Tony Gutierrez / AP

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants two NFL franchises in Los Angeles, but has no idea who is going to pay for the teams or the new stadiums, writes NBCSports.com columnist Michael Ventre.

To bring the NFL to the Los Angeles area, a stadium would have to be built, and somebody would have to pay for it. Reliant Stadium in Houston cost about $450 million. The new Cardinals Stadium in Arizona costs an estimated $355 million. But that doesn’t include razing an old stadium, carting away the mess and then building a new one. Figure that the proposed renovation of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will run upwards of $600 million at least, not to mention the inevitable cost overruns.

But Schwarzenegger wants two teams.

The Coliseum Commission had floated the idea before of two teams playing in its single venue, in order to save on costs. But that’s an absurd and sudden saturation of product in a skeptical marketplace. Presumably, Arnold wants two teams in separate locations in order to make the L.A. and Orange County contingents happy.

As long as he’s asking for two, why not ask for four? Four is better than two. It seems Schwarzenegger figures somebody is in a generous mood — the owners, L.A. city councilmen, Coliseum Commission members, the mayor, taxpayers — so why not ask for the moon? That’s probably how he came to the decision to appear in “Jingle All The Way” — he instructed his agents to ask for a preposterous amount of money, and the producers acquiesced — so why not employ the same strategy to this matter?

I won’t get too deeply into politics here. Suffice to say that Arnold came into office as “The Terminator” and is in danger of fleeing like “The Running Man.” Last fall voters in California rejected all four ballot initiatives he deemed his top priorities in a special election he ordered. As a politician these days, he is about as effective as a wide receiver with a bad groin pull.

It’s understandable that he wants to try to apply whatever star power he has left to a high-profile endeavor that might endear him to young males in the state should he pull it off. It was, of course, primarily young males who made him a star in the first place by buying tickets and sitting through mindless action flicks like “Commando,” “Eraser” and “End of Days” and tepid comedies like “Twins.” I suppose if somebody will buy Arnold as Danny DeVito’s twin, it’s conceivable he can also believe that Arnold can break the impasse and bring the NFL to Southern California.

A quixotic request for two NFL franchises by the governor of California mires the process down even more, while giving owners a hearty chuckle. No one involved has been able to identify and form an ownership group or approve a stadium proposal for one team, let alone two. The owners certainly would love two franchise fees, each well in excess of the $700 million Bob McNair paid for the Houston Texans. The players’ association would rubber stamp any proposal that would create more jobs and bring in more dues.

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Nobody wants to spend his own money. Nobody has wanted to spend his own money since the Raiders and Rams poisoned the populace by bolting for pots of gold elsewhere.

And despite Schwarzenegger’s enthusiasm for the topic, nobody will want to spend twice as much of it for two teams.

“There's enough room and enough audience to have two teams,” he said. “We just have to all work together and make it happen.”

It’s that “work together” part that needs the most work.

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