Coliseum and Anaheim Site on NFL Agenda

At meetings next week in Denver, NFL owners are expected to consider a resolution to select the Coliseum, Anaheim or both for extensive design and engineering studies, sources familiar with the process said Wednesday.

The proposal would authorize NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue to direct “additional due diligence,” including “advanced stadium design” work costing $5 million to $10 million, sources said.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a source said such a costly proposal could be “an indication of seriousness.” The Los Angeles area has been without an NFL team since after the 1994 season, when the Rams moved to St. Louis and the Raiders returned to Oakland. The league’s 32 owners are scheduled to meet Monday and Tuesday in Denver.

The millions of dollars would go toward locking in cost certainties and even explore some of the finer details, such as the precise configuration of a luxury suite.

Construction costs are projected to be $800 million, whether at the Coliseum or Anaheim. The 92,000-seat Coliseum would be remade into a 68,000-seat stadium -- 80,000 for Super Bowls and USC games -- around the historic peristyle end; the Anaheim plan calls for construction of a stadium on a 53-acre site next to Angel Stadium.

Neither project would draw from general-fund taxes.

The Coliseum remodel plan is the subject of two city meetings today in downtown Los Angeles, first by the Community Redevelopment Agency, then by a special Los Angeles City Council committee. The full city council is expected to review the Coliseum plan Friday. The city planning commission gave its approval Tuesday.

Tagliabue said earlier this month that this was the “year to make some decisions, up or down” about the league returning to the L.A. area. Next week’s meetings were thought to potentially be the place of an ultimate resolution, but one owner said recently it would be “naive” to expect “white smoke coming out of the chimney of a hotel in Denver.”