L.A.’s NFL Bid Down to Marvin Davis

Billionaire Marvin Davis, apparently the last gasp if Los Angeles is going to get an NFL expansion franchise, met with Commissioner Paul Tagliabue Monday night in San Francisco and is mulling the prospect of spending more than $1 billion to buy a sports legacy for himself and his two sons.

Davis, who has a reputation of being unable to pull the trigger on other sports deals, will face a moment of truth Friday when he must make a $250,000 payment or give up the option on nearly 100 acres of land at Hollywood Park.

At the same time it’s known that Davis, along with sons Gregg and John, met again last week with John Elway, the retired Denver Bronco quarterback. There had been preliminary discussions with Elway’s representatives to determine if its feasible to give Elway a 10% ownership interest in the team in exchange for his working as team president.

The NFL said a consummated deal with Elway, while maybe not carrying much wallop with voting owners, would be another clear signal to the league of Davis’ intention to proceed.

The NFL appears to be moving toward a deal with Houston, but it remains open to anyone who wishes to embrace the “fool’s theory” of sports ownership in Los Angeles. According to the theory, there will always be someone with a big enough ego, and wallet to match, who will forget good business sense and pay the premium to become an owner of a sports franchise.

To date, there has been no one in Los Angeles to match that description, much to the puzzlement of NFL owners, who have grown weary and even angry with the nation’s No. 2 market.

Although NFL representatives remain skeptical, Davis has told them, that at this stage in his life--he’s 74--he would like his family to be responsible for bringing football back to Los Angeles in a stadium built on land at Hollywood Park. He has told NFL representatives that he has the money to make it happen, and will not ask the league to contribute $150 million to the construction of a stadium, as has been proposed by the Coliseum backers.

He has also told the league that the ownership of the team will rest in the hands of his sons.

The NFL has said solid ownership is essential to having a successful franchise in Los Angeles again, and acknowledges privately it has its doubts about Davis, whose name has been linked previously to go-nowhere attempts to buy the Broncos, put a professional baseball team in Denver, purchase the Cowboys, and the Oakland A’s. He reportedly also was interested in buying the Dodgers at one point.

In a 1991 “Business Week” article on Davis, Jeffrey B. Logsdon, an entertainment analyst, was quoted as saying Davis “has danced around the altar more than anyone else in Hollywood. You have to be pretty skeptical about anyone who never seems to take the plunge.”

The league said it also has no grasp on John and Gregg Davis, indicating background checks have yet to be done.

John is the founder of Davis Entertainment and producer of more than 50 movies. Gregg followed his father’s lead into the oil business.

Davis has repeatedly refused to publicly discuss his interest in football in Los Angeles, telling confidants that the NFL asked him to remain silent.

The NFL said it has not advised Davis to remain quiet.

The Davis sons, who are also being advised by attorney and real estate developer Neil McCarthy, did not respond to efforts to contact them.

The NFL, while maintaining it still has interest in finding a suitable owner, says money is really the only thing that will talk in Los Angeles’ favor, and said Davis will need to step forward before the league’s Expansion Committee meets in Atlanta on Oct. 5.

The NFL, looking for an expansion franchise fee of about $625 million, has begun negotiations with prospective Houston team owner, Bob McNair. The league would like to reach an agreement, and then present McNair’s bid to the committee, expecting that the committee would recommend its acceptance to all 31 owners Oct. 6.

A successful deal will require 24 votes, and there is still some concern that the league might elect to remain at 31 teams at its Atlanta meeting, and wait for a better franchise fee bid, from Houston or Los Angeles, at a scheduled November meeting in Chicago.

Tagliabue met separately with Coliseum partners Eli Broad and Ed Roski this weekend, but the Coliseum appears to have lost support of most NFL owners, among them the most influential, Carolina’s Jerry Richardson, co-chairman of the Expansion Committee.

Richardson has shifted his attention to Houston because he believes he was deceived by Broad and Los Angeles officials, who promised the cooperation of Mayor Richard Riordan and the Los Angeles business community. The league believes that never materialized.

Michael Ovitz, still wanting a piece of the action, wherever it might be, has also continued to converse with the league, although he has been advised there is little interest in pursuing a site in Carson.

If Los Angeles is to gain last-minute consideration, it will be because of Davis, who will be required to put down millions in earnest money to support his interest and negate his lack of credibility.

Davis, who already has paid $100,000 for his option on the Hollywood Park parcel, will maintain control of that land until March if he picks up the second option at week’s end, and can exercise a third option then for $5 million. If Davis lets his option expire this week, the land--it’s the southeast corner at the intersection of Prairie Avenue and 90th Street, where a hotel was demolished a few years ago--will be sold to unspecified business interests outside the sports world.

A deal at Hollywood Park, once considered free of problems and approved by NFL owners when presented by the Raiders before they left Los Angeles after the 1994 season, is now not nearly as attractive.

The league has been told that because of changes in the area and the passage of time, a new environmental impact report would have to be prepared, and there appears to be some concern about available parking.

The Forum, across the street from the land in question and in the process of being bought by Roski and his partner, Philip Anschutz, would have been demolished to gain parking space under an earlier plan. Davis would probably have to deal with Roski and Anschutz to gain that proposed additional parking space.

Hollywood Park, the race track, has been sold to Churchill Downs, although Hollywood Park has leased back the casino on the property, and has sold another parcel of land behind the track to Home Depot for development. Churchill Downs is not involved in the parcel at Prairie and 90th.

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