INDIANAPOLIS -- City officials hope they can work out a deal that reduces the cost of keeping the Colts in Indianapolis.
The team's lease at the RCA Dome runs through the 2013 season, but it could exercise an escape clause as early as 2007 unless the city pays the difference between the Colts' revenues and the NFL's median income.
The city would have to begin making payments after the 2005 season and would be required to make payments two of every three years through the end of the lease.
According to 2002 NFL figures, the one-year total would have been $10.6 million although team owner Jim Irsay has estimated that two-year cost could increase to about $30 million.
Steve Campbell, a spokesman for Mayor Bart Peterson, said he expected negotiations on a long-term deal to resume soon after Sunday's Pro Bowl and that the city wanted to find a way that would restructure the money it will owe to the Colts.
''It's either reduce or replace or restructure,'' Campbell said Monday. ''What we want to figure out is a creative way to do this but where the city gets something in return.''
After the Colts season ended with a 24-14 loss at New England in the AFC championship game on Jan. 18, Irsay reiterated his desire to keep the team in Indianapolis.
During the past two years, there has been speculation that if the Colts did not get a new stadium, Irsay might move the team to Los Angeles -- the country's largest television market without a team.
Irsay has made no such threat publicly although he said two weeks ago that any new contract with Indianapolis should include plans for a new stadium, preferably with a retractable dome.
''I think, obviously, we have to get to a new stadium eventually,'' Irsay said. ''When you see old domes coming down, I think that is where it is headed.''
The RCA Dome's seating capacity of 55,506 makes it the NFL's smallest stadium and it's the sixth-oldest facility among the AFC's 16 teams.
Campbell said Indianapolis officials would discuss stadium plans in conjunction with other projects, such as an expansion of the city's convention center.
So far, though, Campbell said the city has not conducted any stadium studies or even determined possible building sites and that the city would not agree to a contract without knowing the cost.
''We're looking at everything -- can we expand the convention center? -- this is tough stuff,'' Campbell said.
Either way, it's likely to be expensive.
Campbell said the $10.6 million figure was only a barometer of what the city might owe the Colts and that the number was likely to increase when inflation and other factors become part of the equation.
With local opinion polls showing opposition to finance a new stadium with tax increases, Campbell ruled out a property tax increase. He said any tax hike would likely be in the form of hotel taxes and those applied to ticket sales.
Irsay and Campbell both said the negotiations were progressing and that they were seeking a deal that benefits both sides.
''We could follow the Goldsmith deal to a tee,'' Campbell said, referring to the deal signed by then-Mayor Steve Goldsmith in 1998. ''But we think it's in the best interests for the team and the city to get a long-term deal. For them, it's about being competitive. For us, it's about keeping an Indiana business here and making sure the taxpayers get a fair deal.''
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