Report: NFL not happy with AEG's proposal for football

Hold everything - league commissioner Roger Goodell met in NY last month with L.A. City Councilwoman Jan Perry and an aide to Councilman Bernard Parks, and, according to Yahoo Sports, there is little interest in bringing a team to L.A. under the plan laid out by Anschutz Entertainment Group. Now, this may be some sort of negotiating tactic, but it's worth noting that the league owners will be holding their annual fall meeting in Houston next week and L.A. isn't expected to be a major agenda item. That can't sit well with the folks at AEG, who want to cut a deal with an existing franchise as soon as possible. No team, no stadium. So what's the NFL beefing about? From Yahoo:

What AEG is proposing is a landlord-tenant relationship it has successfully developed with the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers and Kings. All of those teams play at the Staples Center, which is across the street from the proposed stadium. In essence, AEG sells the tickets, advertising and sponsorship deals for those teams, takes a cut and then pays the teams. The deal works well because none of the teams had the capital to build a Staples-style arena. The NFL, however, is a different beast. Five NFL team executives have said over the past two months that what AEG is asking for is not acceptable for an NFL team. "You're talking about a team being disconnected from season ticketholders and rights holders," another NFC team executive said. "There's no team that will do that and I don't think you can get approval from the rest of the owners for an arrangement like that."

See, NFL owners don't like the idea of giving part of their profits to some third party, whether it's AEG or the city of L.A. (the city would want to make some money on the stadium deal as well). Furthermore, the debt service for building the stadium could eat into profits. Another question: Would any NFL owner be willing to sell AEG a stake in his team at what's likely to be a discounted price? Billionaire Ed Roski had earlier proposed something similar, but Yahoo says he's backed off. All of which could make Roski's City of Industry stadium a better bet.

"If Roski were to put together a favorable package, I think this thing could get done there pretty fast," a league source said. Last Sunday, CBS NFL insider Charley Casserly hinted that Roski's site could be pulling ahead. "What's interesting about that site is that it's a 600-acre site which would be totally devoted to football," Casserly said. "In other words, you'll have plenty of room for the stadium, parking, entertainment, the 'NFL experience.' Sounds like a Super Bowl site to me."

Cautionary note: The NFL is notoriously difficult to read, so there's no telling what the true sentiments might be. But these do seem to be some significant roadblocks.