Who gets the blame for L.A. losing Super Bowl bid?

The finger pointing has started over why Los Angeles lost out on the 1998 Super Bowl. And the bickering has reached into the office of Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.

After staging at the Rose Bowl last January what the National Football League said was one of the best of the 27 Super Bowls, Los Angeles was considered the front runner for Super Bowl XXXII. But late last month the 28 team owners rejected the area's bid and picked San Diego as host of the 1998 game.

The question now is why, and the answer may be much more subtle than that it simply was San Diego's turn.

The bickering breaks down into two camps: On one side is the group -- headed by the Los Angeles Sports Council -- that brought the January game to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. On the other is the new group -- headed by an attorney appointed by Riordan -- formed to bid on the 1998 game.

Officially, those involved in the two groups say it's an unfortunate loss for the area and it was just some other city's turn to host the game. But unofficially people involved in each of the two groups blame the other for San Diego winning the game that annually brings between $150 million and $200 million in business to the host community.

Jim Steeg, the director of special events for the NFL -- the person who is in charge of putting together the league's yearly extravaganza -- said he could not say why the 28 team owners rejected Los Angeles for San Diego.

"But I think it couldn't have hurt to have the same people who put together the last bid to come in and make the presentation. It's better to come in and say 'Hello, nice to see ya again,' rather than having to introduce yourself as a stranger and start all over again," said Steeg.

When Los Angeles was in the running for the January 1993 Super Bowl, some high-profile local business and sports figures campaigned for the area's bid. This time around much of that lobbying was absent, according to people involved with the Sports Council.

Specifically, when the Sports Council was bidding on the 1993 game, Los Angeles Raiders owner Al Davis; the executive vice president of the Los Angeles Rams, John Shaw; Willie Davis, a Hall of Fame player and local businessman; John Argue, a Los Angeles attorney, and Sheldon Ausman, a businessman involved in many high-profile events, were said to have been actively involved in lobbying for the game.

This time around, the involvement of at least three of those people in the bidding process was not as clear. Willie Davis, who did not return a phone call for comment, was a part of the new group.

The genesis of the controversy is an ongoing dispute between the Sports Council and the City of Pasadena that began shortly after the January 1993 game.

The dispute between the council, a non-profit group formed in 1989 to bring sports events to Los Angeles County, and Pasadena involves a claim by the city that it is owed $1 million from proceeds of the January 1993 game. The city says it has received only $200,000 and claims it was "guaranteed" $1 million by the Sports Council. David Simon, president of the Sports Council, denies there was a guarantee of $1 million and said the whole affair is motivated by local politics in Pasadena.

Pasadena officials did not return a phone call for comment.

When the NFL asked Los Angeles and Pasadena to bid on the 1998 game at the Rose Bowl earlier this year, Pasadena officials steadfastly refused to participate if the Sports Council was involved.

(The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is considered a less desirable location for a couple of reasons, including the lack of luxury boxes.)

One source, who did not want to be identified, described the situation this way: "Pasadena was trying to do in the Sports Council and the Sports Council was trying to do in Pasadena."

When there seemed to be no way out, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and Pasadena Mayor Rick Cole decided to bypass the Sports Council and named the Los Angeles/Pasadena Super Bowl XXXII Host Committee to bid on the game. The committee was headed by Kim Wardlaw, a Pasadena resident and a partner at the downtown Los Angeles law firm of O'Melveny & Myers. Wardlaw is the wife of Bill Wardlaw, who headed Riordan's election campaign earlier this year.

One Los Angeles city hall source who is close to Riordan but who did not want to be named, said the dispute is part of the change in administrations and the Sports Council is to blame for the lost bid because it failed to resolve the dispute with Pasadena. The source also said people from the Sports Council were asked to participate in the bid but refused.

Riordan, in an interview last week, confirmed his office asked Sports Council people to participate in the bid but they declined. "It would have been great to have these people with us because they are known in the NFL," said Riordan.

He also blamed the NFL's rejection of the Los Angeles/Pasadena bid on the controversy between the Sports Council and Pasadena. Riordan said despite the controversy, he still supports the Sports Council.

Kim Wardlaw would not comment on any squabble between the Sports Council and the host committee, or the absence of Sports Council people in the new group or in the bid for the 1998 game. Officially, members of the Sports Council said the organization was consulted on the bid but unofficially they claimed the group was slighted.

"My view on why we lost the bid is concern on the part of the league on whether Pasadena would live up to its obligations because of the controversy with the Sports Council. You know the NFL tries to stay away from controversy and they didn't want to get involved in anything that could possibly be disruptive," said Wardlaw.

Now that the decision has been made on Super Bowl XXXII, questions include whether the Sports Council's effectiveness has been damaged and the area's chances of hosting any more Super Bowls. (Five Super Bowls have been played at the Rose Bowl and two have been played at the Coliseum.)

All agree that the area will undoubtedly be involved with future Super Bowls. Steeg of the NFL said the area will be asked to bid on the year 2000 Super Bowl.

The question about the Sports Council is less clear. Simon said the dispute with Pasadena may soon be resolved and Wardlaw said she hoped the group's effectiveness will not be hurt.

"These kind of big sports events are very important to Los Angeles and we should be looking at that rather than these other kind of things," said Wardlaw.