Lakers Exec VP Jerry West "has agreed" to join Michael
Ovitz's ownership group that is trying to bring an NFL team
to L.A., according to T.J. Simers of the L.A. TIMES. West,
who has been "given permission" by Lakers Owner Jerry Buss
to "moonlight as an advisor for the football project," will
travel to K.C. with Ovitz for an October 27 presentation to
all 31 NFL owners. Ovitz gave plans to NFL Commissioner
Paul Tagliabue this week for a privately financed 78,000-
seat stadium on a 158-acre site in Carson, CA, calling it
"'the Hacienda,' which will be surrounded by an
entertainment-geared mall." Ovitz: "I think this Hacienda
concept, where it's located ... linked as it is to this mall
concept with fan [amenities] -- I think a lot of that has
people very excited." Tagliabue, asked whether the plan put
the Ovitz group ahead of the New Coliseum Partners: "I think
it does in terms of the attractiveness of the facility.
Whether it does in terms of the viability of making it
happen, I'd say it's a tossup and one of the reasons we're
having a meeting in October." Tagliabue also said that
after the October meeting, he expects Houston to be "100%
there with signed documents" for a publicly-funded stadium
as well as ownership in business exec Bob McNair, which is
more than either L.A. group would offer (L.A. TIMES, 9/18).
WHO IS ANSCHUTZ? NHL Kings co-Owner & MLS Rapids/Fire
investor Philip Anschutz, who is behind the New Coliseum
Partners, is profiled by Lewis MacAdams of LOS ANGELES.
When people were asked, "Who is Philip Anschutz?" in L.A.,
"nobody had an answer." Requests for interviews for the
piece "were ignored," and nearly everyone who knows Anschutz
"personally refused to talk," including his L.A. partner, Ed
Roski. But MacAdams adds that anyone who did talk about
Anschutz "had only praise" for him, and about the worst
thing they said was "that he's cheap." But MacAdams writes
that Anschutz may have to have a higher profile to win the
city's trust to land an NFL team. When the L.A. Times' T.J.
Simers urged him to be more open with the public, saying
that "the last thing the NFL wants or L.A. needs ... is a
team with a faceless absentee owner," Anschutz said that
"just wasn't his style" (LOS ANGELES, 10/98 issue).