Coliseum, Rose Bowl Want to Get in Game

Even as support grows for building a state-of-the-art NFL stadium a few blocks from Staples Center, advocates of the area’s existing football venues--the Coliseum and the Rose Bowl--are promoting their sites as viable options.

The stadium push being led by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz envisions one of those existing stadiums serving as a temporary home for a transplanted NFL team until a new venue can be built in South Park. But executives from the Rose Bowl and Coliseum see their venues as more than steppingstones.

“Our effort and our intent is to get an NFL franchise permanently,” Rose Bowl General Manager Darryl Dunn said. “We’re doing our due diligence. We need to do what’s best for the Rose Bowl, and the best thing for the Rose Bowl is to become a permanent site for an NFL franchise.”

City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas recently was appointed by the Coliseum Commission to best position that stadium to land an NFL team.

Ridley-Thomas, who was actively involved in the failed effort to get an expansion franchise in 1999, said the Coliseum project is financially feasible, but the viability of the South Park project is still undetermined.

Mayor James K. Hahn, who attended the Super Bowl as a guest of the NFL and said he anticipates L.A. having a pro team within five years, spoke for the first time Friday about the South Park plan.

“I think it makes sense,” he said. “It’s not the only place that makes sense, but it certainly makes sense to me because I think Staples Center has had a huge impact already in improving the quality of life in the surrounding neighborhood. I think a new stadium would only add to the quality of life in South Park.”

Hahn’s comments capped a week in which the public got its first glimpse of what the Anschutz proposal entails and what tools Hahn and the city might have to help it happen.

On Thursday, Tim Leiweke, president of Anschutz Entertainment Group, spoke to the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and identified South Park as the proposed site. He also outlined a best-case scenario that would have a team in L.A. for the 2003 season.

It’s unclear how things could happen that quickly, however. Although the San Diego Chargers are the leading candidates to move, there is no obvious exit clause in their lease until after the 2003 season. Other teams that could potentially move in a few years are Indianapolis, Buffalo and New Orleans.

A day before Leiweke addressed the chamber, the L.A. City Council laid the groundwork for a massive redevelopment district with the potential to generate billions of dollars in tax revenue, some of which could be used to help clear the land for a new football stadium. One of the primary objectives of the new zone--which will be voted on Wednesday--is creating additional affordable housing and shelters for the homeless.

The proposal would create a strong Community Redevelopment Agency that could help with land acquisition through the power of condemnation, and would create a mechanism to capture tax-increment revenues from the newly drawn district.

It would mirror the public-private partnership that led to the construction of Staples Center, owned by Anschutz.

“We weren’t asking taxpayers to foot the bill,” Hahn said of the Staples project. “We weren’t taking money out of the general fund. I think everybody who’s looked at Staples sees that it’s been a huge success. It’s a creative way of doing these projects not on the backs of taxpayers.”

Even if the Anschutz proposal makes perfect sense to the city, Ridley-Thomas said, it still faces the daunting hurdle of dealing with NFL owners, who need to approve a relocation.

“Part of the question is whether or not those who have recently entered the fray have the staying power or the inclination to put up with all the various voices the NFL will bring to bear,” he said. “It’s not a question of a good proposal alone.... They have their work cut out for them.”

A new stadium could lure UCLA away from the Rose Bowl--the Bruins’ contract with the stadium expires after next season. Students and alumni who live in West L.A. have long complained about the cross-basin drive to games. The prospect of playing games at a South Park stadium might be too attractive to turn down. The Rose Bowl’s Dunn said he will fight that battle to keep UCLA if and when a new stadium is actually built.

Pat Lynch, general manager of the Coliseum, said he does not believe USC would leave the stadium that has been home to Trojan football since it opened in 1923.

The Coliseum recently approved extending USC’s lease through 2005.

“USC has always indicated that we’re their home,” Lynch said. “We love them and they love us.”