Offer by Save the Rams Not in the Ballpark, Team President Warns : Pro sports: Other cities’ proposals much more lucrative, he says. Hometown loyalty counts little.

COSTA MESA — When Rams President John Shaw huddles with Save the Rams task force leaders next week for the first time since they gave him their pitch for keeping the team in Anaheim, one thing will be clear: Their deal doesn’t measure up.

Shaw said Friday that the much-hyped proposal, presented to team officials on Aug. 24, is “optimistic” about where the cash will come from to sweeten the deal and remains financially inferior to offers from other cities.

“If we maximize the dollars out of the proposal in Anaheim, it is not equal to what was being offered in newer facilities in Baltimore and St. Louis,” said Shaw, whose accountants have been researching the proposed deal.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Times, the team president said that while he feels for longtime Rams fans, hometown loyalty will play little part in the franchise’s decision whether to stay or leave.

He said the city and the team long ago “made it clear that our relationship is strictly a business relationship. . . . I would say (Anaheim’s) obligation at this point is to offer us a competitive deal.”

The enigmatic Rams executive also said for the first time that he would not rule out a controversial admissions tax on sporting and amusement venues--which the Rams have historically opposed--to broker a deal in Anaheim.

And Shaw indicated that the final sprint in the race to win the Rams may have started, as he also plans to meet with Baltimore Orioles owner and Rams suitor Peter D. Angelos in Los Angeles “sometime in the next two weeks.” Shaw had told The Times recently that Baltimore “stands willing to do a deal. . . . If we wanted to proceed in that case we could proceed rapidly.”

But Friday, Shaw, who says he has been given “full discretion” to negotiate the team’s move by owner Georgia Frontiere, said the Rams are nowhere close to making a decision. And he admits his talks with Baltimore could be complicated by the recent death of Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Hugh Culverhouse. The team is now owned by a trust and is rumored to be for sale.

“I would think that if Peter Angelos could buy the Bucs and own all of it and do that soon that, that would be very attractive to him,” Shaw said. “But I’m not sure he could do any of that.”

If the Rams plan to move in time for the 1995 season, they must give the National Football League notice 30 days before the start of the March NFL winter meeting, where the other owners would vote on the relocation. Shaw said it may be possible to call a special meeting after that date.

However, Shaw said that if a deal is not inked in time for the 1995 season, the team just might stay put for another year of stadium shopping. The Rams gave notice May 3 that they were activating a 15-month escape clause in their 30-year stadium lease, but the clause can be rescinded at any time before August, 1995.

“There’s nothing that says we have to move for the ’95 season,” Shaw said. “We could revoke our notice with the city of Anaheim and do this again sometime in the future.”

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Shaw made it clear that the proposal by the Save the Rams task force--a group of local business leaders and politicians working to keep the team in Anaheim--needs a lot of work to be viable. Unlike previous deals brokered for other teams that have moved, such as the Indianapolis Colts’ departure from Baltimore, the offer included no ticket guarantees, Shaw said.

The proposal also lacks the one element Shaw has previously demanded: a new stadium. But he said that not having a new stadium would not be a “deal breaker.”

“They’re still of the mind that with the remodeled stadium . . . they will be able to put a financial package together that is as competitive as these other cities,” he said. “I’m not sure that a remodeled stadium could get there, but they keep telling me that they will get there.”

One key bargaining chip that hasn’t been brought up in negotiations is terms of the Anaheim Stadium lease. The team currently pays the city up to $400,000 a year in rent, 7.5% of ticket revenue, 20% of luxury box revenue and about half of parking and concessions. In Baltimore, for example, the team has been offered a sweetheart lease of $1 per game and all revenues from sky boxes, club seats, parking and concessions.

Shaw said that he expects the Anaheim lease to be renegotiated as part of any deal.

He also said an amusement tax would “not be out of the question,” although such a tax, which would add fees to admission to entertainment venues, including Disneyland and stadium events, has long been opposed by the Rams, California Angels and Walt Disney Co. Disney officials, in fact, have warned that such a tax could kill the company’s planned $3-billion theme park expansion.

Shaw said the Save the Rams task force hasn’t addressed such key issues as whether a baseball stadium will be built for Anaheim Stadium’s co-tenants, the Angels, and, if so, where the Angels will play while it is under construction

“Those larger type of issues . . . we’re going to address in this next meeting and then talk about some sort of financial projections,” Shaw said.

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Leigh Steinberg, Save the Rams co-chairman and Newport Beach sports agent, said in a later interview that the task force would be ready and, in fact, had anticipated some of Shaw’s questions.

“We’ve been working feverishly the last three weeks and we have a clarified and stronger position,” he said. “I think next week’s meeting will be a promising one.”

Although Steinberg declined to detail all the new elements of the deal, he said the task force is prepared to “take over” the marketing of all the Rams’ season tickets and luxury boxes, has refined the stadium renovation proposal and is considering establishing an Orange County Sports Authority that would be charged with retaining professional sports franchises in the county.

He also said task force members are “less concerned with the necessity of exactly matching proposals from other sites than presenting a competitive and financially sound package that would enable the Rams to stay here profitably.”

In fact, Steinberg said, the offer from other cities may be financially reckless.

“Nobody on our committee has any intention of putting Orange County or Anaheim in financial jeopardy to match the fiscal irresponsibility of every sports-starved municipality in the country,” he said.

Steinberg said he thought hometown loyalty should play a big part in negotiations for the team.

“The fan loyalty, which is so necessary to support professional franchises, presumes that franchises will not move as long as there are local buyers or local resources made available to keep the team,” he said.