As people in Los Angeles await word on the sale of the Anschutz Entertainment Group, the NFL doesn't sound too enthusiastic about the firm's plan to build a downtown stadium.

Less than six months after the L.A. city council voted unanimously to support AEG's plan, the concept is essentially dead to the NFL, according to two sources. The problems with the plan are numerous, but the most essential one is the economics.

"The numbers just don't work, no matter how you look at the deal," a league source said in February. "It's either too hard for AEG to make money [and pay the debt on the stadium] or too hard for the team. I just can't see a way for it to work."

Officially, a league spokesman said Monday that the NFL is still tracking what AEG is trying to do.

"We continue to monitor the AEG situation and remain interested in multiple sites in the Los Angeles area," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement.

Unofficially, the NFL believes that the cost of the AEG plan, which the league believes will be at least $1.8 billion, will make it unworkable.

AEG has been hoping to build a stadium on space that currently occupies the convention center and is across the street from the Staples Center/L.A. Live complex in downtown. The plan includes renovation of the convention center. While the league had been intrigued by the idea for a couple of years, the economics and the cramped conditions that would come with shoe-horning a stadium into that area would leave the site unacceptable for what the NFL wants and needs to be successful when it returns to the city.

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"I think there are many major, if not fatal, flaws in the AEG plan and it's surprising the Los Angeles political leadership has not picked up on it from the NFL," said Marc Ganis, president of Sports Corp and a man who served as an adviser to both the Rams and the Raiders when those teams relocated from Los Angeles.

Ganis, who also explained that the downtown site is not necessarily the problem, went on to say: "The focus on the sale of AEG has stalled the chance for people in the area to view potential other sites and opportunities. … If Los Angeles leaders don't move on to look at other options it will only delay the return of the NFL to Los Angeles further, possibly even years longer."

AEG spokesman Michael Roth declined to respond to Yahoo! Sports regarding comments by the league source and Ganis. However, AEG has remained in contact with members of the NFL committee charged with overseeing the possible relocation of a team to Los Angeles. In addition, AEG president Tim Leiweke has said his company is open to changing the plan.

However, getting past any system that involves AEG renting out the stadium to an NFL team that's a tenant seems unworkable.

Among the "signals" that have been missed are direct meetings between L.A. officials such as outgoing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa or councilwoman Jan Perry and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in which Goodell has expressed questions about the project. Goodell has met with Villaraigosa on at least three occasions.

On top of that, the NFL reportedly told its owners in November that no team would be relocating to Los Angeles for the 2013 season. That announcement came despite optimism in Los Angeles after the city council voted 12-0 to support the stadium project in September.