Steinberg: NFL Won’t Pick O.C. Over L.A.

The NFL would not place an expansion team in Orange County at the expense of one in Los Angeles and would not accept an offer for a privately financed stadium, agent Leigh Steinberg predicted Tuesday.

Steinberg, one of the NFL’s most influential behind-the-scenes players, said he was heartened to hear that San Diego Padre owner John Moores had approached the league about returning to Anaheim. But the city will not pay to build a stadium, and Steinberg said that would doom the proposal even if Moores were willing to write a $1-billion check to cover the stadium construction bill and franchise fee.

“It’s almost a paradox,” Steinberg said. “If you find a wealthy enough person to build a stadium and finance it without public money, the NFL doesn’t want that project. They want the precedent of municipalities contributing.

“And, in tax-phobic Orange County, the likelihood of public money going into the project is, well, not much.”

The NFL believes a Los Angeles team cannot succeed without more tax money than the city and state are willing to offer. If the NFL cannot reach agreement with Los Angeles by Sept. 15, the league has threatened to revoke the expansion franchise conditionally awarded to the city and place the team in Houston.

While the league has promised to consider alternate sites in Southern California, Moores has not yet met with Anaheim officials. Even in the unlikely event Moores could complete a plan to finance and develop a stadium by Sept. 15, Steinberg said NFL owners want an expansion franchise in Los Angeles, not Anaheim.

“It makes me sad to say that,” said Steinberg, who lives in Newport Beach. “But . . . the farther you get from Hollywood, the more star-struck they are.”

Steinberg co-chaired the Save the Rams task force, which failed to persuade Georgia Frontiere to keep that team in Anaheim or sell to someone who would. The Rams moved to St. Louis in 1995, and Steinberg said Orange County’s best hope for replacing them would be for an entrepreneur like Moores to build a stadium and persuade another owner to move his team here. The NFL might frown on a privately financed stadium, he said, but not enough to file suit to block the move.

“The NFL is unwilling to challenge anyone that moves a team,” he said.