Downtown Stadium Deal Approved by Committee: Neighborhood Group Thinks Too Much of Your Cash is Being Left on The Table

By Dennis Romero Thu., Aug. 4 2011 at 1:20 PM

Categories: NFL

An artist's vision of Farmer's Field.

A city ad-hoc committee that met mostly behind closed doors voted 4-0 this week to green light a deal to build a new, $1.5 billion NFL stadium (with some Convention Center redevelopment thrown in) downtown next to LA Live and Staples Center.

The owner of those venues, Anschutz Entertainment Group, would build the stadium where the city owned Convention Center West Hall now stands. Taxpayers would borrow about $275 million to help AEG rebuild the convention space, and taxes, rent and fees from the project would pay us back (and then some).

Sounds good but, in a letter to the L.A. City Council yesterday, a group called LA Neighbors United (founded by Cary Brazeman) listed some questions and concerns:

-Under this deal, projected income from the stadium is based on having one NFL team playing there. Because this is such a big market, it's quite possible that two could be based here. What would happen to the extra rental cash if AEG doubled up on teams? (In other words, where's our cut?).

-Though there will beaucoup bucks coming from all kinds of billboards and advertising "signage" on a site that is owned by the people. The deal assigns most of the revenue to AEG. Once again, where's our cut?

-The agreement will allow a side deal: AEG can now develop atop a parcel (the "Olympic West Parking Garage") previously off limits. But there's no revenue in it for the city. Once again (repeat after us), where's our cut?

-The county, Metro (MTA) and the Los Angeles Unified School District will all benefit from taxes generated from the project, yet none are allowing their land to be used, deferring taxes, taking out loans or giving away development rights like the city is. So they should pitch in somehow too. (As in, and you know this line by know, where's our cut?).

[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com]

Tags:

AEG, City Council, downtown, LA Live, LA Neighbors United, NFL, stadium, Staples Center

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ScorpionLeather

The LA downtown area is littered with the skeletons of stadiums that no longer attract events and some of them are abandoned eyesores in the community. For example, the Sports Arena, the Coliseum, the Forum, and so on. It's already been proven that downtown LA is a problematic geographic location for a stadium, and this is directly a result of the traffic gridlock and lack of parking, etc. What a big mistake it would be to build a stadium in the same general area where so many others had such a short life.

Zuckerkhan

Wow, here is ScorpionLeather on another forum spreading more lies about the AEG project. Also, they have their facts wrong. First off, the Forum is not in Downtown Los Angeles. It's in the City of Inglewood. Currently it is owned by a Church and has concerts and other events at it.Secondly, The Coliseum host USC and attracts around 70K-80K fans (use to be 92K about five years ago when they were number 1 in the nation. About 75K people isn't a small event BTW). The Coliseum does have issues, but it's not with USC or Downtown LA. Its with the Coliseum Comm. as they are broke. They should lease the Coliseum to USC for a $1 a year and let them upgrade it (USC a few years ago offered to upgrade it for 100 Million, yet was denied) and manage it. The City and County can get a cut from the Taxes and Revenue (and also lose the DEBT). How long has the Coliseum been in service? Over 90 years and still going. 2 Olympics. Hosted numerous major sporting events, concerts, etc. I believe you stand corrected, here.Third point, if USC can handle 75K or so fans on a Saturday, without any mass transit (yet, Expo Line soon), then why couldn't an Farmers Field handle 68K for regular season games (76K or so for SuperBowl/Special Events)? You know there is mass transit galore in this area? Red line (Hollywood and the Valley), Purple Line (K-Town), Goldine (210, Pasadena, and East LA), Blue Line (Long Beach), and the new Expo Line (Culver City and by 2015 Santa Monica). Also, Metrolink and Amtrak connect at Union Station (Easy connection to Red Line).ScorpionLeather has been champ for Majestic's City Of Industry Plan. Yet they have little to no mass transit (Metrolink stop, yet need a transfer bus).AEG gets this done. We will get a team (or two) and they will play in DTLA.