Coliseum Concept Turning Stale

PALM DESERT â€”  Just as things were really looking up for the Coliseum Task Force Tuesday with the delivery of pretzels and soda--still no chips--the great hope for the return of football to Los Angeles shifted from hospitality room to Dodger owner Peter O’Malley.

This was not good for the new Coliseum, which is really getting to be an old subject.

NFL owners--one likening a vacation in Beirut to playing a game again in the Coliseum--basically ignored Los Angeles’ hospitality, but they united to ratify cross-ownership Tuesday, and while done presently to benefit interests in Miami and Seattle, it once again raised questions about O’Malley’s potential as L.A.’s future football team owner.

Not to take issue, of course, with Los Angeles officials who said the number of NFL owners looking at their toy model of the new Coliseum was “like 20ish,� but in a random survey--Oakland’s Al Davis, Tampa’s Malcolm Glazier, Baltimore’s Art Modell, Philadelphia’s Jeff Lurie, Indianapolis’ Jim Irsay, and Dallas’ Jerry Jones--only one admitted to a visit.

Presumably, the four owners who also chose not to attend these annual meetings would have reconsidered had they been alerted of the pretzels’ arrival.

Whatever the number of visitors, the most intriguing man in Los Angeles’ football future was in Florida watching his baseball team.

At first blush, cross-ownership approval would appear to have no impact on O’Malley should he renew his interest in football, because his baseball team is on the market.

But now there are some Los Angeles officials and rumblings within the NFL that suggest O’Malley will not necessarily sell the Dodgers so much as acquire a corporate sponsor, while maintaining control of the baseball team and the land in order to still build a football stadium.

O’Malley, who was about to conclude a feasibility study on a new football facility on the hill overlooking the city adjacent to Dodger Stadium, shelved his project after being asked by city political figures to support the new Coliseum. It was a devastating blow to O’Malley, who had become tremendously excited about football after being asked by Mayor Richard Riordan to explore the possibility of building a stadium.

As a result of O’Malley’s withdrawal, in recent months the new Coliseum has had the NFL’s undivided attention, although a presentation last October in New Orleans was reviewed as a debacle by league owners in attendance.

Los Angeles Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, at the forefront of the new Coliseum effort and taking great offense at October’s presentation being described as a debacle, promised a dramatic Tuesday announcement a few days ago sure to change the minds of anyone who might doubt the viability of a new Coliseum.

Tuesday came and went without any such drum roll, and unless NFL owners experience a dramatic shift in opinion, so will the new Coliseum, thereby leaving the door ajar for someone like O’Malley to make his run for NFL attention.

Los Angeles’ window of opportunity for an expansion team, however, will probably close once the NFL decides how it will honor its promise to Cleveland to have a new team on the field in 1999. NFL officials expect a decision to come--existing team or expansion franchise--late in 1998.

NFL owners do not want to expand, and the new Coliseum does not look as if it will change their minds. How long before Los Angeles city officials get the message and consider other alternatives?

If Los Angeles presents an attractive opportunity too good to reject--and there is no way of knowing of O’Malley could do that because of his present inactivity--it becomes the answer to a very serious problem for the NFL. It gives the NFL all the reasons it needs to piggyback L.A. to Cleveland and add two new teams.

It’s that, or it’s hospitality rooms for Los Angeles with splashy renderings--and hopefully chips--for the next decade.