Council Fiddles As Coliseum Issue Burns

If the Los Angeles City Council is taking USC's threat to move to the Rose Bowl seriously, they certainly are not showing it. Last week, Councilmmbers Jack Weiss--who represents UCLA territory--and Greig Smith, who attended USC, introduced an emergency non-binding resolution to encourage the University and Coliseum Commission to come to a deal, and asking for the State to restructure the historically inept body which oversees the venue.

Under the so-called "Rule 16", the Council shall hear emergency motions at their next meeting, whch would have been last Friday--as was suggested in a press release from Weiss' office. But only the Council President can decide what falls under that rule. City Hall insiders tell FanHouse that City Council President Eric Garcetti refused to agendize the motion, sending it to committee where it will die a slow death, for fear of alienating Councilman Bernard Parks, whom FanHouse has identified as the biggest obstacle to reaching a deal between USC and the Coliseum Commission.

Meanwhile, Parks has been joined by Supervisor Yvonne Braithwaite-Burke and Supervisor Zev Yarolsavsky in the "No Deal" camp, making the odds of USC playing in the Coliseum next year are looking grim.

Meanwhile staffers to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa worked furiously over the weekend to cobble together a five-member majority in favor of negotiating with USC--with their main hold-ups being over whether USC would object to any future Olympic Bids including a Coliseum under their management and the improvements of concessions at the Stadium I, for one, would like to see them bring back beer and wine sales to prevent the pre-game binge drinking on campus and the addition of a Lawry's Prime Rib stand near tunnel 23, so I can get me some cream corn without walking to the opposite side of the stadium.

Given Villaraigosa's advocacy for working with USC, you can safely count his two appointees to the Commission--Candy Spelling and Barry Sanders--in the "Deal" camp. We also hear that USC alum Don Knabe is the lone County Supervisor in favor of working with USC, though his vote is not certain, which leaves Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's three appointees--Fabian Wesson, William Chadwick and David Israel--to decide whether USC will be playing 2 or 8 games in Pasadena in 2008.