Ellison May Seek NFL Team in L.A.

Bay Area billionaire Larry Ellison has signaled his interest in returning the NFL to Los Angeles.

Ellison, the founder and chief executive of software giant Oracle Corp., met recently with senior league executives and expressed interest in owning a team in the nation’s No. 2 market, sources said.

Ellison ranks No. 10 on Forbes’ 2004 list of richest Americans. The magazine estimates his worth at $13.7 billion, putting him at No. 12 on the Forbes list of the wealthiest people in the world.

Ellison’s emergence marks a potentially significant development in the long-running saga over the NFL’s return to the L.A. area, which has been without a team since the Raiders and Rams left after the 1994 season. The NFL has said it intends to choose a site by next spring in hopes of putting a team in the area in time for the 2008 season.

Four stadium sites are known to be under consideration: the Coliseum, Rose Bowl, Carson and Anaheim. Looking toward a league meeting in Detroit scheduled for the end of the month, the NFL had asked representatives from each site to turn in by Friday a “term sheet” outlining the framework for a deal. However, the league has said it views the deadline as flexible.

The return of an NFL team to the L.A. area involves two components: a stadium site and a team. With Ellison, the type of dynamic figure the league has long sought for a team here, the NFL could solve both issues.

Ellison, 60, has built a reputation as a financial wizard and hard-driving perfectionist who spares no expense in going after what he wants.

Over the last couple of months, with his son a student at USC, Ellison has spent millions amassing a collection of waterfront properties in Malibu.

Ellison has played a leading role in recent years in the America’s Cup yacht racing series, underwriting the BMW Oracle Racing team that lost to the Swiss entry Alinghi in the challenger finals in the 2003 America’s Cup. Preparations are underway for the 2007 America’s Cup, to take place at Valencia, Spain, and the BMW Oracle team is again considered a leading challenger.

It remains unclear what might be motivating Ellison’s interest in the NFL, and sources caution that talks have been only preliminary. Ellison’s office did not respond to requests for comment. Asked about him, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello declined to comment.

Ellison could go one of several routes. The most likely would be to buy an existing franchise -- the New Orleans Saints are a prime candidate -- and move it. Or, if the league opts to expand by one, to 33 teams, he could pay an expansion fee, which could be in the neighborhood of $1 billion.

Los Angeles lost out to Houston in the last expansion, in 1999, when owner Bob McNair paid $700 million for the team that became the Texans.

Eric Grubman, the NFL executive overseeing the league’s L.A. plans, said, “Neither the commissioner nor the owners have taken up the issue of ownership selection or even the discussion, move [a team] versus expansion. It’s not on the table. We haven’t worked on it.”

Since announcing its last expansion, the NFL’s priority in the L.A. area has been identifying suitable stadium sites. Over the years, locations as disparate as Irwindale, Inglewood and Irvine have been floated as possibilities, and it remains uncertain whether the league ultimately will deem the Rose Bowl, the Coliseum, Anaheim or Carson suitable.

It also remains to be seen whether the league is using one as leverage against any of the others, or whether all could ultimately come to be used as leverage for yet another site somewhere in Southern California.

“All the sites are different,” Grubman said of the four. “They all have different challenges, so naturally at any point in time some are going faster and some are going a little slower. But all are making progress.”

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Times staff writer Joseph Menn contributed to this report.

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Ellison Facts

Larry Ellison, founder and chief executive of Oracle Corp., at a glance:

* Age: 60

* Home: Woodside, Calif.

* Education: Dropped out of the University of Illinois.

* Notable: Recently married for the fourth time, to romance novelist Melanie Craft.... Owns roughly one-fourth of Oracle Corp. stock.... Perennial rival of Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp.