Dodger-NFL Combo May Be Glazer Menu

Tampa Bay Buccaneer owner Malcolm Glazer’s bid to buy the Dodgers appears to be part of a larger plan to bring the NFL back to Los Angeles, either through the expansion market or the relocation of an existing team.

Sources say Glazer, 74, has been telling people that “Los Angeles is a $1-billion market for the NFL,” and that he is interested in building a new football stadium on the Dodgers’ 300-acre Chavez Ravine site.

There has been speculation that Glazer would move the Buccaneers to Los Angeles -- he threatened to do so in 1995 in an attempt to gain leverage in negotiations with Tampa for a new stadium.

But that is highly unlikely considering the legal hurdles Glazer would have to clear to escape his stadium lease and the popularity of the recently crowned Super Bowl-champion Buccaneers in Tampa Bay.

Here is a more likely scenario, one that fits Glazer’s historical pattern of buying into financially strapped companies and selling them for a profit, and his desire to gain a foothold in one of the nation’s marquee markets:

Glazer sells the Buccaneers at the height of the market -- they’re coming off a Super Bowl victory, they have a dynamic young coach in Jon Gruden, a season-ticket waiting list of more than 30,000 and have more than tripled in value in eight years -- then purchases an existing NFL team or the rights to an expansion team for Los Angeles.

Former San Francisco 49er owner Eddie DeBartolo now lives in Tampa and is believed to have the financial clout and desire to purchase the Buccaneers.

A sale of the Buccaneers would enable Glazer to own two major professional sports teams in Los Angeles and remain within the boundaries of the NFL’s cross-ownership policy, which states that no NFL owner can acquire any interest in a baseball, basketball or hockey franchise except for one located in his NFL club’s home city or a non-NFL city that is not a potential NFL city.

Because Los Angeles has been an expansion candidate since the Rams and Raiders left in 1995, they are considered a potential NFL city, so Glazer would have to sell the Buccaneers to make what sources believe will be a $400-million offer for the Dodgers, the stadium and the surrounding Chavez Ravine land.

“They would buy the Dodgers because they are the Dodgers, not because they think baseball is going in the right direction,” said Bob Leffler, head of a Tampa- and Baltimore-based advertising agency who has been associated with Glazer for 13 years.

“They’re one of the two storied franchises in baseball [along with the New York Yankees]. It’s one of the most successful and valued franchises in the world. To them, this is beachfront property.”

Though Glazer helped transform Tampa Bay from a woeful franchise to one of the NFL’s most profitable teams -- he bought the Buccaneers for $192 million in 1995, and they’re valued at more than $600 million today -- he has grand visions.

Enamored with the potential of the New York market, Glazer inquired about buying the New York Jets in 1999, and he recently purchased a 3% share of Manchester United, the world’s most renowned soccer club. Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp., which owns the Dodgers, also owns a minority share of Manchester United.

One of Glazer’s sons, Edward, lives in Los Angeles, Glazer has a home in Beverly Hills, and he is keenly aware of the Los Angeles market, having researched it extensively in 1995.

If Glazer is successful in building a football stadium for an NFL team in Chavez Ravine, he would be fulfilling a dream of former Dodger owner Peter O’Malley, who sold the Dodgers to News Corp. for $311 million in 1997.

“I wouldn’t be upset at all,” O’Malley said. “Since it’s been established that Fox wants to sell the Dodgers, the important thing for the organization, the fans and everybody is that they get out of that ‘for sale’ mode as quickly as possible.

“If a new owner of the Dodgers wants to build a privately financed state-of-the-art facility on the Dodger Stadium property, he would have my total support, because I still believe it’s the best site for a football stadium.”

Glazer’s competition for the Dodgers will come from at least three serious bidders who submitted offers by Fox’s Friday deadline: David Checketts, who has offered more than $600 million for the team and the cable channel that airs Dodgers games; Jeff Smulyan, the former Seattle Mariner owner who is chairman and chief executive of Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications Corp., and Los Angeles real estate magnate Alan Casden.

Emmis released a statement Friday confirming it is “in preliminary talks with News Corp. about buying some of News Corp.’s television properties” and has explored the “possibility of combining its purchase with the acquisition of the Dodgers by an investor group in which Emmis would own a minority interest.”

Barbara Casey, spokeswoman for Casden, confirmed that Casden, “a lifelong baseball fan” who views the Dodgers as “an integral element of the local community,” has submitted a bid for the team. Checketts, who formerly ran the New York Knicks and Madison Square Garden, has been negotiating with Fox for weeks.

But Glazer, who tried to buy the San Diego Padres and Pittsburgh Pirates and in the early 1990s failed to convince Major League Baseball that one of its expansion teams should be “America’s Team,” splitting its home games among four cities, has emerged as the front-runner, according to sources.

Glazer, whose net worth has been pegged at more than $800 million, has a reputation as a quiet, media-shy recluse, an owner who does not meddle into team affairs and is more than content to let two of his sons, Joel and Bryan, and Buccaneer General Manager Rich McKay run his football team.

But that does not mean Glazer shies away from difficult, controversial decisions, is afraid to make bold moves regardless of the cost, or is timid in his business affairs.

When it was determined the Buccaneers were stagnating under Coach Tony Dungy despite a winning record and playoff appearance in 2001, Glazer fired the successful and popular coach in January 2002, and pursued big names such as Bill Parcells, Jimmy Johnson and Steve Spurrier.

Rebuffed in his attempts to secure any of those three, Glazer paid $8 million to Oakland owner Al Davis for the rights to negotiate with Gruden and another $17.5 million to lure the Raider coach to Tampa, where he led the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl championship in his first season.

“If he buys the Dodgers, I’m sure he’ll get someone to run it who knows a lot about baseball,” said Dick Greco, who stepped down as Tampa mayor after eight years this past week. “He’s not content with just trying to be the best. He’ll put money into it.”

Staff writers Sallie Hofmeister, Sam Farmer and Ross Newhan contributed to this report.