HOW L.A. LOST THE NFL DEAL'S LOSS OF MOMENTUM LEADS TO MONTHS OF FINGER-POINTING.

Byline: TONY CASTRO Staff Writer

On a starry evening last June, a visitor to Getty House thought he heard Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa humming a melody from the '60s rock musical ``Hair'' -- the song about the moon being in the Seventh House and Jupiter being aligned with Mars.

Rather than ``the age of Aquarius,'' Villaraigosa may have been envisioning the stars aligning for the return of the National Football League to Los Angeles, the country's second-largest media market that had been without a professional football team for more than a decade.

``We're farther along than we have been at any time since professional football left Los Angeles,'' he boasted that night, standing beside then- NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. ``On both sides, there's a willingness for partnership.''

To which a smiling Tagliabue replied: ``We look forward to this partnership becoming a reality. We're determined to get a team here.''

The reception at the mayor's official residence near Hancock Park included NFL brass and some team owners, but also L.A's corporate elite -- the multimillionaires who would be buying the luxury suites and club boxes in the $800 million stadium that would be built inside the walls of the historic Memorial Coliseum, a project at the heart of the proposed deal.

Officially, Anaheim was also still in the running for a team, with plans to sell the league 53 acres for the bargain price of $50 million as the site for a brand-new stadium. The NFL had a meeting with officials of that city scheduled the next day.

But in the eyes of Villaraigosa and others, the NFL's return to Los Angeles was unofficially a done deal, contingent on finalizing the details of the Coliseum lease and getting the approval of 24 of the owners of the 32 NFL teams.

In place -- even as Villaraigosa took office the previous summer -- was a private 10-page memorandum outlining the structure of a deal hammered out by the NFL and the Coliseum Commission, the nine-member panel of city, county and state officials who operate the stadium near the University of Southern California.

In fact, at a meeting last spring at the NFL's opulent offices on Park Avenue in Manhattan, Coliseum Commission President Bill Chadwick -- who had taken the lead on behalf of Los Angeles the previous year -- had announced at the bargaining table:

``I'm ready to make a deal.''

But according to sources who were at the meeting, NFL officials were caught off guard, unprepared to take that step.

``What's the issue?'' Chadwick asked, according to sources. ``If you're saying $2 and we're saying $1, we call it $1.50.''

The deal stalls

But then, seemingly inexplicably, the deal stalled. And by the end of last summer, the deal that some thought was within hours' grasp was effectively dead.

Now, as another NFL season nears its end and with the Coliseum Commission renegotiating a new lease with the state, there are no clear answers as to what went wrong.

What happened? Who killed the deal, which would have brought pro football to Los Angeles for the first time since the Raiders left for Oakland in 1994? Or was the deal never that close to begin with?

The aftermath has become a months-laden period of accusations and recriminations among Coliseum Commission members and local leaders.

The actual deal-killers, however, may have been a combination of factors over which local officials had no control, including the ill-timed retirement of Tagliabue.

There was also the resistance from some tight-fisted NFL owners, the unexpected entry of the Los Angeles Dodgers into the equation and, to a degree, the aspirations of USC and its role as a college football dynasty and a powerbroker in Los Angeles politics.

``The short answer is that I don't know, but I have my theories,'' Chadwick said.

``Paul Tagliabue at the time had a long-term vision for the National Football League that included Los Angeles, and that vision wasn't shared by ownership (of the other teams).''

Deal alive for Parks

And today, Los Angeles finds itself in a situation where the only public official who believes the deal remains alive -- other than the ever- optimistic Villaraigosa -- is City Councilman Bernard Parks, whose South Los Angeles district includes the Coliseum.

And it is Parks who is poised to succeed Chadwick next month as president of the Coliseum Commission and who is scheduled to meet with league officials during Super Bowl XLI in Miami.

``They've not lost interest in coming,'' Parks said, moments after his latest long-distance discussion with NFL officials in New York. ``It's a matter of, `How do you get the deal done?' I'm encouraged by it.

