Burkle Key to L.A. Bid

He would like to remain in the background and not trespass on Michael Ovitz’s dream of owning a football team, but if the bidding takes an outrageous turn at tonight’s meeting of NFL owners, Ron Burkle holds the key to Los Angeles’ chances of getting an expansion franchise.

Ovitz will present his offer in writing this morning to league officials in New York before coming to Atlanta. He has already told the NFL he will not be party to an auction.

“The only differences we have right now are in the franchise fee,” Ovitz said. “They want more, but we know what we can do.”

Houston will make the more lucrative offer, with the expectation that the franchise-fee gap between the two presentations could be as wide as $150 million, That means Ovitz will be pressed, as the day goes on, to sweeten the pot.

And whereas Ovitz has the unbridled enthusiasm and the gift of gab, Burkle has the money. The NFL is interested in Ovitz’s contribution, but will be demanding of Burkle’s.

It’s an awkward position for Burkle, an Ovitz loyalist, who went from fired box boy to owner of 800 supermarkets. A billionaire financier, he has a $20-million piece of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and previous ownership ties to the Galaxy, and also sponsors auto and hydroplane racing teams.

He still second-guesses himself for not following up on a notion to bid for the Dodgers, but now, thrust into the middle of football negotiations, he wonders why he is here, and where it’s all going.

“This deal is Michael’s,” Burkle said. “I’m investing in Michael Ovitz. This is his dream. In looking at the way the team might function and operate, I would expect to have a voice. But in any business, there has to be somebody in charge and that would be Michael. A business doesn’t run well by committee.

“I’ve worked with Michael on this, but it’s his show. I’ve been pulled in much further than I thought I would, because I don’t want to make this my sole interest. It’s really Michael’s thing.”

Ovitz has predicted that he will return to Los Angeles on Wednesday with an expansion team, his optimism based on two things: Burkle’s support and NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue’s assurances that he will remind the league’s members of the long-range value Los Angeles brings to the league.

In this league, money talks louder than anything else. When it came time to select an owner for the Cleveland franchise, Tagliabue laid out the qualifications: The winner must pay more than anyone else bidding.

That would appear to eliminate Los Angeles, if the deal depends heavily on Burkle. He would be hard-pressed to make a one-sided deal benefiting the NFL.

Burkle, while saying at this 11th hour, “I don’t know what my contribution will be at this point,” has made his living investigating similar business deals, making offers, but walking away without regret if the deals get crazy.

Ovitz, however, has more at stake. His passion has brought Los Angeles this far but his reputation as a deal maker is now at risk, whipping him into a frenzy as he comes looking to win 24 votes for his plan to build a stadium at Hollywood Park and own the league’s 32nd team.

At least four owners will vote no, regardless of what is presented on behalf of L.A.: the Oakland Raiders’ Al Davis, who still hopes to return; the Dallas Cowboys’ Jerry Jones, a Davis supporter; the San Diego Chargers’ Alex Spanos, protecting his market; and the Philadelphia Eagles’ Jeff Lurie, an Ovitz basher.

“In business, I like to be the one who is the optimist: Come on, we can do it,” said Burkle. “In this deal, because of Michael’s enthusiasm, I’ve taken the role of being a little more pessimistic, telling Michael maybe to slow down. If this was my analysis, as opposed to his, I’d be a little more conservative.”

The NFL, however, has successfully set up a scenario in which it appears neither Houston nor Los Angeles can be conservative and leave the Atlanta meetings with a football team. After four years of rhetoric, discounting Ovitz’s protestations, the league has positioned Houston and Los Angeles for a bidding war.

Bob McNair, the driving force behind Houston’s proposal, is expected to offer $650 million for the franchise at tonight’s Expansion Committee meeting in a quick-strike attempt to end the debate.

If Ovitz is asked to compete with McNair’s checkbook, he will have to place a call to Burkle in Los Angeles, or fall back on a plan to buy the Hollywood Park stadium site for $55 million. If Ovitz buys the land, he’s in the position of dealing with any owner wishing to move to Los Angeles.

A better bluff might be to promise the owners that he will allow the option to lapse, meaning the land will be sold for a housing development, thereby limiting the NFL’s options for a return to Los Angeles.

“Michael has plenty of money, and I’ve indicated I’m willing to commit a big piece for the well-being of the project,” Burkle said. “And once he got the team it would probably be easy to find people who would want to participate. I’ve already committed more than I originally intended to commit, but I’m doing so because Michael is a friend, and you have to support a friend on the good days as well as the bad.”

But Burkle also sounded a note of concern.

“I’m not having fun,” he said. “I don’t like to read about myself in the newspaper, and I don’t like going through some of the politics of a deal like this. I’ve had multiple friends involved [among them Eli Broad as a competitor] and there’s been a little bit of a test of seeing how loyal I might be to Michael, and what I might do and how focused I might stay.

“I invest in a lot of companies that I don’t control. But in this case, I’m investing in somebody else’s business and people are trying to read what my role is. It’s a different situation for me because I don’t like being in the center, where my name is attached, and I’m not in charge. I prefer being a quiet investor or the man in control where my name can take responsibility for the good news as well as the bad.”

Welcome to the NFL, or maybe goodbye.