Can He Act Like an NFL Owner?

Finally, the New Coliseum has a face without an eye patch and scowl.

His name is Eli Broad, and he looks like a cross between Dan Rooney and Art Modell, which is good news and bad.

That’s Eli Broh-d, as in, load, as in loaded.

Loaded with bucks.

Loaded with vision.

Hopefully not loaded with bunk, and can we be blamed for wondering?

Eli Broad could be the owner of our expansion NFL team in 2002.

Sort of.

Maybe.

Well, OK, we don’t know, but Broad doesn’t know much more, which made Thursday’s trumpet blowing exciting and ear splitting.

At a news conference thrown for a loss by awful football metaphors--like that one--and interrupted 11 times by the sort of “spontaneous” applause heard by Bill Clinton, Broad was introduced as our NFL savior.

The New Coliseum finally has not only a face, but a wallet.

He has the support of county and state officials.

He also has, believe it or not, the backing of Mayor Richard “Wrong-Way” Riordan, who actually showed up and acted as if he cared about football here for the first time in the four seasons since it disappeared.

“We’re at first and goal in our drive to bring the NFL back to Los Angeles,” said Riordan, the metaphor quarterback.

To which Broad, a financial services billionaire, replied that he would not initially attend NFL meetings.

And, oh yeah, and would not make this team his life.

“This is not going to be my primary vocation,” he said.

As Knute Rockne once said, “Huh?”

Perhaps we should call one of our two remaining timeouts for a bit of background.

The NFL is going to give us a team to begin play in 2002, whether we want one or not.

Its initial arrogance in wanting to make us beg--and use new public money--for a new franchise has dissolved in the wake of TV ratings that have plummeted more than 30%.

The league has realized that not only doesn’t the average person here care whether a team comes to town, but even the hard-core fans are starting to get bored with the whole thing.

We win.

The league will give us a team to coincide with a loophole in the TV deal that allows them to cut a new one in 2002.

The NFL will make more money with us than with Houston.

Now then, where should the new team play? And who should own it?

The league cares about where.

The league cares so much about where, if all else fails it is prepared to build its own stadium here, then sell it to someone like Rupert Murdoch.

But that’s the NFL. Except for those who live in the neighborhoods, I’m guessing the public doesn’t care about where.

The average sports fan here, while he might embrace a winning NFL team, might never actually attend a game because of ticket prices that will probably be the highest in the league.

The NFL junkies, meanwhile, won’t mind driving an extra 30 minutes to pay those prices.

A bigger concern for us is, who?

Who will own it? It is ownership, remember, that caused our two teams to move in the first place.

If Al Davis had treated this town with any respect, he would have filled his house.

If Georgia Frontiere had made a legitimate attempt to win, she never would have felt a need to bicker over lease loopholes.

We don’t want another Georgia or Al.

Do we want Hollywood guy Michael Ovitz? Who knows?

Do we want new guy Eli Broad? Who knows?

We are still waiting for one of the groups to start acting like owners.

Working for public support. Showing up around town. Filling the newspapers and TV.

We need them to convince us and the league that they care about this football team the way Jerry Buss cares about the Lakers, or Peter O’Malley once cared about the Dodgers.

Ovitz, at least publicly, has done few of these things. Despite a star-studded stadium presentation, he has done little to reach the heart.

Now that Broad has promised to give the New Coliseum the money it has lacked--”Ed Roski and I can pay for the whole thing if we have to,” he said--it is his turn.

Broad, already a good citizen with extensive involvement in things like Disney Hall and the Museum of Contemporary Art, has a couple of months.

He doesn’t have a football background, and his only sports ownership has been a silent minority share of the Sacramento Kings, but none of that matters.

Does he care about winning, and we don’t mean stock prices?

“You show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser,” he said.

Will he be accessible to the public, out front, on the firing line, accountable for his public trust?

“I’m not going to be a Jerry Jones-type owner, if that’s what you mean,” he said. “My job is to get the best people in place, then go into the background.”

Oh well. Jerry Jones would be the perfect Los Angeles owner.

The jury is out, but here’s hoping Eli Broad tries to make it work.

He says he will let partner Roski make most of the NFL appearances. Bad idea.

Broad needs to be at the Super Bowl. He needs to be at every NFL meeting, no matter how small or secret, until the league makes its decision.

He needs to consider the part about making this his life’s work, no matter how much fun he’s having running SunAmerica Inc., one of the nation’s largest retirement savings companies.

No offense to Wrong-Way Riordan, but Thursday’s news conference was not about first and goal.

It was about kickoff.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com

* PROFILE: Eli Broad, one of Mayor Riordan’s closest friends, will be key investor in New Coliseum. A1

* NFL NOTES: The expansion Cleveland Browns named Chris Palmer as coach. Page 5