News of the Arroyo
Title: | NFL adds Carson as possible site for team |
Subtitle: | |
Date: | 2003-05-21 |
Summary: | May 21, 2003 - The NFL owners throw a curve to Pasadena at their meeting considering the future site for a Los Angeles-area football team. After leading city officials to believe that they were engaged, Pasadena discovers that there is another candidate for NFL affection - Carson. |
Author: | Gary Scott, Staff Writer |
Publication: | Pasadena Star News |
Content: | Moag downplays action\'s significance By Gary Scott, Staff Writer PASADENA -- Pasadena and Carson emerged as the top candidates for a professional football franchise under terms of a resolution passed by National Football League owners Tuesday. The league gave NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue the authority to enter into formal negotiations with both cities and left open consideration of other proposals, such as the revived plan to rebuild Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. While the owners\' decision keeps the $500 million Rose Bowl renovation plan in the running, Mayor Bill Bogaard said it does nothing to advance Pasadena\'s position. Rather, he said it allows the NFL to play the two sides to its advantage. \"Pasadena thought that it was well in the lead of any competing venues in California,\' Bogaard said. \"It is clear that there are two sound competitors and the league\'s intention is to evaluate both of those possibilities at the same time. It is a position that Pasadena is not particularly comfortable being in.\' The resolution passed by a 30-1-1 vote. It authorizes Tagliabue to spend up to $10 million on an option to buy 157 acres in Carson, where a new stadium is proposed to be built, as well as enter into a \"lease framework\' with the city of Pasadena for renovating the Rose Bowl. In anticipation of the owners\' meeting, the Pasadena City Council on Monday adopted principles for negotiating a possible lease. Council members emphasized a provision that says the NFL and the city should enter into exclusive negotiations. \"We have to make sure we don\'t find ourselves in a feeding frenzy over the NFL,\' said Councilman Chris Holden. \"We have one suitor and the suitor has two dates. That is not too comfortable for me.\' Bogaard said he was concerned that, in a bidding war, the idea of using public funds to rebuild the Rose Bowl plan could become part of the negotiations. So far, the council has unanimously opposed spending public funds for the project. John Moag, the Baltimore investment banker hired by Pasadena to craft a deal, said he hand-delivered the City Council\'s negotiating principles to Tagliabue on Tuesday morning. He said he expects to have a response within a week. The owners\' meeting concludes today in Philadelphia. Although Moag said he was blindsided by the seriousness with which the NFL is taking Carson\'s proposal, he downplayed its significance for Pasadena. \"I go back to the beginning when the commissioner said, \'If you build it we will come,\'\' Moag said, referring to the Rose Bowl plan. \"I believed it then and, frankly, I believe it now. He is a man of his word.\' He said the NFL should take into account the effort Pasadena made over the past 10 months. \"We\'ve completed an extensive design phase, we\'ve been through numerous financial models, produced a comprehensive traffic and parking plan, and received unanimous support from the City Council,\' he said. \"That\'s a lot different from having a piece of land that\'s a hazardous waste site in a community where you haven\'t even met the politicians yet.\' Councilman Victor Gordo agreed, saying that while he wasn\'t excited about the NFL\'s decision, it was still a good day for Pasadena, considering the competition. \"(The NFL has) two clear choices,\' Gordo said. \"They can go with a world-class stadium in a beautiful setting, a stadium that is filled with tradition and located in a vibrant community, or they can take their chances and build a strip mall-style stadium on top of a landfill in a very unstable political climate.\' The effort to lure the NFL to the Rose Bowl rests on the assumption that the NFL will return to Southern California. Rose Bowl officials have said repeatedly that a new stadium in the region could bring financial ruin to the 81-year-old stadium by drawing away business and possibly stealing the UCLA Bruins. \"We got into this thing to try and solidify the stadium\'s long- term future and that is what we\'re still trying to do,\' said Darryl Dunn, Rose Bowl general manager. Tagliabue made some his strongest statements yet about returning professional football to the Los Angeles area, which has the second-largest television market in the country. He told reporters that NFL wants to be back between 2006 and 2008. Los Angeles hasn\'t had a team since the Raiders and Rams left after the 1994 season. After hiring Moag last August, the city moved quickly to develop a proposal in order to beat out competitors. Monday\'s vote on the negotiating principles was the final step before entering into formal talks with the NFL. Responding to community concerns that talks may be moving too quickly, Councilman Paul Little said Monday that any deal remains tenuous, at best. \"This locomotive people say is moving down the tracks is not a locomotive yet,\' he said. \"This is an effort that can trip over the smallest pebble the wrong adjective in the wrong place at the wrong time.\' After hearing from residents living near the Rose Bowl, the council agreed Monday to add language to its negotiation parameters saying the Arroyo Seco and the surrounding neighborhoods will be protected. The city also will work to \"materially reduce\' parking around the Rose Bowl for events. And Bogaard recommended establishing an oversight committee similar to the one studying the City Hall Seismic Retrofit project if the stadium project moves forward. Staff Writer Billy Witz and the Associated Press contributed to this story. Gary Scott can be reached at (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4458, or by e- mail at gary.scott@sgvn.com. |
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