``These are not overnight deals.''

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy confirmed there is basis for Parks' optimism. The deal is not dead, he said, but also was never as close to being finalized as some Los Angeles officials believed.

``Do we want to be back in the L.A. market? The answer is, yes,'' said McCarthy, who added that there is no timetable for finalizing a deal.

But some close to the 3-year-long negotiations still insist that a deal could be finalized within a day, including, says Parks, getting the city permits authorizing the stadium's renovation.

Coliseum Commissioner David Israel also says that the original deal ``structure still exists.''

``We're ready to do that deal tomorrow,'' says Israel, ``so long as the taxpayers are protected, so long as USC has a place to play.''

Still, Parks is clearly in the minority in believing the NFL is serious about a return to Los Angeles.

Other Coliseum Commission members lost faith after team owners meeting in New Orleans last October were unwilling to decide whether Los Angeles or Anaheim would get a team.

Parks, who represents the city on the Coliseum Commission, was among the critics of the NFL's foot-dragging, which fellow Commissioner Israel called ``a very long mating dance.''

``I said at a public (Coliseum Commission) meeting in the fall it wasn't going to happen, and I was the first person who said that,'' says Israel, a television writer-producer who was appointed to the panel by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

``And I still believe it to be true. I would have loved for it to have happened. I think it would be a good thing for the city. I think it would be a good thing for the state. I think it would be a good thing for the NFL.

``But nothing that's occurred leads me to believe it's going to happen.''

By last fall, too, Tagliabue was in retirement, apparently taking the deal with him.

And now, in retrospect, city officials realize that for much of that time that they were negotiating for the return of pro football, Los Angeles was not at the top of the NFL's agenda.

In the final months of Tagliabue's tenure, the NFL was negotiating a contract with the players union, then reworking an agreement affecting how revenue would be shared among the league's 32 teams.

``That was more important for their ongoing business than making a deal in L.A.,'' Israel said.

Many owners were focused, too, on major construction projects for three existing teams: a $1.2 billion stadium in the Meadowlands for the New York Giants and the Jets and a new Texas Stadium for the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington.

The league was already being pressed for almost $500 million in loans for those stadiums -- loans that were finally approved by the owners only last month.

``(Those loans) exhausted all the remaining funds in that program,'' Israel said, ``and it gave the owners who objected to that program ammunition to step in and say, `We don't want to do anything else.'''

Then there were the distracting side issues that some believe may have hindered the deal.

In December 2005, for instance, news broke that the Los Angles Dodgers' new owner Frank McCourt had proposed to the NFL putting a team in Chavez Ravine after building a state-of-the-art stadium on the parking lot of the present Dodger Stadium.

It drew an immediate outcry from city officials, prompting McCourt to withdraw the plan, although some now feel the idea raised hopes by NFL owners that someone else would pay to build the stadium.

Dodgers didn't help

``I don't think what the Dodgers did a year ago helped anything,'' Israel said. ``In the back of a lot of owners' minds, I believe -- and nobody will ever say this on the record -- they think there's a better deal out there to be had from some private entity, and the most obvious one is the Dodgers, even though the City Council has said that in Los Angeles, within the city limits, the only acceptable place is the Coliseum.

``(But) you can't unring that bell. The owners are aware that happened. They're aware that possibility existed. It wasn't going back in the tube once it was out of the tube.''

Add to that mix the presence of USC, the Coliseum's only continuing tenant since the departure of the Raiders -- and whose national championship runs of recent years have drawn capacity crowds of more than 92,000 fans per game at the Coliseum.

In October, when some Coliseum Commission members sensed no NFL deal was at hand, their loyalty in seeking a long-term lease deal turned to USC. College officials and influential alumni had already expressed reservations about the Trojans playing in the stadium designed to the NFL's needs.

At present, the Coliseum Commission continues to negotiate a lease renewal with USC, as well as with the state.

Inevitable death knell 

But inevitably the death knell on any imminent deal last year appears to have been Tagliabue's retirement and his replacement by Roger Goodell.

