Rather than try to reopen its 30-year contract with the Indianapolis Colts, the city might ask the team to donate money to area arts and culture groups now supported by the struggling Capital Improvement Board.

The Colts declined to comment Monday, but the idea surfaced after team owner Jim Irsay during the weekend rebuffed the city’s hopes that the team pony up $5 million a year to help bail out the CIB, which runs the city’s sports venues and the Indiana Convention Center.

“I took Irsay’s comments to mean he has no interest in reopening the lease. OK, but where does common ground exist?” asked Paul Okeson, chief of staff to Mayor Greg Ballard. “If the Colts found it intriguing to help fund the arts or cultural tourism or Black Expo, that could be one way to move forward.”

The CIB, which gives about $3.1 million a year to those groups, has projected its 2010 deficit at $47 million. That figure includes $15 million in Conseco Fieldhouse operating costs now covered by the Indiana Pacers, and $20 million as a result of higher expenses at Lucas Oil Stadium, the Colts’ new home.

State and city leaders have asked the teams to contribute $5 million each annually toward a variety of rescue plans that include tax increases on alcohol, car rentals, ticket admissions and hotel rooms. A bill in the state legislature on those options is being negotiated.

The Colts released a statement Monday saying that it would not be appropriate to discuss specifics of their conversations with the mayor.

When the city signed its lease with the team in 2005, Irsay and Fred Glass, then the CIB president, said the lease was meant to lock the team in for 30 years. Both said that leaving no option to reopen the deal was a key objective.

The 1999 Pacers lease of Conseco Fieldhouse, on the other hand, allowed the team to renegotiate its lease after 10 years if the team’s revenues faltered. The money-troubled team has said it is sharing information with the CIB about its finances, though it has stopped short of describing those discussions as a renegotiation.

Ballard last week said he has the same concerns as Irsay about reopening the Colts’ lease. Ballard said the Colts should not be “demonized” for holding to their contract with the city.

“I’m worried about the precedent it sets,” Ballard said. “It could send chills down the spine of every business that does deals with the city.”

So far, the main option for city and state leaders hoping that the Colts and Pacers help the CIB appears to be applying public pressure by asking the teams to participate. Doing so also makes the plan, with its various tax increases, potentially more palatable to taxpayers.

Irsay said he was frustrated by the negative publicity he has received. He said people don’t realize that the team will generate about $1.6 billion in state and local income taxes over the next three decades. That total could not be independently verified, and the team did not provide further details.

At least one public relations expert said the team could take a different approach. David Dawson, owner of the local firm Executive Media, said team leaders need to show they are working with city leaders.

“They need to be present at the public discussion of the CIB issue so they appear to be trying to find a solution,” Dawson said. “I think that’s preferable to standing back and issuing (press) releases.”

City officials said Monday they are not looking to force the Colts to pay to bail out the CIB by, for example, imposing a separate tax on the team. The Colts’ lease wouldn’t allow that anyway, spelling out that the CIB would have to reimburse the team for any tax not imposed on the other tenants of its facilities.

Okeson said the administration is considering other alternatives, including relying on some of the new tax options being considered by the legislature and allowing the CIB to limp along until additional options present themselves.

CIB Treasurer Ann Lathrop told lawmakers last week that the agency could end this year with as little as $200,000 in cash reserves if no rescue plan emerges.

She said Monday that the CIB needs to know its options — what state and city leaders will authorize — in the next two months so it can make plans for a $27 million payment due in September. That payment would sap most of the agency’s remaining reserves.

The CIB’s auditor is already reviewing the agency as a “going concern,” meaning that it might not be able to continue operations at some point in the next year.

The Colts’ lease gives the team the right to terminate its contract if the CIB is bankrupt or in a court-appointed receivership.

CIB President Bob Grand said he hasn’t spent time considering whether bankruptcy would allow the agency to renegotiate with the Colts because he did not want to use it as a threat.

“There are too many unanswered questions right now for me to shoot from the hip,” Grand said.