Despite Setback, L.A. Still Sees Football Franchise in Its Future

The smart money downtown says that Los Angeles may have lost its chance for a National Football League expansion team, but in the process, gained a foothold on the future.

These observers in and around City Hall cite the fact that, when the process began, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and its surrounding park were a public asset valued at near zero.

Nobody thinks that any more, particularly those who realize how much city residents prize Exposition Park’s popular new museums and the stadium’s role as the premier venue of the “new” Los Angeles’ favorite sport: soccer.

While the city’s political leaders acknowledged that the NFL’s decision to award the team to Houston was a setback--particularly in terms of the loss of potential Super Bowl revenues--they said that the Coliseum’s future remains bright and that they will continue their efforts to bring professional football back there.

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who four years ago began what has often seemed a quixotic crusade to return pro football to the Coliseum, said he now plans to work toward persuading an existing NFL team to move into the stadium, while he continues to push for the rebuilding of Exposition Park.

“My initial reason for being involved in this related to the revitalization of Exposition Park and its surrounding community,” he said. “That will not change.”

The Coliseum, meanwhile, has become the city’s major soccer venue, now hosting the Gold Cup qualifying games.

It is noteworthy that as recently as a couple years ago, NFL owners dismissed the idea of moving into the Coliseum based on memories of unruly Raiders fans.

But Ridley-Thomas and others contend they are helping to change that image, largely by focusing a spotlight on the area that, as one observer noted, money couldn’t buy.

“There’s been a real heightened awareness of the Coliseum,” said Sheldon H. Sloan, president of the Coliseum Commission and chairman of the group working on the master plan for Exposition Park. “What this really is about is Exposition Park and the renaissance that’s going on here. Football was a vehicle by which we could speed it up.”

Still, at an afternoon news conference in front of the 76-year-old stadium, home of two summer Olympics Games, Sloan said he was “extremely disappointed” that the city lost its bid for a professional team.

“Nothing that happened today changes the fundamental truth that the Coliseum remains the best choice for the future location of an NFL franchise in Los Angeles,” he said, noting that the stadium turns a profit.

Mayor Richard Riordan took a more circumspect view, saying that winning a team would have been another boost to the city but that Los Angeles--and particularly that section of the city--are on an upswing, regardless.

Other city officials say the loss of the expansion team represents a real financial blow to the city. Three Super Bowls in a dozen years could mean about $1 billion in new cash. And, naming rights to the stadium could have generated substantial dollars.

But several officials said the city’s proposal offering up to $100 million in taxpayers’ funds to bring pro football back to town would have been a hard sell anyway. There was hardly a public outcry for a team here. Houston, at least, had voter approval for the team and public subsidies.

Councilman Joel Wachs, who has long argued against the use of taxpayers’ dollars to subsidize professional sports, said: “This is so offensive to the public.”

And the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., which released a poll last summer showing that 80% of state voters opposed subsidies for professional sports, said the NFL owners behaved like burglars “circling the house hoping to find an unlocked window.”

Bob McNair won the team for Houston, Los Angeles officials say, based solely on one thing: money.

“At the end of the day,” said Ron Deaton, the city’s chief legislative analyst, “Houston put almost $1 billion on the table.”

Los Angeles County Supervisor and Coliseum Commissioner Zev Yaroslavsky agreed, but added that he believes that the NFL simply used Los Angeles as a lever to “jack up” Houston’s bid.

“It’s amazing that some of the most sophisticated businesspeople in L.A. . . . had their chains yanked by this strategy,” Yaroslavsky said. “The time has come for the Coliseum to look at soccer in a big way. There are all kinds of possibilities that haven’t been looked at yet.”

Council President John Ferraro, another football supporter and Coliseum commissioner, said: “It’s a letdown. It would have meant so much.”

The urban renaissance in Exposition Park links that area to development along the Figueroa Corridor, including the new Staples Center and the Disney Concert Hall and Roman Catholic cathedral under construction on Bunker Hill.

It’s no small coincidence that the two men pushing hardest for the city’s football proposal were developers Roski and Eli Broad, a billionaire businessman, both of whom are heavily involved in efforts to revitalize downtown.

Los Angeles’ long-running pro football saga began when Ridley-Thomas first asked the City Council in 1995 to convene a special committee to examine whether professional sports could return to the Coliseum. The Raiders and Rams left Southern California before the start of the season that year.

His was often the only voice calling for a team. Then, gradually, his idea picked up steam and--thanks largely to adroit politics--he gained some important allies.

But negotiations with the NFL owners and their staff, particularly over the past year, were grueling for the city’s football supporters. Ridley-Thomas says the NFL treated everyone the same, meaning no one was treated well.

“Parking is satisfactory one day, the next it’s an issue,” Ridley-Thomas said. “Ownership one day is good, the next day it’s not. The stadium design was good and then it wasn’t.”

In addition, Ridley-Thomas said, a competing proposal by entertainment industry executive Michael Ovitz detracted from the city’s efforts.

Now, football supporters will huddle to determine whether they should lure a troubled team to the Coliseum, and that list includes the Oakland Raiders, as well as the Arizona Cardinals, New Orleans Saints, Chicago Bears, Philadelphia Eagles and Buffalo Bills.

“We pulled off a considerable amount already and now we are well-positioned to take the next step,” Ridley-Thomas said. “This is a deal and deals have many lives.”

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Times staff writers Jeffrey L. Rabin and Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this story.