NFL OVERVIEW: HOMELESS SAINTS MAY MARCH TO L.A.

Byline: BILLY WITZ

The NFL has just put off making a decision - again - on where it wants a new stadium in Los Angeles. The Coliseum Commissioners, no longer jumping on their soapboxes, shrug their shoulders at having to wait some more. In Anaheim, nobody seems to be concerned any longer that a big fat parcel of land is burning a hole in their wallet.

What's the hurry?

There doesn't seem to be any on either side of the fence when it comes to where the NFL will build its state- of-the-art stadium in Los Angeles, but that doesn't mean there isn't any shuffling and hustling.

When the NFL owners meet this week in Kansas City, executive Neil Glat plans to give an update on what's happening in Los Angeles - if the owners get around to it, of course.

Where the real action lays is in who is coming to play here and when.

Everybody's favorite candidate seemed to be the New Orleans Saints - and that was before Katrina hit. The only thing the hurricane has done has made it more likely.

The questions about the viability of the New Orleans' market that were being debated before Katrina are now conceded. While Commissioner Paul Tagliabue has maintained that he'd like to see the Saints be a cornerstone for the rebuilding effort in New Orleans, what happens after this season - or after next? What will be of New Orleans then?

Saints owner Tom Benson, who if you didn't know made his money selling cars in San Antonio then you'd guess it now, had an eventful week. He met with the NFL's top in-house counsel Jeff Pash last Sunday and Monday. On Monday night, he fired his lieutenant and lead negotiator Arnold Fielkow, who had the temerity to suggest - publicly and privately - that the Saints commit to New Orleans.

The mayor of San Antonio said Benson wanted to talk with him about a permanent move, to which the mayor of New Orleans said he wanted the Saints back, but not the owner. Benson returned the compliment by filing notice with the state of Louisiana that the club was terminating its lease for the team's state-built practice facility, which costs the team $1 per year.

On Friday, Benson issued a statement wondering what all the fusswas about, that no decision had been made.

Much of the where-will-the-Saints-end-up parlor game has focusedon San Antonio, but let's be real. The NFL has learned its mistake in Jacksonville, where never mind the publicly-funded stadium and last season's Super Bowl, they're covering seats this season because they can't fill them.

San Antonio is the 37th-largest television market in the UnitedStates - 15 spots better than Jacksonville, but sandwiched between Salt Lake City and Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek.

Tagliabue, who has all but said he doesn't want a team in San Antonio, isn't the only one. You can bet the Cowboys and Texans don't and neither do the NBA's Spurs, who have had a tough go despite winning three titles in seven years.

All of this has helped push the Saints issue to the front burner. Tagliabue, who formed a committee of eight owners to consider the Saints' future, will address the subject with full ownership this week. He'll then attend the Saints' first game in Louisiana next Sunday in Baton Rouge, where he'll meet with state and LSU officials about the possibility of playing games there and at the Superdome next year.

``The immediate priority is 2006,'' NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said.

Quite a bit more quietly, there are rumblings again in San Diego.

The city's legal and political quagmire has left the Chargers increasingly skeptical that they'll get an initiative for their stadium development proposal on the ballot by next November - let alone that voters will pass it.

The Chargers and city attorney Michael Aguirre have sparred over whether the February deadline for getting the measure on the ballot is real.

City officials are concerned enough to have floated the idea of letting the Chargers speak to other cities within San Diego County, something they're prohibited from doing until January 2007.

Of course, a few miles farther north, opportunity awaits.

``It's hard to say whether the deal in San Diego will ever materialize, but they're certainly welcome in Anaheim,'' said Anaheim city councilman Harry Sidhu, who knows as well as everyone else that Chargers owner Alex Spanos is one of Anaheim mayor Curt Pringle's biggest benefactors.

The upshot is that there's currently a lot more intrigue about who is coming to Los Angeles than what's happening here.

The Coliseum has been taking care of mundane matters such as approvals of building permits and financing mechanisms and then patting itself on the back for what other cities would simply call doing business.

About all the Coliseum has to work out with the NFL is matters of compensation, which they've only been haggling over for 18 months.

And just where is Anaheim?

It's further behind the Coliseum on stadium plans, according to Glat, but the process isn't as cumbersome since it would be built from scratch rather than a renovated historic monument and - left unsaid - it's Anaheim the league is dealing with, not Los Angeles.

What's significant about Anaheim is the city no longer seems to be in a rush to capitalize on skyrocketing land values. The city didn't balk at pushing a decision back, from this week until perhaps next March, after once saying it didn't want to wait past last May.

Also, Sidhu seems to have softened his stance somewhat.

After hijacking a press conference last winter to announce that the city shouldn't sell its 40 acres to the NFL for anything less than the market value of residential property - an estimated $150 million - he now believes a fair price is the land's commercial value, for which it is currently zoned.

That pencils out to a little more than $100 million - or about nine figures more than the NFL was hoping to pay for it.

``As long as they're willing to pay that price, I'm in support of that,'' said Sidhu, who knows the five-member council would have its three votes without him. ``I'm going with very frugal numbers for commercial property. It's quite, quite reasonable.''

There's still plenty to be worked out, but it's quite possible that after giving it the old college try in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, the Saints will be moved into the Coliseum, which if there isn't another nine months of tail dragging, could be ready for the 2009 season. By then the Chargers could be headed for Anaheim.

Then again, this is Los Angeles, where the NFL has been absent for 11 seasons and counting. What's the hurry?

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Saints owner Tom Benson, who made his money selling cars in San Antonio, isn't welcome back in New Orleans. That raises the possibility the team could land in Los Angeles.

Getty Images