There were no trips to the mountains.
Nor were multimillionaire NFL owners spotted hanging from the handstraps of the 16th Street Mall shuttles.
Not that the NFL owners meetings this week in Denver were limited to conference rooms, pillow mints and airports.
“I’m headed to your stadium,” Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said after the meetings adjourned Tuesday afternoon. “We haven’t played a game in your stadium yet and I want to take a look at it.”
Five seasons of Invesco Field at Mile High and no Cowboys? Jones couldn’t wait until 2009, when the Cowboys will play their first game at Invesco Field, for a tour of the Broncos’ home.
Just about everything else on the NFL agenda was held up to patience. To sum up the league sessions at the Westin Tabor Center, Los Angeles can’t have an NFL team yet, commissioner Paul Tagliabue can’t retire yet and New Orleans Saints rookie running back Reggie Bush can’t wear No. 5 on his jersey yet.
Otherwise it was all talk at the Denver meetings.
“Spring meetings are pretty much get in and get out,” said Broncos owner Pat Bowlen. “There is not much in the way of socializing. But in the short amount of time we were here, we digested a lot of information.”
Most of the conversation focused on Los Angeles. The country’s second-largest TV market hasn’t had an NFL team since after the 1994 season, when the Rams moved to St. Louis and the Raiders returned to Oakland.
The Denver meetings reiterated the NFL eventually will return to L.A. – most likely with an existing franchise – but not any time soon.
“This L.A. thing is one of the hardest things to get your hands around,” Jones said.
Ordinarily, there should be an owner already selected, Jones said, and a team in place before a stadium issue is presented. To the delight of anti-Hollywood, L.A. is doing it backward. The priority is choosing between a renovation of the Los Angeles Coliseum or building a venue on a 53-acre site near Angel Stadium in Anaheim.
Either way, the cost is expected to approach $800 million with no public financing in place.
However, in what Tagliabue said is a strong demonstration of the league’s interest in returning to L.A., the NFL has authorized $10 million – $5 million for each proposed site – to cover the costs of consultants, designs, planning, cost analysis and, presumably, more meetings.
“This is far and away the most progress we’ve made since 1999,” Tagliabue said.
That year the NFL awarded its expansion franchise to Houston. Owners are steadfastly against giving L.A. an expansion team that would boost the league’s membership to 33 teams, making scheduling difficult.
“Expansion does not make sense in the NFL at this juncture,” Jones said.
Meanwhile, the commissioner search committee discussed the process it would use to replace Tagliabue. The process will extend Tagliabue’s retirement target date from July to Aug. 18.
Also, the NFL competition committee refused to alter its policy that prevents Bush or other running backs from wearing a jersey number lower than 20.
With that, the NFL meetings said goodbye to Denver.
“My arrival and departure were exhilarating,” Tagliabue said when asked to sum his Denver experience. “I’d much rather come back here for a game.”
Staff writer Mike Klis can be reached at 303-820-5440 or mklis@denverpost.com.
