Private Team Lines Up for Quick Play to Win NFL Back in Anaheim

With the game almost over, a group of businessmen has signed an exclusive agreement with Anaheim to try to bring a professional football team to the city.

Capital Pacific Holdings, a Newport Beach developer whose majority owner is Hadi Makarachian, has formed a partnership with former USC football star Rod Sherman and economic consultant Wayne D. Wedin.

The prospective owners, called Anaheim Sports Development Holdings, have uttered those magic words: It will not cost the taxpayers anything.

But it will surely cost someone an awful lot. The owners of the new team awarded to Cleveland earlier this month paid the National Football League $530 million.

It would cost $300 million or so more in private funds to build a stadium, unlike in Cleveland where the facility is publicly financed.

The partners in the new group agreed with experts who say a privately funded team and stadium will not make money. So the development would also contain two hotels and stores, businesses and entertainment facilities.

“On the surface the football team may be a potential loss leader, but the other activities will help pay for the team and hopefully the stadium,” said Tim Hamilton, vice president of land acquisition for Capital Pacific.

Several sites for the stadium are being considered, and they include city, county, state and private land, Hamilton said.

Two other Southern California groups have been asked to make presentations when the NFL owners meet in Kansas City, Mo., on Oct. 27 and 28. One, led by entertainment industry executive Michael Ovitz, wants to build a stadium in Carson. The second, New Coliseum Partners, is headed by Edward Roski and Philip Anschutz, owners of the Los Angeles Kings hockey team, and wants to place the football team in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

A fourth group, from Houston, widely considered the favorite to get a team, will also speak to the owners.

Not asked to make a presentation was the group hoping to put a $500-million stadium at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Irvine.

Irvine Mayor Christine Shea, however, said she spoke to NFL executives Tuesday who assured her that if her group was ready, it could make its case at the October meeting or at one in November.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said potential owners invited to the meeting were those that are closest to having concrete deals ready.

He said it was possible the Anaheim group could be invited.

“It’s relatively late, but we’re not ruling out anything at this point,” Aiello said.

The group has had discussions with Roger Goodell, the NFL’s executive vice president who coordinates stadium issues, Aiello sad.

The Anaheim City Council voted 5-0 Tuesday night to give the group exclusive rights to negotiate with the NFL for 13 months with a possible extension of another 13 months.

“This creates an opportunity for what will hopefully bring the NFL back to Anaheim,” Mayor Tom Daly said after the vote.

The two Orange County proposals appear to have set up a fierce rivalry worthy of the football field.

Said Shea: “I’m not afraid of competition whatsoever. About four months ago, Anaheim said Irvine couldn’t pull off a private sector deal, and now that’s what they’re trying to do.”

Replied Anaheim spokesman Brett Colson: “We don’t really care what Irvine thinks. We have our own agenda, and they have theirs.”

Nearly all professional sports facilities these days are built with at least some public funds.

Roger Noll, a Stanford University economist who studies professional sports, said even if owners buy the team and build the stadium, generally they will receive a tax break and financial help to build roads or to prepare the infrastructure.

It’s only possible to build a facility privately “if you have a philanthropist as owner of the team who wants invest $100 million to $200 million in it and not get it out,” Noll said.

The Rams played at Edison International Field, then known as Anaheim Stadium, from 1980 through 1995. After fighting over the rights to develop the stadium parking lot, Rams’ owner Georgia Frontiere moved the team to St. Louis in a lucrative financial deal.

In 1996, Seattle Seahawks owner Ken Behring talked of moving that team to Anaheim, but decided to stay where he was after receiving little enthusiasm in Southern California.

Walt Disney Co., owner of the Anaheim Angels baseball team, and the city of Anaheim recently spent $118 million to remove the stadium’s second deck and turn it into a baseball-only park.

Members of the new group declined to say how the team would be divvied up among them and said they would not rule out bringing in new partners.

Sherman, who went down in Trojan history with a game-winning catch against Notre Dame in 1964, owns a sports marketing firm in San Jose. He and Wedin, who lives in Brea, said they had discussions with Anaheim and the NFL about bringing a team to the city since the Rams left.

Anaheim began talking to the development group about three months ago, Colson said.

“We’ve been given assurances by them if they are able to secure a franchise, they would build a stadium complex with no taxpayer money,” he said.

The group plans to build a stadium with a capacity of 72,000 that could be expanded to more than 85,000.

Colson said 20 acres between the Arrowhead Pond and Edison Field is considered the most likely spot. Two county maintenance yards and an office complex are in the area.

The parcel has more than 17,000 parking spots nearby, 1,320 fewer than needed for a sellout, but the difference could be made up with shuttles and trains, according to a city study.

The parcel also has passed the environmental review because of a previous proposal to build a sports entertainment complex at the site.