Monday, March 10, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
SUN WIRE REPORTS
The NFL wants a team in Los Angeles. There simply is no suitable stadium to house it.
Hardly an unusual situation for the league, which faces that problem and others at its winter meetings this week.
Consider that more than half of the 30 teams either are headed to new homes or aren't happy with what they have.
The Washington Redskins are heading to a new stadium this season. Baltimore, Tampa Bay and Cincinnati will get new ones soon. The Houston Oilers will become the Tennessee Somethings, possibly this year, and eventually will land in a brand new facility in Nashville.
San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium is undergoing a multimillion dollar facelift to play host to the Super Bowl next January and become more profitable for the Chargers. The 49ers want a similar deal or a new stadium in San Francisco. The Bears want out of Soldier Field, the Seahawks won't survive in Seattle if they don't get out of the Kingdome and the Cardinals keep complaining they need to move off the Arizona State campus and have their own building.
The Lions apparently are headed back to downtown Detroit, the Broncos want a new stadium in Denver and the Patriots could disappear quickly without a new home in New England.
So what's going on with Los Angeles hardly is unique, but it could slow down NFL expansion to the nation's second-largest market, which was abandoned by the Rams and Raiders after the 1994 season.
"We need to take a hard look at expansion to 32, especially in light of the success of Jacksonville and Carolina," NFL spokesman Joe Browne said. "I do not expect any definitive decision at this meeting. We have guaranteed Cleveland a team on the field in 1999 known as the Cleveland Browns. In Los Angeles, the issue there is a suitable stadium. Yes, we would like to have a team back in Los Angeles. No, it does not have to be in 1999."
Cleveland's new stadium is under construction and will be ready by '99. Los Angeles has the Coliseum, which was old when the Raiders moved there in 1982 and is decrepit now. There's the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, considered a great spot for the Super Bowl, but not for weekly NFL activity. And the Rams found Anaheim Stadium unsuitable.
The league is hopeful investors will come up with a downtown park for an expansion team to fill.
No decisions are expected on expansion at these meetings, but it will be discussed and, most likely, a committee to explore the subject will be established.
Certain to draw interest in the next two days is instant replay. The system used from 1986-91 was voted out in 1992 as being too slow in leading to decisions. Many NFL coaches are in favor of reinstating replay and giving them a certain number of challenges per half. Game referees then would review the play on the field, hopefully eliminating long delays.
The league tried such a system during the '96 exhibition season. A similar plan is being presented to the owners here, but any vote would require 23 positive responses to pass.
* 49ERS STADIUM SURVEY: Convincing residents to pitch in to build the San Francisco 49ers a new stadium may require a come-from-behind push, a survey by the San Francisco Chronicle shows. Forty seven percent of voters oppose a ballot measure to raise $100 million for the $536 million stadium, while 39 percent support the plan. Fourteen percent are undecided, the newspaper reported today. "The election is up for grabs," said pollster Marc Baldassare, whose firm surveyed 600 San Francisco voters last week. The June 3 ballot measure calls for issuing $100 million in lease-revenue bonds to help pay for the 75,000-seat stadium and shopping mall at Candlestick Park.
* BEARS' SPELLMAN JAILED: Chicago Bears defensive end Alonzo Spellman spent the night in jail, accused of speeding and unlawful use of a weapon after police stopped him on a Chicago-area tollway. State police spotted Spellman driving 88 mph in a 55 mph zone on the Tri-State Tollway near Des Plaines around 11:30 p.m. Sunday night, said Master Sergeant Ray Colclasure. He was asked to pull over and during questioning police found a loaded .380 semi-automatic weapon in Spellman's car, Colclasure said today. The weapons charge is a felony punishable by up to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
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