L.A.'S LONG BALL TO LEAGUE BOMBS; CITY SET TO GO TEAMLESS CLOCK TICKS DOWN ON NFL BID.

Byline: Matt McHale Staff Writer

Three potential owners for a professional football team in Los Angeles slipped out of NFL headquarters Monday afternoon, and with them went virtually any chance the league will put its 32nd franchise in Southern California.

NFL officials said they were still intrigued with the stadium site at Hollywood Park race track funded by billionaire Marvin Davis.

But it was Houston businessman Robert McNair who was beaming and talkative as he emerged from a three-hour meeting with members of the league's expansion committee.

``I don't mind this being a one-horse race,'' said McNair, who has engineered public and private funds, hoping to bring the NFL back to Houston in 2002. ``I just don't see how Los Angeles can come up with a new plan by Oct. 5.''

No decision is expected until then, when the league's 31 owners are scheduled to meet in Atlanta. The committee will make its recommendation and 24 votes are needed for approval.

Wednesday is the deadline for Los Angeles to finalize its ownership plan, but the league said it will not close the door until Atlanta. There is a chance the vote will not be taken until early November at an owners' meeting in Chicago.

The issue now appears to be whether the NFL is using Los Angeles as leverage to raise the price tag on an expansion team in Houston.

``Creating competition?'' NFL spokesman Greg Aeillo said. ``It might be. I don't know, you'll have to ask (McNair). Houston is not a small town, it is a big city. We have a tough choice.''

Committee Chairmen Jerry Richardson of the Carolina Panthers and Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots met separately Monday with three groups representing Los Angeles.

Richardson and Kraft will meet through a conference call with the other 12 members of the expansion committee.

Michael Ovitz, whose original plan for a stadium in Carson was shelved when the city swung its momentum toward remodeling the Coliseum, left the NFL offices through a back exit and did not comment.

The league said Ovitz wants to own a team, but is no longer affiliated with either Carson or the Coliseum.

``He said he will speak at some point,'' Aeillo said. ``But not today.''

Ed Roski, who headed a group that wanted to combine the Coliseum with the Staples Center to create a sports and entertainment corridor downtown, also left without speaking.

Aeillo said the league still is looking for ways to include Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest media market, in the NFL.

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, however, dismissed the Coliseum on Sunday, saying, ``Maybe it can get done in Carson or Hollywood Park.''

Which left the Davis plan for Hollywood Park as perhaps the only viable alternative.

Davis was represented Monday by his son Gregg.

``It is probably the most doable of the three sites,'' Aeillo said. ``They have parking available, they have the land, and it could be done more easily than the other two.''

Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who has led the Coliseum fight, did not attend Monday's meetings.

After the Los Angeles groups left, the expansion committee members met with McNair, who claims he has $800 million committed to the project.

``They asked when we could be ready,'' McNair said. ``We said we would like to start playing in 2002. I'm not saying this is a done deal. But (L.A.) has a steep hill to climb.''