Columnist Dean Juipe: Las Vegas can learn from L.A.

Dean Juipe

Friday, July 23, 1999 | 10:31 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

Almost a day doesn't go by now in Las Vegas without a story or a news report surfacing on the subject of the city building an arena or a stadium and the addendum concept of attracting a professional sports team.

There are feasibility studies and there is conjecture.

There is wishful thinking and there are number crunchers.

Proponents and skeptics are evenly mixed, with some willing to foot the bill while others wonder why a city with a questionable reputation for supporting live sporting events would consider such a thing.

Even with Las Vegas continuing to expand at what seems to be a head-spinning pace, those both pro and con have to factor in the valley's schematics. Is Southern Nevada ready, let alone willing and able, to commit the necessary funding to construct a facility, lure a team, and then purchase every available ticket to keep the building's tenant solvent?

The answers to those questions remain debatable and may continue to be widely interpreted for some time to come. But at least Las Vegas can pat itself on the back for initiating the dialogue, making some headway and, in theory, taking the early steps of charting a course.

In comparison to what they're doing in Los Angeles, Las Vegas comes across not only as markedly different but almost forward-thinking. Los Angeles may have a badly needed arena -- the Staples Center -- ready to open and replace the graying Forum, but it is still mixing and matching proposals for a football stadium with a deadline from the National Football League fast approaching.

Los Angeles is the nation's second-largest city and has more than 3 million residents. Beyond the boundaries of the city proper, the region is jammed, elbow to elbow, with a diverse constituency.

But it's a good bet that everyone from the barrios to Hollywood Hills wants professional football and Los Angeles, because of its slow-footed ways, has been without the sport since both the Raiders and Rams left the area after the 1994 season.

Los Angeles may account for 5 percent of the country's television market but it has no pro football team because its leaders have lacked initiative and coordinating skills. As it is, the NFL has given the city until Sept. 15 to commit not only to refurbishing the 76-year-old Coliseum but to eventually constructing a new stadium.

If it can bring itself to make this monumental decision, Los Angeles will be rewarded with an expansion franchise and will have the NFL's 32nd team. But if the infighting continues as it has for the past few years, L.A. will lose its turn and Houston would get the nod.

The NFL wants to get back in Los Angeles so badly it is willing to loan $150 million to whatever ownership group emerges, with the money to go toward a stadium fund. But with four groups still vying for ownership rights, the NFL's money could remain in escrow forever in spite of reports this week that the competing groups may set aside their differences to unify into one. The lesson for Las Vegas community leaders is easily discernible: Don't get ahead of yourself. Take it one step at a time and keep the lines of communication open.

We're enough like Los Angeles as it is without following the poor example that city is setting when it comes to attracting a professional team that its populace really wants.