He Doesn’t Really Like NFL’s Attitude Either

Those NFL owners are at it again.

They’re questioning the commitment, the passion of sports fans in Los Angeles.

With Philip Anschutz at the head of a group that’s considering building a stadium downtown and Mayor James Hahn prepared to lobby on the city’s behalf, the right combination might be in place to lure a football team to L.A.

While NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue gives his usual political appeasement to L.A. and the league office seems willing to help out, the owners sound as if they’ll respond only to the usual big deposits in their coffers.

Every time I start to miss pro football, I am reminded why I don’t miss having to deal with these people. I covered two games at Lambeau Field this season and shook my head as I always do at the thought that tiny Green Bay has an NFL team and we don’t. I arrived at Pittsburgh for the AFC championship game, saw the excitement coursing through the town, where it seemed everyone was wearing black and gold and waving Terrible Towels, and felt left out.

Then at the NFL owners’ meetings in Orlando, Fla., this week, they showed their typical arrogant attitude about Los Angeles. Clearly they haven’t gotten over the fact that the groups bidding for the 32nd expansion franchise came $100 million short of Houston billionaire Robert McNair’s bid and that there wasn’t any public outrage.

Ralph Wilson, co-owner of the Buffalo Bills, said, “There was so much apathy the last time. It was like, ‘Hey, NFL, you ought to feel very, very lucky we let you in here.’ That was the message.”

Were we supposed to parade down Wilshire Boulevard?

It’s not apathy, it’s independence. We’re one of the few major cities that hasn’t been suckered by the cult of the NFL.

And if the only option is to take another city’s reject, then we face the prospect of getting stuck with the likes of the Spanos family (San Diego Chargers) or the Irsay family (Indianapolis Colts). Not exactly inspirational thoughts.

Are the fans here devoid of passion, as Baltimore Raven owner Art Modell suggested?

If the owners put down their drinks at their resort hotel long enough to look at the box scores this week, they’d see the Clippers sold out Staples Center for a Monday night game. Against the going-nowhere Houston Rockets.

That, of course, came a day after the Lakers sold out Staples to play the Dallas Mavericks, which came the day after the Kings sold out their game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Three teams in the same building in three days with close to 60,000 fans among them.

The lesson is that when competitive, entertaining teams play in L.A., people will drop the suntan lotion and come to watch.

Or if teams stick around long enough to establish a tradition--instead of packing and running whenever a city waves a sweetheart deal at them--fans will come out of sheer habit. After all the turmoil and disappointment the Dodgers have put their fans through in the last 10 years, the turnstiles at Chavez Ravine still clicked 3 million times last season.

L.A. fans weren’t even deterred by the high cost of tickets and parking at Staples. But the NFL owners notice only when the checks have “NFL” in the payee line.

They’re still expecting you to turn over your tax dollars to them. Then they’ll want you to reach into your personal bank accounts for them.

The NFL already has a team in Chicago, and it’s asking that city for $400 million in bond funds to renovate Soldier Field. The league and the Bears are chipping in $200 million toward the $600-million project. Then the fans will have to pay $2,000 to $4,000 for personal seat licenses for the choice locations in the new stadium.

Carolina Panther owner Jerry Richardson mocked L.A. for losing to Houston when the latest--and presumably last--expansion franchise became available.

“The train rolled by and they didn’t get on,” Richardson said. “The train keeps moving.”

This from a man who lives in a city where the NBA team is trying to leave town for New Orleans--which itself has such shaky fan and corporate support that the NFL’s Saints were exploring leaving the Superdome.

We all know that as long as there are teams unhappy with their stadium leases or feeling luxury box-deficient, there will be potential teams for L.A.

We’ve also learned that there’s no need in the equation.

The NFL doesn’t need our TV sets. Tagliabue still managed to negotiate a record $17.6-billion television rights deal in 1998 despite the absence of a team in the nation’s second-largest TV market.

And Los Angeles hasn’t crumbled into the Pacific Ocean without an NFL team. The population’s rising and home sales are sizzling.

But both sides can help each other.

Los Angeles would take a prominent place in the Super Bowl queue, and Super Bowls would bring thousands of corporate fat cats and expense account-loaded journalists to town.

The league could use another site in the rotation. The Super Bowl is heading to Jacksonville and Detroit in coming years. Have fun, fellas. I’ve been to Jacksonville. The only memory I have from the place is I can say I’ve seen the other end of Interstate 10. And who wants to go to Detroit in February?

This city played host to the first Super Bowl, and the area has had six more since. I think we can handle it.

I don’t want to see Anschutz blindly throw cash at NFL owners, because that cost will inevitably get passed along in PSLs. The league has been put on notice that it can’t expect the same carte blanche treatment St. Louis gave the Rams.

I’d like to see the NFL back, but on acceptable terms.

If that’s even possible.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com