Football in L.A. is NFL study topic

Posted 9:22AM on Wednesday 15th May 2002 ( 23 years ago )

HOUSTON - NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue appointed a group of five owners Tuesday to explore alternatives for returning pro football to Los Angeles. He even hinted that expansion might not be out of the question. ``The assumption was that when we went to 32 teams, many of the owners said, and I said, you wouldn't see expansion in the next decade,'' Tagliabue said. ``If there is a situation in Los Angeles that would warrant an exception to that I don't know.'' Tagliabue said he had no timetable for placing a franchise in Los Angeles. ``We are back to the issue of building a stadium and whether to put an existing team there or make an exception to our no expansion policy,'' the commissioner said. Tagliabue called the five owners a working group. ``It's kind of a sounding board to determine the realities of the situation in Los Angeles,'' Tagliabue said following the NFL owners spring meetings. ``This is a working committee and it is not a piece of our formal process. ``The purpose of this group is to assess the realistic alternatives to going forward,'' Tagliabue said. The owners asked by Tagliabue to look into the matter were: Carmen Policy, Cleveland Browns; Wayne Huizenga, Miami Dolphins; Dan Rooney, Pittsburgh Steelers; Jerry Richardson, Carolina Panthers; and Bob Kraft, New England Patriots. Los Angeles has been without a pro football team since the Raiders and Rams left the city in the spring of 1995. ``I think it's going to happen, it's just a matter of when,'' Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. Los Angeles lost out to Houston in 1999 when the league expanded to 32 teams. Houston Texans owner Bob McNair paid $700 million for his franchise and was aided by a solid financing plan for a new stadium, currently nearing completion for the start of the upcoming season. Los Angeles' inability to settle on a definite stadium proposal hampered its efforts in competing with Houston for the 32nd franchise. ``We all recognize it's the second largest market in the country and it behooves us to have a team there,'' McNair said. ``The challenge is to get a stadium that's acceptable. That's the real challenge to the people in California.'' Last week, the San Diego Chargers announced they will move their training camp to a sports complex near Los Angeles in 2003, leading to speculation the franchise itself could eventually head north. The Chargers signed a five-year deal to train at a $120 million complex being built by billionaire Philip Anschutz on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills, in Carson. Anschutz is considering building a stadium for an NFL team in downtown Los Angeles. His Anschutz Entertainment Group's holdings already include the Staples Center, where the NBA's Lakers and NHL's Kings play.

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