``I know Roger Goodell and I think very highly of him, so what I say has nothing to do with Roger Goodell as much as it has to do with the group dynamic,'' Chadwick said.

``Do I think that after 15 years as commissioner of the National Football League that Paul Tagliabue had a reservoir of good will and sound judgment and favors owed? Yes, for sure. And I think Roger started out with a zero, right? He's new on the job. Nobody owes him anything.

``It doesn't have anything to do with abilities. It just has to do with the situation that you find yourself in.''

Israel, a former newspaper columnist in Chicago and Los Angeles, is even harsher in his assessment.

``I don't believe in momentum in sports because all momentum is whoever scored last,'' he said. ``But we did lose the momentum toward making this deal when Paul retired.

``It was a high priority for him because it was the one bit of discernible unfinished business left from his tenure. Had he resolved the L.A. (deal), his slate would have been clear, and it would have been straight A's. The only negative mark on his slate is that Los Angeles during his tenure lost the Rams and the Raiders, and no team has come back here.''

Talks in good hands

NFL spokesman McCarthy takes issue with Israel's assessment. He maintains that Tagliabue's retirement did not harm the league's interest in Los Angeles and that negotiations remain in good hands with Goodell.

``The person who had served as the point on the L.A. market was then-COO Roger Goodell, who is now the commissioner. So he is well aware of the circumstances that have gone into the process for the last decade,'' McCarthy said.

But Israel believes some of the issues run deeper and, possibly with the insight of having been a sportswriter, also offers a unique insider's perspective on the NFL and Los Angeles.

``The story of what happens is not a story of now,'' he says. ``It's not a story of last year or the year before or what is going to happen this year.

``It's what the hell happened when the Rams and the Raiders were here that screwed things up. We had two NFL teams. They left. They got better deals elsewhere, allegedly.

``It was foolish for the NFL to allow them to leave. It was probably good business short-term for them to leave, but I don't know if it was good business long-term for them to have left.

``For the Rams, it definitely was. The Rams are doing very well financially. They made a great deal in St. Louis. But I personally would rather own a business in Los Angeles than I would in St. Louis.''

This, of course, is a selling point that local officials have been pitching to the NFL -- in particular, the evolution of the Exposition Park area, the development of Staples Center and the multibillion-dollar l.a. live entertainment, hotel and residential complex.

In preparing for more talks with the NFL next month, Parks says he understands the league's own marketing studies show that Staples Center has become a catalyst for residential and commercial development in the area.

Stumbling block

But even Parks admits that the obvious stumbling block for the NFL's return to Los Angeles remains unchanged: the economics involved in an almost billion-dollar outlay, with no public funding to help them, by team owners accustomed to cities that essentially offer a blank check.

``We've narrowed this thing down to where everybody is familiar with the cost,'' Parks said.

``They realize the stadiums are not getting any cheaper. And what they are doing now with the new commissioner, what they said is, `Concentrating internally on what is the best way they can do a deal on the West Coast.' They have said in addressing this, that they're `looking at how to skin this deal' because they've not done a deal like this before.''

The other potential local site that had been in consideration for placing an NFL team, the Rose Bowl, was effectively removed from contention last November when Pasadena voters overwhelming rejected a measure to to restart Rose Bowl negotiations with the league.

For its part, the NFL stands by what has been its standard position about a possible return to Los Angeles.

``We'll continue to work on a deal that is the best for the community and the NFL,'' says McCarthy, ``and we'll continue to work until we get it done or find that we can't.

``Sometimes the best deal you make is the one you don't. Sometimes you only get one shot to get it right.''

tony.castro(at)dailynews.com

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) President of the Coliseum Commission Bill Chadwick, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Councilman Bernard Parks and Coliseum Commissioner David Israel, from left, unveil plans in April 2006 to bring an NFL team to the L.A. Coliseum. The deal some thought was within hours of being finalized has since stalled.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer

(2) Mayor Villaraigosa and then-NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue answer questions at the Getty House in June 2006.

Associated Press