The Eli Broad and Michael Ovitz groups bidding for an
NFL expansion team for L.A. have agreed to present league
owners "with a single stadium design and site plan for
Exposition Park, and they expect the NFL to contribute
roughly" $150M toward the project, according to Newton &
Simers of the L.A. TIMES, who write that "the latest
developments are expected to pave the way for the NFL to
invest in the project." NFL VP/Football Operations Roger
Goodell said the league is "encouraged" by what it is seeing
in L.A.: "The economic challenge we have here remains the
most significant hurdle that we will have to address with
the membership (league owners), and that might include a
league contribution to the project." Bill Chadwick,
appointed by CA Gov. Gray Davis to oversee the negotiations,
has "drafted a set of proposed terms sketching out the
details of an agreement" between the state and the NFL, but
he has been "cautious about revealing details of that plan -
- in the process irritating some local officials." Newton &
Simers add that "significant obstacles still need to be
overcome," including the construction of 21,900 parking
spots and a stadium design that is "an only slightly
modified version of the one that Ovitz presented to the
league," which "retains all of the key features that
impressed other [NFL] owners but that some local leaders ...
did not like." Ovitz: "I feel very good about the progress
we have made. ... We have been working very well with [Broad
partner] Ed Roski and his associates" (L.A. TIMES, 7/21).
