Coliseum in Lead, but Can It Finish?

Ever since the NFL season started, I’ve been wondering what happened to the most significant million dollars in Los Angeles sports history.

Talk about money making an impact. When the Coliseum Commission simply announced in June that it was going to spend up to $1 million to pursue the return of an NFL team, it was enough to send the Anschutz Entertainment Group running for the hills with its stadium proposal .

Since the Coliseum Commission is a semi-or quasi-or pseudo-public entity, then--to paraphrase Jeff Spicoli in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”--doesn’t that make it our money?

First of all, General Manager Pat Lynch said, the money comes from the Coliseum’s funds, not the public’s. Among the sources of income are the $10,000 daily rental fees it draws for film shoots.

You can recognize the Coliseum as the backdrop to just about every outdoor stadium in the commercials. Pauly Shore wishes he could get that much work.

So what are they spending the loot on?

The mundane stuff. The groundwork.

They’ve hired UBS Paine Webber in New York to do financial projections. They’ve hired a consultant to estimate construction costs.

“What we’re trying to do is totally cook our product and make sure it’s done,” Lynch said.

In their most public display so far, Coliseum Commission members took a trip this week to Chicago to see the renovation of Soldier Field. They like to talk about the similarities between that stadium and the Coliseum--the clustering of museums on the “campus” area, the historical landmark status, the various political bodies that govern the venue.

It took more than a decade to get the go-ahead to bring Soldier Field into the NFL’s modern era. Among the plans discussed during that time were a dome next door at the McCormick convention center and even relocating to the grimy city of Gary, Ind. Eventually, the Bears and the city worked out a way to keep the team in the same place it has called home for the last three decades.

But there’s one compelling element to Soldier Field that made it such a desirable location: it is adjacent to the shores of Lake Michigan.

“The lake is beautiful,” Lynch said, a little enviously. “We’ve got the freeways.”

The Coliseum has more than its landlocked location working against it.

“Governance issues,” Lynch said. “Perceptions.”

The problems with the Coliseum lie more in people’s heads than on the stadium ground. The unimaginative owners of the NFL can’t get the images of raucous Raider games in a suite-less stadium out of their heads and constantly dismiss the Coliseum as an option. With the city, county and state controlling parts of the Commission, it will always be difficult to get them all in agreement. As one prominent local sports attorney said, “The biggest problem is internal.”

Despite everything working against it, the Coliseum won’t simply go away. It’s the sad-eyed puppy in the dog pound that you can’t ignore.

“We just persevere,” Lynch said. “We think we’ve got the best deal.

“We believe we’ve got the cleanest, quickest way to get this deal done in Los Angeles.

“We don’t have to acquire the land, we already own it. Don’t have to get clearance to build, we’ve already got the stadium.”

They propose a $400-million renovation. One way in which it would differ from the Soldier Field reconstruction is that it would preserve the view of the distinctive architectural features. Soldier Field’s famed columns will no longer be visible from the interior of the stadium; the Coliseum’s peristyle would still stand out.

There are only two small things the Coliseum is missing: money and a team.

“That’s the biggest problem,” Lynch said. “It’s almost like a chicken-and-egg thing. You need a franchise to get the deal done, but you need to entice the franchise. What we have to show them is that they will do so much better in the new stadium.”

One person close to the Coliseum project said this would be easier than the unsuccessful attempt to land an expansion franchise three years ago because you could deal directly with an existing team, instead of the league. (Even though NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said this week that the league wouldn’t rule out creating a 33rd franchise especially for L.A., I wouldn’t count on it. They’ll say anything to maintain the appearance that Los Angeles is in play). But an NFL-backed G3 loan would be an essential part of the package to lure any team here.

So it’s back to dealing with the same old owners. The owners who are saying “told you so” to the Anschutz group, which thought it could make a bid without interference from the Coliseum.

The Coliseum and the Rose Bowl keep tossing their hats into the ring because they’re fighting for survival. A new NFL stadium would doom one or both of the older venues. There simply aren’t enough large stadium events around to support three buildings.

The Rose Bowl has signed up consultant John Moag, with the NFL’s blessing.

But they’re at Square 1. With the Anschutz Entertainment Group dropping out of the race, the Coliseum is in the lead.

“You saw what they’re doing in Chicago,” Lynch said. “It would take us to drag every Angeleno there to understand that, but that’s what we’re talking about.”

That would cost a lot more than $1 million. Unless Southwest Airlines still has that Friends Fly Free program.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at: [email protected].