NFL: MCCOURT SQUELCHES FOOTBALL RUMORS CHAVEZ RAVINE WON'T DISRUPT L.A. COLISEUM PLANS.

Byline: Rick Orlov Staff Writer

Facing heavy public and political pressure, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt sought Thursday to quell the controversy created by reports that he was seeking to bring a professional football team to Chavez Ravine.

Aides to McCourt said he hopes to meet with city and county officials so he can offer assurances that he has no plans to build a football stadium in the parking lot adjacent to Dodger Stadium or go ahead with any retail development on the site.

The Boston Herald reported Wednesday that National Football League officials met last fall with representatives for McCourt to discuss his proposals for an NFL stadium and development project.

The story was based on confidential memos that McCourt says were stolen from his desk.

``Approximately three weeks ago, someone contacted (McCourt) and said they had a copy of these documents that were taken from him and returned them,'' spokeswoman Camille Johnson said. ``We notified the LAPD and have been working with them.

``Now that these documents seem to have been so widely circulated, we are filing an official police request to ask them to investigate the theft.''

Beyond that, Johnson said McCourt was calling Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other key city and county officials to assure them he has no intent in trying to undercut local efforts to lure a team to the Memorial Coliseum.

Los Angeles officials presented a united front Thursday in support of the Coliseum as a home for professional football and voiced confusion over whether McCourt was serious about building a stadium in Chavez Ravine.

``There is a community consensus and a political consensus behind the Coliseum,'' Villaraigosa said. ``It is a great venue for football and we all support it.''

Councilman Ed Reyes, who represents the area around Dodger Stadium, said he was surprised at the news stories because he had established a relationship with the McCourts.

``If this NFL idea is true, it would unravel all the good will they have been trying to build with the city and the community,'' Reyes said. ``They have been doing a great job in bringing the community together. For something like this to come forward would destroy all that.''

Johnson said the McCourt family and the Dodgers did not want to see that relationship jeopardized.

Also, Councilman Bernard Parks, who represents the Coliseum area and has been working with the NFL, said he remained committed to his goal.

``This will not distract those of us behind the effort to bring the NFL team back to the Coliseum,'' Parks said, citing the unified effort to officials behind the Coliseum.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky was upset with both the reports of any effort by the McCourts to win a team and the NFL in talking to other parties.

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said earlier this month that the league was looking only at the Coliseum and Anaheim for a football team and indicated both sites could be selected.

But, he did not discuss the fact that Dodger executives had met with the league in New York City in November to discuss a possible stadium in Chavez Ravine.

The document presented to McCourt outlines those discussions and lays out the financial ramifications of efforts to get a football team and whether that would harm the Dodgers' chances of hosting an All-Star game.

``That document is a summary of the meetings,'' Johnson said. ``It was never discussed with (McCourt) and he had neither endorsed nor embraced it.''

A consultant familiar with the interest by McCourt downplayed the proposal.

``If there was ever anything seriously proposed, they would have been out beating the bushes for support,'' the consultant said. ``As it was, this was a pie-in-the-sky type of thing that never went anywhere. There was no way they were going to propose this and buck the political establishment.''

The documents outline the financial implications of ownership, including how it would be possible to get around the NFL ban on ownership of two professional sports franchises.

The report said it could be accomplished by McCourt remaining a minority partner - with less than 30-percent equity in a football team and selling off the rest of the team.

McCourt was assured in the document that such a sale would be easy in a city like Los Angeles with so many billionaires and multi-millionaires.

``General consensus is that there are lots of very wealthy people interested in becoming involved in L.A. football,'' it said. ``Picking the right ones will be the challenge.''

Johnson refused to discuss specifics of the document and referred to statement released on Wednesday that described it as an ``exploratory'' memo.

``There are many what-if scenarios out there,'' Johnson said. ``None of these have been endorsed by (McCourt). So long as the Coliseum site is viable, Dodger Stadium is not a competing site.''

Rick Orlov, [phone]

rick.orlov(at)dailynews.com