Cities Vie to Be Ushers for New NFL Audience
Nicholas Garcia is 8 years old. He lives in Moorpark, in Ventura County. Unlike boys -- and girls -- in other places in the United States, he has lived his entire life without having a professional football team around to root for.
His dad, Alonzo Garcia, grew up in Texas. When he was a boy, Alonzo, who's now 48, grew to be a big fan of the Dallas Cowboys.
Nicholas? He said last week during a pause in a visit to Disneyland, "I don't even watch football."
For nearly a dozen years, the Los Angeles area has been without an NFL team. Now there is reason to suspect the long pause may be nearing an end, motivated in part by the NFL's recognition that the time has come to lure California youngsters such as Nicholas Garcia into the fold.
"We've let a whole generation of kids grow up for the past decade without NFL football," said influential New England Patriot owner Robert Kraft in a telephone interview. "That's not good for us, and I don't think it's good for the community."
At a meeting in Dallas on Tuesday, an 11-member NFL owners committee will hear presentations from boosters of the Coliseum and Anaheim, the two sites in the running for an NFL return. The league may also hear a presentation from Pasadena, considered a longshot.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will be in Dallas. "We really are open for business and, in particular, NFL business," he said.
Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle is due in Dallas too. "It may very well boil down to a discussion of
The Dallas meeting, for all its import, is but the warmup act. Three weeks later, all 32 NFL owners are scheduled to meet in Denver. There, NFL officials have said, a decision is due. The plan is to pick a site, or sites, then later identify a team, through relocation or expansion, and an owner or owners.
Of course, it's possible the Dallas and Denver meetings will lead nowhere.
The L.A. area has been without NFL football since after the 1994 season, when the Rams moved to St. Louis and the Raiders returned to Oakland. The years since, with plan after plan dashed, have engendered among many in Southern California a skepticism, if not cynicism, about the NFL's return to the nation's No. 2 television market.
Moreover, spiraling construction costs could threaten today's prospects. At a March meeting in Orlando, Fla., NFL staffers suggested the cost of doing business in Anaheim or at the Coliseum might reach $800 million. NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said last week the league is seeking to lower those estimates to perhaps $650 million.
