COLISEUM LEADING FIELD FOR NFL BID.

Byline: Rick Orlov Daily News Staff Writer

In a showdown of sites competing to be the home of a new National Football League team, the Los Angeles Coliseum remained the front-runner - but at least two challengers still present a threat.

The California Senate Subcommittee on Sports and Professional Sports Teams reviewed proposals from the Coliseum, the South Park Sports Stadium and Hollywood Park, but took no action to upset the agreement that the Coliseum should be the sole proponent at this time.

But officials with the two competing groups said they stand ready to jump into the bidding at the slightest hint from the NFL that the Coliseum is unacceptable.

``That will not happen,'' Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas predicted, as the city prepares for an October meeting with NFL officials. ``We have been doing the work. We do have the consensus. We have done in nine months what many said would be impossible to accomplish.''

But many testifying before the committee questioned the effectiveness of the Los Angeles effort, saying more needed to be done.

``I'm in contact with owners and NFL officials on an almost daily basis, and I can tell you Los Angeles has to fight harder if it wants to get a team,'' said sports agent Leigh Steinberg, who represents 70 NFL players. ``There is no plan on the part of the NFL to come to Los Angeles. They are in the process of renegotiating their television contract, and it doesn't include Los Angeles.''

Part of the problem, Steinberg said, is that he hasn't seen strong public support or consensus behind the Coliseum proposal.

But Ridley-Thomas and others said Coliseum supporters are stepping up efforts to show fan support, including setting up a special telephone number to solicit comments and setting up a billboard and a radio advertising campaign to begin next week. Also, a postcard-writing campaign is under way with those who attend University of Southern California football games.

``Those who say we do not have consensus and fan support simply are not aware of the work that has been done,'' Ridley-Thomas said.

However, Sheldon Ausmon of South Park Sports and Rick Baedeker of Hollywood Park said they are prepared to step in if the Coliseum is ever flatly rejected.

Ausmon, presenting a glitzy 10-minute film on his proposal near the Convention Center, said he believes his group could move quickly to assemble the financing and property necessary for a new downtown facility that would capitalize on the proposed sports arena at the Convention Center.

Baedeker said Hollywood Park is equally interested and could build a stadium within 24 months because it already owns the land, had received preliminary approval from the NFL when it was attempting to lure the Raiders and has the Inglewood City Council ready to approve the project.

``Because we are a small city, we don't have the problems of larger jurisdictions,'' Baedeker said, referring to the 15-member Los Angeles City Council. ``In Inglewood, there is the mayor and four council members, and we only need three votes to go ahead.''

Supporting the Inglewood effort was Assemblyman Edward Vincent, D-Inglewood, who had served as that city's mayor and voiced his displeasure at the proposal to move the Los Angeles Kings and Lakers from that city.

``I think the Coliseum is a fine place for a football team as long as the Lakers and Kings remain in Inglewood,'' said Vincent, who was allowed to sit in with the Senate panel.

For Vincent, the common factor in both cases was the partnership of Edward Roski Jr. and Philip Anschutz, who own the Kings and want to build the downtown Los Angeles sports arena - a proposal increasingly in doubt.

It is Roski and Anschutz who also have stepped forward with a $500 million offer to rebuild the Coliseum as a stadium within a stadium if they can buy an NFL franchise.

Roski and Anschutz representatives have said the football proposal is separate from the sports arena.