LOS ANGELES IS IN ON GROUND FLOOR OF XFL J.K. MCKAY NAMED NEW TEAM'S GM.

Byline: Steve Dilbeck Staff Writer

HOLLYWOOD - Are you ready for some, some . . . football?

Or at least a version dreamed up in the wild imagination of the World Wrestling Federation's Vince McMahon? A testosterone-juiced, cameras-and-microphones-go-anywhere, damn-the-rules, smash-mouth, renegade kind of football promised by McMahon's XFL?

Snicker if you like, but McMahon's newest creation gained significant credibility when NBC signed on as a 50 percent partner and agreed to broadcast its games during prime time on Saturday nights.

On Wednesday, McMahon & Co. officially made Los Angeles one of the XFL's eight inaugural teams, named the Coliseum as its site and J.K. ``Don't Call Me John'' McKay as the team's general manager.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, on hand for the press event at the House of Blues, said when he took over as president of the Coliseum Commission he promised to bring professional football back to Los Angeles.

``This is not necessarily what I had in mind at the time, but it will do,'' Yaroslavsky said.

McMahon, who is nothing if not a good quote, promised a high-entertainment style of football, stopping just short of calling it the anti-NFL.

``The arrogance and lack of common sense of the suits that run the NFL not to have a franchise here in Los Angeles, the second-largest market in the country, is not to be believed,'' McMahon said. ``It is downright insulting to the local populace.''

McMahon decried the ``corporate culture'' of the NFL, said it was overregulated and promised to give fans a new viewing experience.

If the NFL has turned its nose up at McMahon's latest venture, NBC was quick to pay close attention. Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports, has noted McMahon's WWF has had ``incredible success'' in reaching the most elusive audience in television - young males. In head-to-head competition last season, McMahon's WWF on the USA Network outdrew ABC's Monday Night Football among young adult males, ages 12-24, by 47 percent.

McMahon, meet your new partner.

NBC brings legitimacy to a venture many have been naturally skeptical about. For all its stunning success, the WWF is a staged and scripted event with a loose connection to sports. The natural fear is a similar fate awaits football in the XFL, but its supporters claim it will be old- fashioned football.

``It's all about athleticism, first and foremost,'' McMahon said. ``We have to have integrity in the game that we play.''

McMahon promised tickets will run from $22 to $25. The league's three- month season starts in February and ends with its title game April 21.

``We start in the worst weather there is, the way the game should be played - in the snow, in the mud and the ice,'' McMahon said. ``We're in Chicago in February at Chicago Field playing football. That's cool. Wait a minute, that's cold.''

The XFL teams will have local management, not ownership. As with Major League Soccer, all teams will be owned by the XFL. Five games will be played at the Coliseum. There will be no exhibition games.

``The only way you get the (NFL) season tickets is to buy the damn exhibition games,'' McMahon said. ``Wow, that is a racket and a half the NFL has. That's real (bull). The way they treat their fans is unbelievable.''

McKay, the former USC star who later played in the NFL and with the Southern California Sun in the World Football League, had been part of the failed Ed Roski Jr. group that lobbied for two years to bring an NFL team to the Coliseum.

His brother is the general manager at Tampa Bay and he had hoped to be the GM of the new expansion team at the Coliseum. McKay said any doubts over the league and its staying power was eliminated when he met its principals.

``We intend to have the best players, the best coaches and to present the best product we possibly can,'' McKay said.

McKay said he hopes to name a coach within the month. A team nickname and logo might also be announced by the league.