News of the Arroyo
Title: | NFL merely toying with us |
Subtitle: | |
Date: | 2003-05-30 |
Summary: | May 30, 2003 - Here's the cynical view about NFL courtship from Steve Dilbeck. |
Author: | Steve Dilbeck, Sports Columnist |
Publication: | Los Angeles Daily News |
Content: | Some marriages just should never happen. Should be banned, outlawed, held as a crime against all humanity and Mike Tyson, too. Unions everybody and their mother can tell are headed straight for disaster. It\'s like everyone can see the calamity about to happen but the struggling participants. The thing about the NFL is, it never really can make up its mind who\'s caught its fancy. It\'s one ridiculously fickle group of millionaires. Just when Carson is the babe of the moment, the Coliseum winks and the old girl is suddenly looking good. Hey, but then check out the action at Hollywood Park. No, sorry, it\'s Houston. But then there\'s a classic at the Rose Bowl. Ooooh, next to Staples? Wait, Carson is making a sudden comeback! And has anyone taken a look at Dodger Stadium lately? If the NFL were a man, he\'d be slapped. There\'s immature flirtation with every potential site in a skirt. Make up your bloody mind, or just leave us the freak alone. It\'s not a business transaction, it\'s a soap opera. And you have to wonder whether the good people of Pasadena have been watching. Out along the Arroyo Seco, they were convinced they\'d become the NFL\'s new darling. Such a silly girl. See, the old lines still work. Pasadena was excited despite the fact its stadium is next to inaccessible, it would have to all but tear down a historic monument to host 10 games a year, and it would cost more than to build a new stadium from scratch. Yet they were shocked and irate last week when the NFL announced in Philadelphia it was taking out a $10 million option on Michael Ovitz\'s favorite toxic waste dump in Carson. \"We were very much surprised by that, to put it mildly,\" said Bill Thomson, Pasadena\'s former mayor and head of the NFL search committee. \"Certainly the reputation the league has in Southern California is not all that positive. The perception is they will attempt to play one party against another to end up with the best deal for the National Football League. So we\'re not naive, but it would have been much better if they\'d called us and explained what they were doing and why, before it became public information. I think they would agree they did not handle that well from their end.\" Pasadena officials weren\'t naive, and the NFL will admit it goofed. Happens all the time. Hard to get all weepy for Pasadena, though, when everybody with one eye open could figure the NFL would come up with some way to complicate things. \"Surprise, surprise,\" said Pat Lynch, general manager of the Coliseum. \"History has a way of repeating itself. We don\'t get too excited one way or another. Just as quickly as something could die down, it could heat up. That\'s today, who knows what\'s tomorrow?\" The Coliseum is currently on the outs with the NFL, which doesn\'t mean it won\'t somehow start having an irresistible come-hither thing going for it next week. And then of course there is the wild card in Malcom Glazer, the Buccaneers owner trying to purchase the Dodgers. He could build an NFL stadium next to Dodger Stadium, or build it in Chavez Ravine and relocate the Dodgers downtown. But he\'s in a long-term lease in Tampa Bay, would have to sell the Super Bowl-champion Bucs, buy another team, build an NFL stadium and at least update Dodger Stadium. \"That\'s a lot of steps, a lot of big, big steps,\" Lynch said. Pasadena\'s bid is built around the assumption the NFL suddenly has seen the light in Southern California and recognizes there will be no public funding toward building a stadium. The NFL never actually said it would build one, but then neither has it quickly rejected the proposal, which is interpreted locally as acceptance. It does appear that way, but don\'t forget what we\'re dealing with here. The NFL supposedly wants to return to the L.A. area because it is under pressure by broadcasters who want a team in the nation\'s No. 2 TV market. Yet Fox Sports chairman David Hill told Sports Illustrated this week that the last thing the networks need is a bad team in L.A. not selling out and the market getting blacked out. Said Hill: \"As astute a business as the NFL is, I can\'t figure this one out.\" The NFL has owners who want to return, and some who don\'t care. Some who want one voice to speak for L.A., and others who enjoy the competition. One side has all the owners and administrators, the other a quagmire of cities, councilmen, supervisors, commissions, environmentalists and preservationists. Not to discount anything Elizabeth Taylor has managed, but this looks like the worst marriage since Henry VIII married his brother\'s widow, Catherine of Aragon, which only led to the forming of the Church of England. That the NFL will ultimately, finally, make a decision and come back to L.A. seems inevitable, sort of like death. Guess we should be like the Jack Nicholson character in \"About Schmidt\" and just resign ourselves to being unable to stop these nuptials, make the best of it and be left with another team we can\'t afford to see. It\'s tiring, but the circus goes on. And the fickle NFL still plays ringmaster. --- Steve Dilbeck\'s column appears in the Daily News four times a week. He can be reached atstephen.dilbeck@dailynews.com |
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