First Down in Football Quest

The effort to bring a new professional football team to Los Angeles seems to be progressing in the best possible manner, with caution where necessary and a focus on keeping all parties moving in a direction that would benefit the city and its football fans. The immediate goal is a single proposal based on a renovated Coliseum, the center of big-time Los Angeles sports for more than half a century.

Houston has essentially been eliminated as a competitor for an expansion franchise, although National Football League team owners, as expected, continue to wave the Texas flag as a signal that they have an option if a deal cannot be made here.

Almost daily, the possibility of the Los Angeles effort losing momentum fades, a credit to key players like Mayor Richard Riordan and Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas. Seeking to present the league with the best possible deal, Riordan and others are working to build a single L.A. proposal out of what started as two competing efforts.

The two sides could unite soon behind the New Coliseum Partners project. The deal would be sealed if the backers of a Carson stadium--Michael Ovitz, Ron Burkle, Earvin “Magic” Johnson and others--formally join New Coliseum Partners’ Eli Broad and Ed Roski. Key figures in the two camps are expressing optimism.

The NFL wants a big show of public support and new investment. We repeat: Significant investment has already been made in the Coliseum area. The public coffers have made the Coliseum area a first-rate sports and entertainment center, and NFL concerns about a lack of public funding available to sweeten a deal are unwarranted. The public commitment is the Coliseum itself, renovated and likely to be available under a long-term, low-cost lease.

Nor should the league have any doubts about Los Angeles being a football town. Quality NFL teams were strongly supported here in the past and would be again. Yes, L.A. is also a citadel of baseball, soccer, basketball, hockey, skiing, surfing and horse racing, but a good show by any sport in this sporting city is going to fill seats.

When the Rams and the Raiders went flat here, it was because their owners failed to maintain quality operations on and off the field. The men seeking this franchise, in whatever combination they might form, are not the sort to pack up and flee.

There is already a commitment here to a stable, professional organization interested in bringing back a winning tradition. For their part, NFL owners and officials ought to have a strong presence here in the coming months, demonstrating their own commitment.