Tim Leiweke Hard-Sells Downtown Stadium Idea To L.A. City Council Committee, Council Drools

By Dennis Romero Wed., Jan. 19 2011 at 10:46 PM

One vision of a downtown stadium.

Updated after the jump: Majestic Realty V.P. John Semcken, who's touting a competing stadium in the city of Industry, claims taxpayers would still end up paying for some of the downtown stadium if it's built.

Staples Center chief Tim Leiweke faced ~~the~~ an L.A. City Council [added/corrected] committee today, hard-selling his company's plan to tear down part of the city-owned Convention Center and build an NFL stadium there.

We thinks the council has been licking its chops over this for sometime, so Leiweke's sales job must have been somewhat like watching a meatball beckon the rotund superstar chef Mario Batali. Don't worry, Tim, you got the gig.

Here's what he said:

Leiweke, president of Staples-owning Anschutz Entertainment Group, reiterated his promise that the proposed stadium wouldn't cost the taxpayers a dime or make a dent in the general fund.

"In other words, (there will be) zero risk to the general fund, zero money coming from the general fund," Leiweke said. "There will be no public dollars invested in the stadium ..."

He just needs one little favor from you, the people.

The city would need to float $350 million in bonds to finance a rebuilt portion of the Convention Center and a new parking lot.

Added: Leiweke's people want to emphasize that AEG would guarantee the bond money and pay off whatever amount tax revenues from the new development can't cover. In other words, they're guaranteeing the public doesn't get stuck with the bill, at least according what's been said so far by AEG officials.

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What do we get in return? A stadium! A football team (maybe)! And ... drumroll, please ... as many as 30,000 jobs as this thing gets built.

Of course, the Convention Center is currently sitting on $440 million debt. It's not clear how that will be erased as this plan moves forward (or doesn't).

Meanwhile, Leiweke poo-poo'd criticism that a stadium would add to L.A.'s traffic nightmares downtown:

"What I can assure you of is that, as it relates to getting people in and out of the stadium on a Sunday afternoon, or one time a year during a weeknight, we are very focused at making sure that the current infrastructure will work... so for example, we won't book Staples Center on the day of a football game.''

Update: John Semcken, vice president of Majestic Realty, which has a competing stadium proposed in the San Gabriel Valley, said this late Wednesday:

"AEG is expecting taxpayers to dole out well over a billion dollars for a proposal that will compromise the City's general fund, the L.A. Convention Center, the new stadium and the financial success of any potential NFL team. Saddling the city and the taxpayers with more debt to to pay for AEG's Event Center should be a non-starter for the City Council. In addition, AEG is requesting an environmental waiver for the single largest development ever proposed in the City of Los Angeles, that is unacceptable."

First posted at 2:41 p.m. Wednesday.

-With reporting from City News Service. Got news? Email us. Follow us on Twitter, too: @dennisjromero.

Tags:

AEG, City Council, Convention Center, downtown, NFL, stadium, Staples Center, Tim Leiweke

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The people

How about AEG and Majestic Realty just come to an agreement about having the stadium in downtown and help eachother with the project. They need to just share ownership of the stadium so there's no extra fee's on ticket prices, so middle class people could injoy the games. Also, having the stadium in downtown will attracted tourist to our beautiful city and spend more money, helping us get out of debt. I believe if Majestic and the LA committee just focsed on WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT instead of debating with AEG we the people would welcome any football team that would like to call us there home.

Bitter Betty

Dear NFL,

Please don't come back to Los Angeles. Please don't bring your NFL team. Please don't bring your millions of dollars in construction jobs to Los Angeles. Please don't bring your permanent stadium jobs to our city. NFL, we don't want your economic impact. We're doing just fine.

Please don't bring your corporate sponsorship. Please don't bring your $500 million down-the-road Superbowl to LA. Please just stay away NFL. The second biggest audience in the United States doesn't want your entertaining product.

Every last citizen of LA is anti-AEG, anti-NFL, and anti-business. Just read the LA Weekly and reader comments and you will understand our life-long discomfort with your heavy handed tactics to boost the local economy. Boo!

Go to San Antonio. Build a second team in Houston. Take your product to Oklahoma City. We want you to always use Los Angeles as bait. Dangle us in front of irritating city officials who won't pony up for a new stadium. We don't mind. We like being treated as a second rate City.

Yours,Bitter Betty

Walter Mooore

Watch out whenever you here L.A. politicians and their cronies use these two little words: "general fund." They use that term to dupe you into thinking it won't cost you anything. In fact, the "general fund" is just one of dozens of funds through which your tax dollars are spent.

You know how you have a checking and account and a savings account? (Or you would, if you had more money.) Well, this is like someone promising not to take a dime out of your savings account. That's not good enough. You want insurance that it won't cost you a dime, period.

As for the massive bonds, excuse me, but do you know who repays them if the project fails to generate enough money? Rhymes with "you."

If billionaires want to borrow our money, let them do it through the private sector. This is a big friggin' rip-off. If it were a money-maker, he wouldn't need you and me to co-sign, as taxpayers, on a $350 million loan. Instead, he'd have investors lining up. They aren't, which is why he wants to put you and me on the hook. Heads, he wins; tails, we lose.