NFL teams ignore relocation rumors despite fan woes.

Attendance drop spurs talk one or both teams may move

Home game attendance for the Southland's two professional football teams is running more than 25 percent below the National Football League average this season, spurring talk once again that one or both of the teams may move.

The loss of one, or even both, the Los Angeles Raiders and Rams teams would not do much damage to the local economy, according to Los Angeles-based Economics Research Associates. But a move would certainly further hurt L.A.'s image.

Officials at the two teams, which are both owned by private investors and, therefore, are not required to reveal financial data, would not comment on speculation that the franchises are struggling financially.

Team executives also declined comment on recent newspaper and network television broadcast reports that the owners are growing weary of the lackluster fan support in the Southland market and are exploring the possibility of moving the franchises.

"We just don't have time to comment on those things; we're trying to get ready for our next game," said Al LoCasale, executive assistant to Raiders' managing partner Al Davis.

Possible new homes for either the Rams or the Raiders, according to the reports, are Baltimore; St. Louis; Jacksonville, Fla.; Oakland, Calif.; and Memphis, Tenn.

Except for Oakland, all those cities are now in the running for a new NFL franchise that is expected to be awarded within the next few weeks. Earlier this month, the NFL awarded a new franchise to Charlotte, N.C.

Despite the talk of moving, and disappointing game attendance, professional sports industry experts said they doubted either team would move.

"Why would they?" asked Paul Much, a professional sports team analyst in the Chicago office of Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, a Los Angeles-based financial advisory firm. "The economics of the game are structured such that they are both probably making money. It's just a question of how much."

Another sports team analyst, Michael Megna of Megna Valuations Inc. in Mequon, Wis., said the two teams' home game attendance is well under the accepted average of about 55,000 for a healthy franchise.

"But I really can't see anyone leaving a lucrative market like Los Angeles, even though the two teams could be doing better," said Megna.

So far this season (excluding Nov. 14 games) the Rams, which are headquartered in Los Angeles but play their games in Anaheim, have had an average home attendance of just over 48,000 fans, according to the team. The Raiders, which are based in El Segundo and play their home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, have a home game average attendance of about 41,000, according to a Coliseum spokeswoman. For the past two years, both teams have averaged between 40,000 and 50,000 fans per home game.

The NFL average game attendance so far this season (again excluding the Nov. 14-15 games) is more than 63,000, which is well ahead of the league's record of 62,321 set in 1990.

The significance of game attendance is that much of the gate-receipt revenue represents profit for team owners. The Raiders are owned by a group of individual investors headed by Davis, and the Rams are owned by Georgia Frontiere.

Under the league's current national television contracts that expire at the end of this season, each NFL team gets about $39 million. According to an annual study by Financial World magazine, the Raiders in 1992 had total annual revenue of just over $51 million and the Rams had annual revenue of just over $53 million.

According to the Financial World report, both the Rams and Raiders had gate receipts of about $12 million last year and player payrolls of between $31 million and $32.5 million.

The magazine estimated that last year the Rams had an operating income of $5.3 million, while the Raiders had an operating loss of $2.2 million.

Though sports analysts said they doubted the L.A. teams would move, they added that there are legitimate arguments in favor of the Rams and Raiders relocating. The teams could be interested in moving, analysts speculated, because, with new broadcast contracts starting next year, annual television revenue for each franchise will probably drop to about $32 million. In addition, there is no guarantee that home game attendance will improve, and both the Coliseum and Anaheim Stadium lack luxury seating.

"Luxury box seating is something all the team owners want because revenue from those kind of seats is all gravy. Some of these sky boxes go for $100,000 a year. And, if you have 30 of them, that can make a big difference in terms of profits. They can easily be the determining factor on where a team plays," said Much.

"In the case of the Rams and the Raiders, the situation may be that the owners want to make more money than they are now," he said.

In recent weeks, there have been several published reports that Rams' owner Frontiere is considering selling the team, moving the franchise, or both. More recently, talk that Davis may again be considering moving the Raiders has been resurrected.

Two years ago, Davis, who is considered a renegade in the NFL, threatened to move the Raiders. But he eventually decided to stay, after the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission agreed to renovations at the stadium.

Part of that renovation plan included construction of luxury boxes. However, that construction has not progressed beyond the planning stages.