COLISEUM HAS DESIGNS ON NFL'S RETURN TO L.A.

Byline: Billy Witz Staff Writer

CHICAGO - The early bird gets the worm, but will it get the stadium deal?

That's the question backers of a proposal to renovate the Coliseum will seek an answer for today when two representatives arrive here at the NFL owners' fall meeting.

The owners will be updated during the two-day meeting on the progress of development plans at all three sites it is considering - renovations of the Coliseum and Rose Bowl, and a new stadium on an undeveloped site in Carson.

NFL executives traveled to Los Angeles two weeks ago and - along with Los Angeles attorneys and stadium-construction consultants retained by the league - met with officials involved in all three projects. They assessed where they were in their plans, what hurdles lay ahead and tried to further narrow what the costs and timelines would be for completing the projects.

The Coliseum, which in the eyes of some owners remains an unpalatable option, has until recently developed its proposal under the public radar.

It has not generated the attention the Pasadena proposal did this year when Commissioner Paul Tagliabue visited the Rose Bowl and proclaimed it a possible Super Bowl site. Or last spring when the Rose Bowl held a news conference to unveil plans for a redesign of the historic stadium.

Neither did the Coliseum receive the kind of buzz Carson did in May, when the league pledged up to $10 million to determine the feasibility of building a new stadium on the site of a former toxic dump.

Yet, as the NFL ponders returning to Los Angeles for the first time since the Rams and Raiders left nearly nine years ago, the Coliseum's project is furthest along.

Its Environmental Impact Report - a six-to-nine month process that details the entire project and is the most complicated hurdle in stadium building - is nearing completion. Neither the Rose Bowl nor Carson have begun its EIR, though the Rose Bowl is expected to soon.

Questions about parking still must be addressed, but an endorsement from the L.A. Conservancy has taken care of preservation concerns. By early next year, Coliseum officials expect to have a finished proposal - one that would be approved by lawmakers, conservationists and bankers - to present to the league or one of its teams.

``We believe, in theory, that barring anything unforeseen we can play football here at the Coliseum in 2006, at worst in 2007,'' Coliseum general manager Pat Lynch said. ``I don't know if anybody else can say that.''

Although the Rose Bowl's EIR is not expected to be completed before late next summer, Rose Bowl point man John Moag would like to see the league make a decision this spring - either at its meetings in March or May.

``There's a timeline to the life of the program,'' Moag said.

A high-ranking league official said a decision by the next owners meeting in March is ``unlikely.'' A proposal doesn't necessarily have to complete the EIR process before the NFL would commit to it, but there would have to be strict assurances that it would be approved, he said.

Until the meeting in March in Palm Beach, Fla., league officials are expected to focus their efforts on the Carson proposal. Little has been discerned about the viability of a Carson stadium in the five months since the league began examining it, the official said.

Once the Coliseum proposal is complete, its officials will begin courting a partner. Although Lynch declined to say whom, the obvious target is the San Diego Chargers. The team executed an opener in its lease last spring and is free to talk with other cities, though until now the Chargers have pledged not to while they negotiate with San Diego officials.

Although the league requires three-quarters approval (24 of 32) for a franchise to relocate, an antitrust suit won by the Raiders and the Coliseum in the '80s means there is little the NFL can do to block a move, one league official acknowledged.

Nevertheless, the Coliseum would like to win the league's blessing, Lynch said. To that end, he and Councilman Bernard Parks, in whose district the Coliseum sits, will be here to chat up owners, league officials and national media at a reception tonight at Soldier Field.

``It's time to get out and tell people about our proposal,'' Lynch said.

They appear to have plenty of work to do. Two members of the L.A. Working Group, Cleveland president Carmen Policy and New England owner Robert Craft, have frowned on the Coliseum in recent months.

Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell, who last year colorfully described any Coliseum proposal as putting a new dress on an old hooker, is one of several other owners who remains unconvinced.

``No, it was a true statement,'' Modell said when asked if regretted the remark. ``I called the shot as I saw it. You have to do more than put a coat of paint on it. The Coliseum is one year older than my stadium in Cleveland. If I hurt people I'm sorry. I was only trying to be funny.''

Billy Witz, [phone]

billy.witz(at)dailynews.com

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