NFL Still Fumbling an L.A. Game Plan

Until now, it was only one man’s opinion when talking about the bumbling, stumbling NFL, clumsy as ever in handling the Los Angeles football challenge.

But a limping Roger Goodell, the NFL’s man in charge of shaping policy for the return of the league to Los Angeles, provided bloody evidence of the NFL’s inability to get a grasp on the L.A. situation. He dropped Eli Broad’s model of the Coliseum on the back of his foot, necessitating a trip to an emergency room, where he received 30 stitches and a calf-high cast.

So far, that’s the only tangible evidence of the model’s impact on the NFL.

What is this, the 20th or 21st NFL owners’ meeting directing attention at Los Angeles? They now schedule meetings just to determine when they should meet again. The process has become so tiresome that Los Angeles Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who wouldn’t miss a chance to talk publicly for most anything, passed on this one.

This is the fourth confab this year, and it still has another day to go, but the NFL has already scheduled another session for July 28, apparently because the owners are having such a good time asking L.A.-area billionaires to jump through hoops for them.

As expected, Commissioner Paul Tagliabue endorsed Michael Ovitz’s stadium design and parking solution Tuesday, saying, “The Ovitz plan sets a vision--some form of that plan sets a vision--in terms of transforming the venue and also access by the fans with their automobiles, which is so critical in that part of the world.”

That’s how the guy talks.

“I think you could say he stopped just short of a full endorsement of Ovitz’s plan,” interpreted a league official later. “Or, you could say he just endorsed it.”

Tagliabue also said the NFL wants to take another look at the Broad parking plan--maybe more sketches and a new model.

Of course, the NFL would love Broad’s parking plan because he said he could get $67.5 million in public funds for a garage with 7,500 spaces and, even if unsuccessful, would pay for it himself. Now he’s talking their language.

Tagliabue said the NFL considers “the next 30 days until June 30 critical”--which is really 36 days--to paying due diligence to and getting a cost analysis on Ovitz’s plan.

Why June 30?

“That’s when I’m going on vacation,” said Tagliabue, who presumably is taking the time to rest up for that July 28 meeting.

At the last meeting, the NFL demanded plans for 25,000 parking places. Here, at this meeting, they said anyone demanding 25,000 parking places at the Coliseum is just crazy.

This much is clear after almost five years without football and all these meetings: The NFL has no idea what it is doing, what it wants or how it’s going to get it done.

Throw in the confused Broad and Ovitz, with a hint of Marvin Davis, a.k.a. “the Tire Kicker,” possibly making an appearance at Hollywood Park, and football fans in Los Angeles have good cause to be apathetic.

Or, in the words of Davis, as passed on by someone on his staff, “No comment.”

Easy for him to say. He hasn’t been to one of these meetings yet, or had to sit through a news conference by Tagliabue.

When can Los Angeles expect the NFL to select an owner for its team and get on with it?

“I don’t know,” Tagliabue said, and he says that a lot.

Asked again--given his expertise as commissioner of the NFL--what time frame the L.A. principals might look at for such a development, a testy Tagliabue said, “I answered that question.”

It’s a farce. The NFL didn’t think of asking Broad to stay here to talk more about his parking solution until hours after his plane had departed for Los Angeles. That left a pair of lieutenants, John McKay and John Semcken, to stand before the owners and match the fervor of Michael Ovitz. Imagine the Arena League champs versus the Denver Broncos.

No wonder Broad and Ovitz have had trouble hitting the ever-changing NFL mark. Their task has been to satisfy the conflicting opinions of 31 NFL owners without any guidance from the league, while getting public funds from a city and state with the good sense not to provide a dime for the benefit of rich men trying to become richer.

The NFL, good at making demands but showing little willingness to come to L.A. and direct the process, would like a unified effort from Los Angeles to win political support and therefore public funds. But it also wants competing groups to drive up the franchise fee it will demand for initiation.

The NFL’s concern is that the more the parking and the stadium cost, the less an owner in L.A. will be able to put up for the franchise fee. That’s why the NFL puts such stock in public money. It lessens the cost for construction, thereby allowing the league to ask a higher price for the team.

The league, concerned about a Los Angeles political backlash, talked to Ovitz after adopting his plan and suggested he merge his efforts with Broad’s, Broad having the political clout to make a run at getting public funds. The NFL believes that Ovitz’s partner, Ron Burkle, in tandem with Broad, would have the political muscle to gain support for state funds.

This strategy is fluid, as all strategy seems to be, depending on which way the wind is blowing in the city where they are meeting.

The NFL will tell you it has accomplished a lot recently, passing a resolution that football will be returning to L.A. if L.A. can make the league happy. The owners have identified the Coliseum as the NFL’s site of choice, although there are rumblings that they remain interested in Carson and Hollywood Park as backup sites.

And they have rid themselves of Ed Roski’s exclusivity agreement, a successful bully tactic that will undoubtedly empower them to play it tough again when necessary down the road.

But here’s the problem: The longer the process, the more the nonsense, the more everyone becomes turned off--at a time when Ovitz, Broad and the NFL should be courting the fans of Los Angeles and the money in their pockets.

Why not get on with it? Set the price, pick an owner and really start identifying the problems and the compromises that will have to be made.

“If we spend 15 to 30 minutes on L.A. [in today’s meeting] that would be about it,” Tagliabue said. “To set a price, it might take us 15 to 30 days for discussion, not 15 to 30 minutes.”

And another meeting. Glaciers cover ground more quickly than these guys, who are moving toward a Sept. 15 deadline, which undoubtedly will be pushed back to the October meeting, which will be followed by a January meeting. . . .