COLISEUM RE-ENTERS NFL GAME.

Byline: Rick Orlov Staff Writer

A move Friday to put the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in the running as the home of a National Football League franchise prompted the Anschutz Entertainment Group to threaten to drop its effort to bring a team to Los Angeles and build a downtown stadium.

The Coliseum Commission escalated the competition for professional football by approving a $1 million fund to revise plans for the renovating the historic facility.

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who serves on the commission and in whose district the Coliseum is located, said the money is needed to show the seriousness of efforts to attract a National Football League team.

``This is a friendly competition,'' Ridley-Thomas said. ``We do not want to discourage others, but it would be derelict of us not to advance the Coliseum and all that it can offer.''

However, Tim Leiweke of the Anschutz Entertainment Group, which has proposed a downtown stadium near its Staples Center, said his group - which includes billionaires Philip Anschutz, Ron Burkle and Eli Broad - has no interest in competition.

``If this is their choice, in our opinion, it clouds the future and it allows us to be leveraged (by teams seeking concessions),'' Leiweke said.

``If it is everyone's opinion that this is not the best place, we would get out and stay out of their way and they will have to live with the consequences. We think they are taking the best prospect and throwing it out.''

It was the announcement last month by Leiweke and Anschutz Entertainment Group of its plans for a 64,000-seat downtown stadium that revived interest in luring back an NFL franchise, something missing since the 1995 departure of the Rams and Raiders.

More than four years ago, Ridley-Thomas brought together a diverse group that included Leiweke on behalf of Anschutz, Broad and developer Ed Roski to back the Coliseum in the pursuit of an expansion team. Los Angeles was outbid by Houston in 1999 for that team.

Also in the current running is the Rose Bowl.

Darryl Dunn, general manager of the Pasadena facility, said he hopes to have an announcement within the next two months on plans to try to win a team.

``We are talking with a number of people and plan to take some action to come up with a plan for the NFL,'' Dunn said. ``We are pursuing private entities so we don't have to put up any public funds.''

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue has created a working group of five team owners to assess the situation in Los Angeles and determine the prospects for a team moving to the city.

Bill Chadwick, a member of the Coliseum Commission who was appointed by Gov. Gray Davis three years ago to negotiate with the NFL, said he is convinced the Coliseum is the most logical choice although both the Rams and Raiders left town in part because of unhappiness with it.

``We already have a very good football facility and with some more money, it will be even better,'' said Chadwick, an investment banker. ``I also think it would make economic sense for a relocated franchise to play out of that site rather than somewhere else.

``No one has been able to convince me or explain to me how the economics of a new stadium works and how they get a reasonable return on their equity.''

Leiweke has insisted a new stadium would be successful with 32 events a year.

In addition, he said, it is cheaper to build a new stadium than try to refurbish and modernize the Coliseum, which is a historic landmark. A private stadium would be more profitable because of the ability to sell naming rights.

One concern officials have had is that Los Angeles would be used by teams in other cities to exact demands.

Chadwick said he didn't agree that would happen since teams would be looking at trying to be in the Los Angeles market, the second-largest in the nation.

``This is different than (in 1999) when the NFL was making the decision,'' Chadwick said. ``Now, we're in a case where an owner is looking at Los Angeles and will go to his fellow owners, his colleagues, to get permission to move. It is a much different scenario.''

One team that has been said to be interested in moving is San Diego, which has agreed to hold its summer training camp at the Anschutz-owned soccer facility in Carson.

The Chargers are in a dispute with San Diego officials over a new stadium and, on Friday, Leiweke said he received a letter from the San Diego City Attorney's Office telling him not to hold any talks with the team about a permanent move to Los Angeles.

``We haven't had any talks with anyone yet,'' Leiweke said. ``So that's an easy order for us to follow.''