Twice-Burned L.A. Seems to Greet NFL Decision With a Big Shrug

This is a city that has seen O.J. Simpson in full flight--both on a football field and on a freeway. Riots and earthquakes, we’ve had ‘em. Brush fires, they blow through about every year. The Oscars and the Grammys are worth our fleeting attention. The Dodgers and Lakers draw, the Clippers don’t. Two big-time NFL franchises--the Rams and Raiders--have come and gone.

So the prospect of yet another NFL team in town is not exactly reason to stand and cheer.

Been there, done that.

“People want their trees trimmed, their potholes filled, neighborhood blight removed,” said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick, summing up a collective yawn wide enough to swallow the basin. “They want to feel safe and they want to know their kids are getting a quality education. . . . That’s what people care about. It’s not professional sports.”

Even the people who do care about professional sports--radio sports-talk junkies, for example--greeted the news of the crucial vote by NFL owners Tuesday with a mix of disinterest and disdain. Lee “Hacksaw” Hamilton, who hosts a wide-ranging sports call-in show on XTRA-AM (690) radio, ran a survey of his drive-time listeners: Were they excited?

Of 48 callers, 36 said they either did not care if a new team came to L.A. or, get this, preferred not to have one.

“I was stunned,” Hamilton said. “I’m kind of appalled at the apathy.”

He need not have been overly surprised. A Times poll early last year found disaffection in startling numbers: Only 38% of respondents considered it “at least somewhat” important to have an NFL team in Los Angeles.

Downey resident Dean Cuccio, a 30-year-old former Rams fan turned Dallas Cowboys fan, summed up the latest turn of events by saying, “I think it’s good. But I’m not overjoyed.”

To be sure, there are whole rooting sections of people thrilled about the opportunity. The NFL vote gives Los Angeles six months to piece together a game plan, a situation that could make a few rich people far richer. The notables include Eli Broad and Ed Roski, who are heading up the plan to put a team in the historic Coliseum, and Michael Ovitz, who has been leading a rival effort to build a stadium in Carson, which now may be merged into the Coliseum proposal.

A new franchise would mean eight or 10 NFL games a year in L.A., enough to scare up a few dollars for restaurants, bars, T-shirt vendors and people who rent out their yards for parking.

It would enable Christian Ojogho, owner of Soccer Shop USA near the Coliseum, to replace stacks of soccer jerseys with football jerseys and perhaps boost revenues back to where they were before the Raiders left town.

Having a new team would be “wonderful,” he said.

“This area is so depressed,” said Greg Campbell, manager of Murray’s tickets, another small business in an area marred by closed storefronts and “for lease” signs. “We’re the No. 2 [sports] market in the nation, and we haven’t had a team in years.”

There is, of course, prestige associated with having an NFL team, belonging to that legion of football strongholds alongside New Orleans, Seattle, San Diego.

“It might not be at the forefront of people’s minds,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Feuer, “but it is important to the city.”

“Los Angeles needs a boost right now,” agreed Sarosh Bhojani, a 49-year-old jeweler who runs a shop in Carson. Back in the days of the Raiders, Bhojani liked to invite family members over to have pizza and beer and watch games on TV. “We don’t have that excitement anymore. L.A. is supposed to be an exciting city, and it does not feel that way anymore.”

Judging by the broader public outcry--or lack of it--the city might better recapture the magic with the return of Roller Derby. Potholes and sidewalk cracks have generated more of a clamor.

“I’ve had no letters or telephones calls from people about pro football,” said county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, a member of the Coliseum Commission.

“Once in a while--at a sporting event--somebody comes up to me and asks, ‘Are we going to get pro football?’ “I tell them, ‘I hope so,’ ” he said.

“But the truth is that, as an avid sports fan, I’ve been happier since the Raiders left, though maybe that has to do with them. . . . At the prices they’re quoting for this new stadium, I’ll probably be watching most of my games on television anyway.”

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg is another sports fan. But her constituents--who knows?

“We get about 1,000 phone calls a month,” she said. “Not one has been about professional football. I’d love to have a team here, but I don’t think anyone, even the fans, wants me to spend city dollars on this.”

Much of the coolness toward a new franchise seems an icy residue from feelings about teams that came before. The Rams built a storied tradition on the backs of legends such as Tom Fears, Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch and Roman Gabriel, then jilted fans by fleeing for Orange County and later St. Louis.

Into the vacuum swaggered the men in silver and black, the Raiders, who espoused a bad-boy image that earned an indelible association with street gangs, public drunkenness and fights in the stands.

“Twice burned, then it becomes three strikes and you’re out,” said radio host Hamilton. “I just think people are so upset about what [Raiders owner] Al Davis allowed the Coliseum to become. I think it turned off the average football fan. People right now are furious.”

Temo Garcia, manager of the Margarita Jones Mexican Restaurant, a long spiral from the Coliseum entrance, is not angry, but he remembers the turmoil that came with the crowds.

“There were a lot of fights” at the games, he said. “[The fans] were pretty passionate. Maybe a little too passionate.”

To what extent the passion will return is anybody’s guess. A new team, with new stars and a new attitude, just might turn it around, some people believe.

But don’t expect Pablo Garcia to be cheering at the 50-yard line. Never mind that the young L.A. resident lives but a few blocks from the Coliseum; he might as well be in Albuquerque.

“I don’t care,” Garcia said. “Football is very important for some people. Me? I like soccer.”

Staff writers David Ferrell, Nicholas Riccardi and Beth Shuster contributed to this story.