Flies galore. The awful stench. Watch out! Don't touch that railing. It could collapse.

Welcome to Veterans Stadium. Enter at your own risk.

	The Eagles hope Philadelphia builds them this new $320 million stadium.

There's little doubt the Vet is the worst place to play in the NFL. Players will tell you that the field is uneven. Fans will tell you to bring your own food, to stay out of the stadium jail and to avoid the bathrooms at all costs.

For nearly a year now, talk of a new football-only stadium in South Philadelphia has excited the Eagles and their fans. But progress has slowed since the Eagles deal is being coupled with the more controversial plan to build a new Phillies baseball-only ballpark in Center City Philadelphia. The Eagles started to worry about their future.

On Thursday, a self-imposed deadline passed for Philadelphia Mayor John Street to present the stadium proposal to the city council, which then would have eight weeks before the Nov. 30 deadline to decide on his recommendations. The deadline was set at Nov. 30 in order for a new Eagles stadium to be ready to open in August 2003 and the new Phillies stadium to open in April 2004. The worried Eagles took that as a cue to hold a news conference in order to stress the urgency of the situation.

"We really think we're at a fork in the road right now," said Joe Banner, executive vice president and COO of the Eagles at the news conference. "There are two directions this can head in, one of which is repairing Veterans Stadium and the other is -- what we hope will happen -- which is to build a new stadium. We're down to the point where we really think those are the only two options that exist."

The two stadiums for the Phillies and the Eagles would cost approximately $1.29 billion combined, according to the latest estimates in published reports. The state of Pennsylvania has already pledged a minimum of $85 million, and the Eagles are asking the city to provide a construction-ready site for the stadium.

The Eagles said that their payment on the new stadium would be more than two times the contribution that any NFL team had previously given.

"We would put forth the largest contribution that any NFL team has made towards a stadium of over $300 million," said Ron Howard, director of public relations for the Eagles. "We would foot the bill for the stadium itself and cover all the cost overruns. What we need is to have the city give us a clean, construction-ready site for us to build on."

The initial cost for the football stadium was originally estimated at $300 million, but it is now said to be $320 million due to the delay in talks, inflation and rising steel costs. A conservative new stadium cost overrun average of 20 percent would push the Eagles' payout to over $380 million.

Banner presented a slide show during the news conference to portray the dilapidated state of 29-year old Veterans Stadium.

	The Eagles claim 29-year-old Veterans Stadium is too old to remain as their home.

"You see the condition outside the stadium, where people are walking in, you can see the way things have broken down," he said. "The escalators are not working, they haven't worked for years ... It's obviously a fundamental functional issue of the stadium."

Banner added that the stadium has extensive water damage and he recommended that it be waterproofed, which would cost approximately $20 million. He also pointed to the worn out condition of the field and expressed concern over the condition of the stands in certain areas.

"You may remember what happened at the Army/Navy game," said Banner, referring to the railing collapse that injured fans during the matchup in December of 1998. "They say it happened because of 10 people leaning on the railing at once. This is the railing on the upper deck. That railing will fall over if someone just touches it the wrong way."

Mayor Street said despite the passing of his self-imposed deadline, the new stadiums can still open on schedule.

"We support new stadiums in the city of Philadelphia now," Street said. "We support having the requisite legislation available and approved in city council by November 30."

The mayor wouldn't comment on stadium specifics, but he did say that the proposal is "clearly better for local government than many, many, many other proposals that have been adopted by various local governments and states."

If the deal does not go through by Nov. 30, Philadelphia -- as per agreement by the city council in January -- will pay in entirety for the Eagles' new $23 million practice facility, the Novacare Complex. The Eagles will also have to wait until 2004, since a move from one stadium to the other in the middle of the season would be impossible.

"We simply wouldn't be able to do it for logistical reasons," Howard said. "We'd have to handle tickets in two places, suite holders in two buildings, signage rights in two buildings. So we couldn't just play a couple preseason and regular season games and then move to the new stadium."

If the city decides to hang on to Veterans Stadium, initial repairs will cost about $110 million, according to the team. Costs would run even higher to maintain the stadium until the 2010 season, when the Eagles lease with the city expires.

Banner said after the conference that while he was comforted by the mayor's appearance and reassurance, he was a little disappointed that the conference didn't prompt immediate action.

"The only thing negative was that he didn't say, "Let's start our first negotiation at 5:00 tonight."