As the NFL debates the future of football in L.A., it
"must choose between two locations and two men," according
to GQ's John Brodie, who examines the league's L.A quandary
and focuses on the competing bids of developer/Kings co-
Owner Ed Roski and former Disney President Michael Ovitz.
Roski is leading a group behind football at a renovated L.A.
Coliseum, while Ovitz's bid includes a "revolutionary"
stadium to be built on a former landfill site south of L.A.
in Carson, a hacienda-style facility "complete with" mission
bells that ring and lasers that shoot beams of light each
time the home team scores. While Ovitz claims that his plan
has the backing of some high powered Hollywood forces,
including Tom Cruise, Kevin Costner and former Coliseum
supporter Magic Johnson, Disney CEO Michael Eisner, whose
company is one of the NFL's broadcast partners and "carries
a lot of weight" with the league, "has not been averse to
supporting" Roski's New Coliseum proposal. Brodie adds that
Eisner has even "mentioned" putting an ESPN Zone next to a
renovated Coliseum, and has offered the NFL the services of
Disney's Imagineers urban planners, who helped transform
NYC's Times Square, "to work the same magic" on the area
which surrounds the Coliseum (GQ, 8/98 issue).
THE SKINNY: Although Roski "appears to have the edge,"
Brodie writes that "only a fool would underestimate" Ovitz.
NFL execs "assert that the playing field is still level."
NFL Exec VP/League Development Roger Goodell, on Ovitz: "We
think his project has a lot of potential. We just don't
know if it's buildable. ... We also have a lot of respect
for Ed Roski and his group, but we're not sure whether you
can convince the general public that the Coliseum is a new
facility." One NFL owner said that he has a "high degree of
suspicion that there's a lot of hype" in Ovitz's proposal,
but Brodie writes that "for the time being," the NFL is
"willing to go along with" the Carson group's claim that it
can successfully develop its land. Brodie concludes: "The
best solution is probably a hybrid. Ovitz's concept on
Roski's site; Roski's local development expertise with
Ovitz's marketing prowess. To get this town fired up about
football, the NFL needs Ovitz. But he and Roski are not
meeting anytime soon" (GQ, 8/98 issue).
