Rose Bowl in NFL Mix

In the unlikely event that the NFL decides to move this season’s Super Bowl from New Orleans, the league is considering the possibility of playing the game at the Rose Bowl. Pasadena is “a viable option” to host the game, as are Miami and Tampa, an NFL executive confirmed Thursday.

“Our rule is, the Super Bowl has to be played in an NFL city,” said Jim Steeg, the league’s senior vice president for special events. “But this is one of those years that rules were made to be broken.”

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue has put an Oct. 15 deadline on the decision, Steeg said.

Steeg has had conversations this week with Darryl Dunn, the Rose Bowl’s general manager, and George Kirkland, president of the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau. Also, there was a conference call involving the NFL, Dunn, Kirkland and various Pasadena officials.

Five Super Bowls have been played at the Rose Bowl, which on Jan. 3 will host college football’s national championship game.

Although he was careful to point out that the chances of the Super Bowl’s moving appear remote, Dunn said the Rose Bowl would be ready to, in effect, play two Super Bowls in a month.

“With all the planning that’s gone into it, the NFL is going to want to stay in New Orleans if at all possible,” he said. “If things don’t work out, though, we’d certainly jump at the opportunity.”

The NFL is weighing its options because of a scheduling crunch. The league postponed last weekend’s games in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and will replay the games in early January on what was wild-card weekend. In an effort to save those wild-card games, league officials are looking into three potential solutions:

* Scheduling midweek games for the opening round of the playoffs, which could have some teams playing three games in eight days.

* Keeping the Super Bowl in New Orleans, but delaying it a week or two.

* Playing a conference championship doubleheader in New Orleans Jan. 27, the current Super Bowl Sunday, and moving the Super Bowl to another city a week later.

Steeg said the notion of shrinking the playoff field from 12 teams to eight is the most unappealing.

“The clubs don’t want to do that,” he said. “The players don’t want it. The fans don’t want it.” Given its druthers, the league would keep the game in New Orleans and switch dates with the National Automobile Dealers Assn., which has its convention scheduled the week after the Super Bowl.

Tagliabue asked the NADA about flopping weeks, and, after careful consideration, the group declined. But a Super Bowl VI spokesman said the NFL isn’t giving up that easily and hopes to persuade the NADA to reconsider.

Thursday, a day after calling the league’s request “mission impossible,” NADA Executive Director David Hyatt sounded fractionally more optimistic about a solution.

“We’d really like to be able to help the NFL,” he said. “But let’s put it this way: We spent today looking at this even more closely and there are some logistical issues that are really tough. I’m not saying they’re impossible, just very, very tough.”

Rescheduling the Super Bowl two weeks later, Feb. 10, in New Orleans is a problem because it would conflict with Mardi Gras.

Meanwhile, officials in Southern California were busy putting together a proposal in case the New Orleans plan falls through. That includes a comprehensive response to the NFL, as if Los Angeles were an original bidder for the game.

“We are not out trying to benefit at the expense of New Orleans,” Kirkland said. “Every community in America would like to see economic losses mitigated as much as humanly possible. However, if the NFL is unable to reconcile their issues, we’re very anxious to let them know that we are the alternative site.”

One of the NFL’s primary concerns when choosing a Super Bowl site is the number of available hotel rooms. In L.A. County, there are 1,400 hotels and motels with a total of 110,000 rooms. Kirkland said that is sufficient to handle the NHL All-Star game, to be played Feb. 2 at Staples Center, as well as a Super Bowl on Feb. 3.

“That really doesn’t present a problem,” he said.

Steeg said the league has no clear preference when it comes to cities that might be contingency sites. That Los Angeles does not have an NFL team could weigh in its favor, though, since the league would not be favoring one team owner over another in awarding the game.

“I hope the decision comes soon,” Steeg said. “If it doesn’t, I’m in a lot of trouble. I’ve got a staff of 20 people who are just champing at the bit to get going on this thing.”