliseum presentation was in its stadium design, which was put together in short order by NBBJ, a Los Angeles firm. The 68,000-seat stadium with 15,000 premier seats and 156 suites will have canopies draped over midfield seats for a “more intimate feeling, as well as protection from the weather.”

“We have aggressively gone after this,” Roski said, “and we have a very doable deal right now, just like Houston.”

Houston, which wheeled in carts of cowhide-looking binders with their plan detailed for each owner, has $195 million in public money to build a 77,000-seat all-glass stadium with a retractable roof. The Houston deal has had city, county and sports authority officials all sign off in agreement, and has an impressive prospective owner in businessman Robert McNair.

“It’s like we told the people here,” said Jack Raines, chairman of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, “we were sandwiched between the two L.A. groups for these presentations and we were the beef in the middle.”

After Houston’s low-key presentation, Ovitz took the stage and dominated the owners’ attention after a long day of meetings. Someone suggested it was the first time in NFL history one of the owners failed to nod off.

Ovitz presented a video with the concept of L.A. awakening one Sunday morning with the announcement that the NFL was about to play its first game in the city again after the departure of the Raiders and Rams.

It was pure Hollywood with the flashing pictures of all that is unique to Los Angeles, while constantly interjecting scenes of kids at play--a theme that worked its way all though the Carson presentation.

“If you’re selling a TV syndication program you must sell it to New York, Los Angeles and Chicago,” Ovitz said. “New York has 6.1 million TV households, L.A. has 5 million and Chicago 3, and everything drops off after that. It’s wrong to have 16 million fans--all within 30 minutes of our proposed stadium--being left out of the NFL.

“Los Angeles is a very integral part of branding the NFL [name] going forth into the millennium, and if you wait much longer you’re going to have ecreation. We’ve got the largest bank in the country behind us, a great city with a safe environment behind us and a great stadium design.”

Whatever “ecreation” is, the owners understood what he was talking about, and sat up straight when he presented them with a “highly confident” financial letter of support from the Bank of America.

“Based upon our review of your business plan and the underlying assumptions, we are highly confident in our ability to arrange the [$400 million] required financing,” wrote Edward Brown, managing director and president of the Bank of America.

Ovitz’ finance plan also includes $50 million in projected personal seat licenses and with the assumption that the average premium seat will cost $70, the average suite $90,000--$30,000 shy of that being projected by the New Coliseum.

“In order for football to succeed in Los Angeles, it must reach the high bar of entertainment expectations of fans,” said Ovitz, who received a ringing endorsement from Laker President Jerry West at a post-presentation news conference. “It must be exciting, and entertaining. And it must be safe, comfortable and well-located. That’s what we’re proposing for The Hacienda.”

Of course, there is no way of knowing presently if the name, “The Hacienda,” will stand for anything more than early sizzle, because there’s room in Ovitz’s plan to earn an additional $50 million in naming rights.

Ovitz told the owners that he has a commitment from Carson for $180 million in public funds--$100 million that will be used toward the stadium and the remaining money toward a mall to be built around the stadium.

Carson City Councilman Daryl Sweeney said the funds approved by the city council represent a “firm commitment, extremely firm.”

Add it all up, and the NFL was obviously impressed by the presentations and the efforts of so many to make them so much richer in the coming years.

As Buffalo Bill owner Ralph Wilson said, “They all look good. Let’s just hope they have a lot of money.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NFL At A Glance

Days without football in L.A.: 1,405

Rams’ record since moving: 20-35, .364

Raiders’ record since moving: 24-31, .436

NEW COLISEUM

The proposal by Ed Roski and Partners to bring pro football back to the Coliseum: A redesigned, Camden Yards-style Coliseum, which will cost $357 million. Ed Roski and Partners will contribute more than $200 million, the taxpayers will contribute $40 million, and $100 million will come from personal seat licenses and the highest-priced luxury suites in the NFL.

OVITZ’S CARSON PLAN

Michael Ovitz has proposed a $300-million, 78,000-seat “Hacienda style” stadium located in Carson. The stadium will be surrounded by a state-of-the-art shopping mall and will be privately financed. The city of Carson has pledged $100 million in Community Redevelopment funds.

Ovitz’s Finance Plan

Sources for stadium and team ownership

Funding from Bank of America: $400 million

Carson City funds: $100 million

Personal Seat Licenses: $50 million

Up-front money from advertising/sponsors: $25 million

Suite/Club Seat Deposits: $15 million

Ownership Group’s Equity: To Be Determined

Collective estimated net worth of Ovitz group$4 billion

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Use of Funds

Stadium cost: $350 million

Land cost: $30 million

Signing bonuses for players: $30 million

Working capital, fees, Misc.: $27 million

Franchise Fee: To Be Determined

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Operating Assumptions

Average General Ticket Price: $40

Premium Seating: $70

Club Seats: $70

Average PSL Club Seat: $1,500

Average Luxury Suite: $90,000