By DANIEL TAUB

Staff Reporter

By his own admission, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan prefers to work behind the scenes building consensus quietly before making a public stand.

“In politics, you don’t get out in front of everybody else,” he said last week. “If you get out front, you lose all your clout because then you’ve got enemies out there in the political world.”

That may explain, in part, why Riordan has not taken a more public role in the effort to bring professional football back to L.A. an effort that, despite nearly a year and a half of maneuvering, has not resulted in so much as a commitment to one stadium site or potential team owner from the National Football League.

But Riordan indicated in a meeting with Business Journal editors and reporters last week that he has been working mostly behind the scenes on the effort to bring pro football to L.A.

“We have close friends high up in the NFL,” Riordan said. “I talk to them a lot. People in my office have become very friendly with Jerry Richardson (chairman of the NFL Stadium Committee) and Roger Godell (the league’s executive vice president).”

Moreover, Riordan also said he has been talking to News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch. While Riordan would not disclose the nature of those conversations, Murdoch could play a major role in the city’s football ambitions in the months to come.

Once Murdoch’s purchase of the Dodgers is completed, as expected next month, insiders believe he will be positioned to revive dormant plans to build a new football stadium next to Dodger Stadium.

Asked whether he has talked about the football issue with Murdoch, Riordan replied: “I’ve had conversations with a lot of people. I had dinner with him (Murdoch) and about three other people at his house about two weeks ago, and I’ve totally forgotten what the subject was.”

Football didn’t come up in the conversation?

“I don’t remember,” the mayor said, smiling.

The issue is a sensitive one because Riordan, like most city officials, is publicly committed to building a new football venue within the walls of the historic Memorial Coliseum.

“I am 100 percent in favor of the Coliseum, and I think it is the best site both for the city and the NFL,” he reiterated last week. “It’s going to be a great site.”

But the mayor also confirmed the Business Journal’s Dec. 8 story saying he is willing to consider other alternatives if the NFL rejects the Coliseum proposal and the franchise bid by Ed Roski Jr. and Philip Anschutz.

“Obviously we’re going to respect whatever happens because we’ve got to work with them (the NFL),” Riordan said. “That doesn’t mean we’re in favor of it. We’re 100 percent in favor of the Coliseum.”

The Coliseum plan is being spearheaded by Roski, a real estate developer, and Anschutz, a Denver billionaire. The two men own the Los Angeles Kings hockey team and were recently granted approval to build the new Staples Center sports arena adjoining the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Roski has said his group will spend between $500 million and $600 million to bring an expansion football team to the Coliseum. Fred Rosen, president and chief executive of Ticketmaster Group Inc., and Alan Rothenberg, president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, are also members of the potential ownership team.

So far, however, the NFL has not embraced the plan despite pressure from television networks to restore pro football in the nation’s second-largest TV market.

Los Angeles Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who has championed the Coliseum proposal, said the NFL has demanded a more detailed plan to finance the construction of the new stadium. That plan, he said, should be completed by the next meeting of the NFL team owners in March.

Riordan, however, said that the logjam won’t be broken until the NFL picks an ownership team to deal with exclusively something that the league has not yet done.

“(What) I’ve told them three times over the last year and a half is, until you get an owner or a potential owner, you’ll never be able to pick a site,” Riordan said.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league has a different view from the mayor on the method for bringing an expansion team to L.A. “We don’t agree with (the mayor, but he makes) a valid observation,” Aiello said.

Aiello said what the league is looking for in Los Angeles is a plan for the Coliseum or another stadium site that would be financially successful.

“We’ve said all along that that’s our priority and that’s our focus to come up with a stadium plan for the future in Los Angeles that we think works,” Aiello said.

Ridley-Thomas agrees that the first step toward bringing a team to the Coliseum is a strong financial plan.

“The financial plan has to be refined,” Ridley-Thomas said. “That’s what the league is interested in.”

But the councilman said his focus is not at odds with Riordan’s focus on convincing the NFL to pick an ownership team.

“Riordan is not saying, ‘Pick an owner,’ ” Ridley-Thomas said. “He’s saying, ‘You’ve got to commit to an ownership group.’ In his mind, that’s a critical piece of bringing the deal together, and I agree with that. I think an ownership group is key to it.”

Ridley-Thomas added that the ownership team and the financial plan are just two pieces to a larger puzzle. Other pieces, he said, include evidence of a strong market something both the league and city officials agree L.A. has and a committed fan base.

But Riordan said it will be difficult to put a strong financial package together until the NFL agrees to work exclusively with one ownership team rather than having the future of L.A. football open to competitive plans, as it is now.

In addition to potential sites at the Coliseum and Dodger Stadium, there are proposals for building NFL stadiums near Hollywood Park and in the South Park area near downtown.

Riordan said the NFL should agree to deal exclusively with an ownership team for six months to a year.

“Really, the NFL ought to just pick,” he said. That done, he said, the owner can “put the deal together, all the pieces.”

“We’ve got to get a strong owner in the picture,” the mayor said.

Does that mean that Roski and Anschutz are not strong potential owners?

“No, they’d be right in there,” Riordan replied. “But the NFL (must say), ‘OK, we’re going to deal exclusively with you for six months or a year. The NFL has got to say, ‘OK, we’re going to deal with one group.’ ”