Downtown L.A. NFL Stadium Could Mean $86 Million a Year in Bond Payments For City: Who Pays?

Farmers Field.

It a question that keeps coming up, exasperatingly so for Anschutz Entertainment Group, the company that wants to do this deal atop the L.A. Convention Center's aging West Hall.

AEG execs have said until they're blue in the face that you won't pay one cent to bring the NFL next door to its Staples Center. But there are still some details up in the air ...

... like how the Convention Center's bonds will be covered.

Author DJ Waldie breaks down the numbers and comes up with $86 million a year in city bond payments outstanding -- with three years of that happening during construction of the venue that would arguably generate lower income to help cover those payments.

Here's what Waldie writes:

Los Angeles will have to pay off the last $445 million in existing Convention Center bonds at about $48 million a year for another 10 years. And Los Angeles will have to pay off at least $350 million in new Convention Center bonds at about $29 million a year for 30 years. And someone - the city probably - will need to raise $117 million for new parking structures at a cost of $9 million a year for 30 years. Setting aside the cost to the city of infrastructure improvements and not counting any revenue losses at the Convention Center for up to three years, someone will have come up with $86 million a year for the first ten years to make the stadium deal work.

Is AEG promising that all that will be paid for without a dime of our money?

We put the question to AEG spokesman Michael Roth, who told us all these details will be worked out in public meetings with stakeholders.

"We are going through a very public process ...," he told the Weekly. "We will address all of these important questions."

Stay tuned.