To the Coliseum

We’ve heard this one before: Pro football might be coming back to Los Angeles. It has been the mantra in the city and the National Football League for more than six years, as NFL owners used Los Angeles as a pawn in a game to extract public money from other cities under the threat of moving their teams here.

It’s an odd wooing. Los Angeles, entertainment capital of the world, and the NFL, one of the most successful entertainers of our time, don’t seem to really need each other -- but neither can quite bring itself to admit that fact. Jacksonville may need a team to boost its image, but not L.A. And the absence of a team in the nation’s second-largest media market hasn’t prevented the NFL from obtaining ever-richer TV deals. So the league and the city eye each other with a healthy yet detached interest.

Three venues are competing to be the home of a future team, and NFL owners may pick one or narrow the field when they meet today and Wednesday in Washington.

Only one of the choices really makes sense for the league or the community: The owners should finally settle on the Coliseum so everybody can get on with the real work required to get a team in L.A.

The Coliseum is competing against proposals to renovate the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and build a stadium in Anaheim. There was a fourth competitor until Sunday, when Carson city officials finally punted on their pie-in-the-sky plan to build a stadium. Pasadena and Anaheim have a legitimate shot, but both proposals have significant problems. The Rose Bowl is a beautiful stadium located in the midst of a residential neighborhood, with poor access to freeways. A deeply split Pasadena City Council barely managed to certify an environmental report in advance of this week’s owners meeting and is far behind in the planning process. Anaheim has much better freeway access and plenty of amenities surrounding the proposed stadium. But it isn’t Los Angeles, and that matters when it comes to marketing, as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim will tell you. Meanwhile, Anaheim’s proposal to give away $150 million in city-owned real estate to the league has rightly raised alarm bells on the City Council.

The Coliseum has excellent freeway access, having been an NFL venue for decades, and was host to Super Bowls and the Olympics. It is adjacent to a park including a natural history museum that is one of L.A.’s most underappreciated gems. The Coliseum has an approved design and environmental impact report in place, as well as the support of city government.

Los Angeles made it clear in 1999, when it lost to Houston in a bid for an expansion NFL franchise, that it wouldn’t spend taxpayer money to lure a team. It was the right stand then, and it is now. As for the NFL, league owners should forget about subsidies, pick the Coliseum and stop dithering. Another decade without a team in Los Angeles would benefit no one.