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LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Commissioner Paul Tagliabue headed an NFL delegation that met with leaders of the Los Angeles business community Wednesday night, and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa expressed optimism about the return of a professional team to the area.
"We're farther along than we have been at any time since professional football left Los Angeles," Villaraigosa told reporters with Tagliabue at his side before the parties had their dinner meeting and reception at Getty House, the mayor's formal residence.
The greater Los Angeles area has been without an NFL team since the Raiders left the Los Angeles Coliseum for Oakland and the Rams departed from what is now known as Angel Stadium in Anaheim for St. Louis before the 1995 season.
NFL owners decided last month at an owners meeting in Denver to give $5 million each to Los Angeles and Anaheim to explore the amount of support, especially financial, that each community can supply to help build a new stadium.
The NFL group will meet Thursday for lunch with Anaheim officials.
Getting a team back in the area does not appear imminent. No team has been designated, nor has a decision been made whether Los Angeles or Anaheim would get an existing franchise that relocates or an expansion team.
Los Angeles officials hope to build an $800 million stadium inside the Coliseum, which would be leased to the league. Anaheim officials have proposed a new football stadium for the parking lot next to Angel Stadium.
"This is about creating a partnership," Villaraigosa said of Wednesday night's get-together. "It's incumbent upon us to make a case. On both sides, there's a willingness for a partnership."
Tagliabue said there are several pieces that must be put in place for a team to return to Los Angeles, one being a satisfactory agreement with Southern California, one of nation's top college football teams that's played its home games at the Coliseum for 83 years.
USC President Steven B. Sample expressed concerns in a letter to the NFL last month, but was among the guests at Getty House. Tagliabue expressed confidence things could be worked out. A state-of-the-art Coliseum for an NFL team would probably seat less than 70,000, with USC wanting a home that would seat at least 80,000.
Tagliabue said other issues involved the costs of a new stadium, how it would be financed and support of the business community.
"What we're addressing tonight is one of those pieces," he said, referring to the business community. "We look forward to this partnership becoming a reality. We're determined to get a team here."
Whether that means Los Angeles, Anaheim or both at some point in time has not been determined.
Among those attending the dinner were team owners Michael Bidwill of the Arizona Cardinals, Pat Bowlen of the Denver Broncos, Steve Tisch of the New York Giants and Jed York of the San Francisco 49ers.
Among local business leaders attending were billionaires Eli Broad and Ron Burkle, who have both been involved in trying to bring the NFL back to Los Angeles in the past; Peter O'Malley, former owner of the Dodgers; Casey Wasserman, owner of the Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League; Peter Chernin of News Corp.; Tim Leiweke of the Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns the Los Angeles Kings and several Major League Soccer franchises, and former NFL players Rodney Peete and Danny Villanueva.
The NFL was close to returning to the nation's second-largest market in 1999, when league owners approved a resolution to put an expansion team into the area. That plan fell through when two conflicting groups could not agree on a site and financing.
The NFL also wanted to get Houston businessman Robert McNair into the league. When he upped his bid to $700 million -- some $150 million more than either of the Los Angeles groups offered -- for the new team and a new stadium, the league's owners awarded Houston the expansion franchise.
The Texans began play in 2002, replacing the Oilers, who had moved to Tennessee and become the Titans.
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