An NFL stadium is coming to the greater Los Angeles area, at some point. The sponsorship deal with Farmers Insurance has been sealed, the promotional propaganda has been spread, the LA city council has voted unanimously in favor of a tentative agreement. It seems to be all systems go in the Anschutz Entertainment Group's attempt to bring an NFL stadium to Downtown Los Angeles.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors, however, would like invested parties to reconsider the site and build the billion-dollar entertainment mecca in the City of Industry, where the county of Orange could enjoy a piece of the pie.
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The City of Industry project has been promoted by Majestic Reality, which wants to build Los Angeles Stadium using private funds in an area “centrally-located” and within one hour of 15.5 million potential fans–and away from the headache of commuting to and finding parking in the already-clogged downtown area.
The OC Board of Supervisors, which issued its support on Sept. 13, follows in the footsteps of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors (May) and the San Berardino Board of Supervisors (June), which have also lent support to the Industry location. The OC board embraced the opportunity to bring an NFL franchise and 18,000 regional jobs to the area.
The AEG project has come under scrutiny recently. Last week our sister paper, LA Weekly, produced a cover story about all the parts of the Farmers' Field deal that know one is talking about: “a sea of ultrabright LED billboards” and special environmental impact concessions, in part to prevent what AEG's ultra-rich owner, Philip Anschutz, calls “frivolous lawsuits.”
Not to mention the traffic that the stadium builders somehow maintain won't exist. Have they been to LA? There's traffic at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon, let alone on a Sunday afternoon when the Los Angeles Chargers of San Diego and the Los Angeles Lakers (at Staples Center, just across from where the new stadium is supposed to be built) are both playing. The necessary road and freeway on-ramp and off-ramp construction could end up costing the city millions of dollars.
AEG isn't the only one to blame, even a city council member who voted in favor of the tentative stadium agreement admitted to LA Weekly that “The transportation issue is the one issue no one's addressed.”
WHAT?!
How do you propose building a stadium for 72,000 fans near two of the most frequently clogged freeways (10 and 110) without considering the traffic implications? Whatever the answer, this is the type of backward negotiation and research that has transpired.
City of Industry Chargers has a nice ring to it, don't you think?
