He’ll Never Get Fed Up With Stadium Proposals

I’m sitting in the Palm Restaurant eating chilled jumbo shrimp and ordering anything I want off the menu, compliments of the Anschutz Empire. So let me tell you, as far as I’m concerned, things are really looking up now that the Anschutz Empire is trying to bring the NFL back to Los Angeles.

I remember when I had to listen to Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas drone on and on without the benefit of even potato chips or pretzels.

When Michael Ovitz was still somebody, and he had a stadium proposal, he had martinis sent to my hotel room. I wish I could tell you more, but I can’t remember.

Now we have Tim Leiweke giving The Times lunch and a sneak preview of today’s news conference, and after listening to his stadium spiel, I found it hard to quibble with anything he said--because I’ve always been taught not to talk with food in my mouth.

LEIWEKE SAID this will be L.A.’s best and last shot at getting an NFL team, and I’m all for that, although history suggests he has no idea what he’s talking about.

I wrote a story for Page 1 of The Times on May 16, 1997 that had Leiweke’s boss, Philip Anschutz, pledging $500 million along with partner Ed Roski to bring pro football back to the Coliseum in 2000.

“We know this isn’t going to be easy,” Anschutz told me in the last interview he has given to The Times, “but we’re committed to trying.”

It’s a good thing that wasn’t L.A.’s “best and last shot at getting a NFL team,” because a little more than a year later Anschutz let it be known through a spokesman he was no longer committed to trying to bring a team here.

I FIND it difficult to get excited about these stadium announcements. I went to a news conference at Hollywood Park on Dec. 8, 1995, and R.D. Hubbard had a beautiful stadium model. He stunned everyone with the pronouncement a relocated team would be in L.A. in 1996 and moving into a new stadium at Hollywood Park in 1998. Never happened.

Peter O’Malley’s toy model was made of building blocks, but he had me standing on a hill outside Dodger Stadium overlooking the city’s skyline envisioning a new football stadium. I’m just glad he didn’t ask me to envision Shawn Green batting .300.

Retired Arco President Lowdrick Cook and consultant Shel Ausman tried to get the city interested in a new stadium in South Park--in the same area Leiweke is now touting as the end-all to L.A.’s football woes. I didn’t think Leiweke would have an original idea.

Roski and Anschutz were taking deposits for luxury suites in the “new” Coliseum in 1997, and those people who sent in checks have to feel pretty silly today. Then came Ovitz, calling his stadium “The Hacienda,” which was going to be built in Carson until Ovitz changed his mind and got behind the Coliseum.

Somewhere in there Councilman Nate Holden was sounding the alert, “The Raiders are coming, the Raiders are coming,” and that’s when I learned it’s a waste of time to listen to anything Holden has to say.

Tom Cruise, Jerry West, Kevin Costner, Magic Johnson and Shaquille O’Neal were identified as minority NFL owners for L.A.’s new team, and West got so upset he moved to Memphis. Charlton Heston spoke on behalf of the Coliseum and Mayor Richard Riordan put together, “Football L.A.,” a committee assembled to bring the NFL back--that met once.

Eli Broad popped up as a potential owner next, or maybe it was Marvin Davis; I get all those billionaires mixed up. Grocery store rich guy Ron Burkle teamed with Ovitz, but when the NFL asked for money, he disappeared.

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue stood in front of the Coliseum and said this is where football belongs; this week he said, scratch that.

From what I can tell, the only ones who have made out in this process are the guys who build the little stadium models. I believe we’re at 10 or 11 at last count.

By the looks of the one the Anschutz Empire has put together, they took some sixth grader’s school project and told the kid that even though his teacher failed him for his poor work, they could still use it.

LEIWEKE HAS one considerable advantage over Broad, Ovitz and the cast of thousands who were left groveling at the NFL’s doorstep the last eight years. Instead of pursuing an expansion franchise and having 31 owners divide an expansion fee, he needs to convince only one owner to accept a deal in L.A.

Today Leiweke will tell the media there are six teams available. The Anschutz Empire, however, is focusing on one, the San Diego Chargers. Leiweke and partner Casey Wasserman, who worked recently as a business advisor to the Chargers, are convinced the city of San Diego will let the team leave after this season to avoid buying unsold tickets to watch a lame-duck team in 2003.

If they are correct, and Leiweke can come to terms with the Spanos Goofs, who have run that team into the ground, we’ll have the Chargers--and USC will no longer be the worst football team in town.

I have a feeling, however, the NFL is going to be playing games with Leiweke & Co. for a while, which means Leiweke’s patience is going to be tested.

Because he’s known for having none, we’re probably going to have some dramatic moments in the coming months when it appears he will take no more and quit, as his boss did five years ago.

I hope when that happens he calls and we can get together at the Palm over dinner and discuss it before he does anything rash.

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from Mazzonigam:

“Your reliance on boldface throughout the text of your column becomes somewhat cumbersome, the point being, that one’s ability to write well should supercede the need to change the font texture in order to provide the intended point of emphasis.”

GET A LIFE.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com