Cities Can't Handle Cost of the NFL

Football is arguably the most popular sport in America, but in the past two weeks, the league has been told by both Los Angeles and Anaheim that those cities aren't interested in spending huge sums of money to build stadiums to house franchises. Also, Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, and Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller have let the owner of the Vikings, Zygi Wilf, and other league officials know that it is unlikely that state legislation will consider a financing package for a Vikings stadium in 2008.

Additionally, city officials in Santa Clara seem to be in no hurry to decide whether or not they want to entertain an offer from the owners of the San Francisco 49ers (John York, his wife Denise, and son Jed) to build a new football facility in the parking lot of a theme park. In San Diego County, the Spanos family seems to be out of luck in their efforts to get a new stadium built in the city's vicinity. They were told by city officials in 2006 to look elsewhere for a new facility, and the family has found out that National City and Oceanside don't want them, either.

So why is it that the very powerful NFL is getting doors slammed in its face? It all comes down to money. Cities have learned that spending hundreds of millions of dollars for new facilities that may be used no more than 15 times a year is not worth the effort or the expense. Football stadiums do not act as economic engines for standalone businesses: There is only a stadium and a huge parking lot. Unless that land is developed as it will be in Arlington, Texas, for Jerry Jones's new Dallas Cowboys facility, or the Giants' and Jets' Meadowlands project, football stadiums are virtually worthless economically because of a lack of use.

The failures of getting stadium funding in the Los Angeles market may have a domino effect on a number of franchises, including Wilf's Vikings, Tom Benson's New Orleans Saints, Ralph Wilson's Buffalo Bills, and York's 49ers and the Spanos' Chargers. To play the stadium game correctly, one needs competition and a threat of relocation. But neither Los Angeles nor Anaheim has decided to get into the game.

Los Angeles has concluded that it is much easier keeping USC officials happy, and is hopeful that it can work out a deal to keep USC's football games in the Coliseum. Colleges normally don't have an option of relocating, but USC somehow gained some leverage in the stadium game by threatening to move its home games to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, despite the fact that the Coliseum is just a stone's throw away from the school's campus. The mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, issued a news release on November 28, saying,"While I remain committed to bringing a professional team to Los Angeles, it is time to read the scoreboard. The Coliseum is no longer a viable option for the NFL."

The new lease would probably stipulate fixing up the old stadium and giving the school control over the revenues generated from USC football games and other events. The lease might also include a provision that USC can be the only football team that can play games in the venue. USC officials are acting much like an NFL ownership group, but the school has all of the leverage, as it is free to pursue other options since its lease with the Coliseum Commission ended after its win against UCLA on December 1.

So far, USC officials have not been impressed with the Coliseum Commission, and are continuing to talk with Pasadena officials. The USC negotiations are far more important for the city than attracting an NFL team.

The NFL has been trying to reenter the Los Angeles market since 1998, and was granted a conditional expansion franchise to the area. But what the NFL has found out since 1999 is that Carson, Calif., which is south of Los Angeles, had land that could have been used for a stadium. But Carson officials decided to look to other opportunities and California officials didn't have the money to rebuild the Coliseum to NFL specifications. A last-ditch effort in the late summer of 1999 to build a stadium on a Hollywood Park racetrack parcel in Inglewood, Calif. — the same land that Raiders owner Al Davis wanted to use for a stadium — failed, and Houston ended up with the expansion franchise.

In 2005, there was an L.A. buzz again, as Rose Bowl officials entertained the possibility of going after an NFL team. The Coliseum Commission was at the table again, as was the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Frank McCourt, who wanted to develop some land near Dodger Stadium. Anaheim officials were ready to sell a 53-acre piece of land in the parking lot of Angel Stadium to the league for $50 million, with the hope that the NFL would come and build a facility. Instead, Anaheim has reached an agreement to sell the property for $150 million to a private firm that plans to build a sort of "stadium-village" that includes housing, commercial, and office space — but no stadium. The sale of the property should be completed in February, and will probably end Anaheim's flirtation with the NFL.

As of now, Los Angeles still does not have the public money to build a football stadium. The next proposals may come from City of Industry, Calif., where Ed Roski, who was hoping to land the 1999 expansion team, has some land that might be suitable for a stadium; or from McCourt again. Then-Dodgers owner Peter O'Malley first put forth the Dodgers Stadium land option in 1997.

There have been rumors that the Chargers' Alex Spanos, who was a major contributor to the campaigns of Anaheim mayor Curt Pringle, was interested in talking with Anaheim city officials. But Spanos opted to continue negotiations with communities in San Diego County. There has been some talk that Benson and his Saints might look at Los Angeles as a possible destination for his team if he cannot get a new stadium or a long-term lease in New Orleans. But within the league, there is a feeling that Benson would not be comfortable in Los Angeles. Ralph Wilson, for example, is 89 years old, and is not moving his Buffalo Bills during his lifetime. But legally, the team could be free to leave western New York after the 2012 season. Wilson will be tapping into Ontario money next year with a pre-season and a regular season game in Toronto, as the Bills shift into a regional franchise mode that he hopes will add revenue into his franchise.

The NFL is not accustomed to seeing cities pulling the welcome mat from its doors. Baltimore, Cleveland, Houston, Oakland, and St. Louis all came crawling back after owners abandoned those cities for greener pastures. Foxboro, Mass., kept the New England Patriots even after Robert Kraft signed a deal to move them to Hartford. The NFL has become too expensive for local governments to afford, which is not good news for Wilf, the Spanos Family, the York Family, Benson, Wilson — and the rest of the NFL.

evanjweiner@yahoo.com