NFL

Some powerful forces in Los Angeles want to bring the NFL back to town.

Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns Staples Center, L.A. Live and concert promoter AEG Live, had its dreams for a downtown L.A. stadium green lit by the City Council in record time in fall. And Majestic Realty, which helped develop Staples, says its plans for a stadium in Industry are ready to go and "shovel-ready."

But what about the fans? What kind of say do you have?

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AEG / Farmer's Field / Genser

Time might be running out for L.A.'s NFL dreams.

A deadline for team owners to express interest in moving to Los Angeles is looming, but few if any have expressed serious interest in coming here.

The problem might be the would-be sale of the developer of the proposed downtown stadium, Anschutz Entertainment Group:

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The would-be developer of a downtown football stadium and a group that was essentially suing it over possible environmental impacts announced today that they are making nice.

Money can make foes play nice real fast, and in this case developer Anschutz Entertainment Group has agreed to help establish a $15 million fund for affordable housing in the area, including nearby Pico-Union.

The lawsuit by the Play Fair at Farmers Field Coalition objected to ...

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Farmers Field / AEG / Facebook

Bad news, maybe, from the NFL regarding L.A. City Hall's downtown stadium dreams.

Reporting from the NFL's Los Angeles committee meeting, CBS Sports cites sources who say Dodger Stadium actually appears to be the No. 1 site for an NFL team in L.A.

The proposal to build a $1.5 billion stadium and Convention Center upgrade next to Staples Center might be too complicated for some in the NFL:

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@katelinthicum

AEG chief Tim Leiweke, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Patrick Shoon-Shiong.

L.A.'s new, stadium dreams are another step closer to reality despite a move to sell by the developer that caught many by surprise. The City Council unanimously approved the stadium plans today.

In the midst of $1.5 billion plans to build Farmers Field next to its LA Live entertainment complex and redevelop part of the taxpayer-owned Convention Center, Anschutz Entertainment Group announced that the company is up for sale.

Though the stadium plan was being fast-tracked through City Hall, the sale announcement prompted ...

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AEG

Farmers Field.

Note correction after the jump. Also, AEG reacts and clarifies, below.

If you were a gamblin' man, and a good one at that, you'd probably put your money on Farmers Field getting built, or at least getting every approval it needs by the soft-spine L.A. City Council.

The owner of Staples Center and LA Live, Anschutz Entertainment Group, has steamrolled over City Hall, state lawmakers and pretty much the rest of us in a razzle-dazzle show of civic pride, futuristic renderings, green design and NFL salivation.

But AEG might just be facing the first serious test of its downtown football dreams:

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Hillel Aron

Tim Leiweke, ready to release the EIR on building Farmers Field.

By Hillel Aron
Some call AEG's Tim Leiweke Los Angeles' most powerful man. But hours before today's release of a 10,000-page Environmental Impact Report for Farmers Field NFL stadium, Leiweke was stressed. Jacket off, slumped in a chair, drinking a Coke, he didn't seem like president of a firm with the biggest footprint downtown, maybe even citywide.

"There's a lot of people shooting at us," Leiweke says. "We still have a lot of controversy about, Can we do it? Is this the right place? Is this the right vision? Do we even want an NFL team?" He was doubtlessly referring to a Yahoo! Sports story the other day that called the AEG stadium deal "dead in the eyes of many involved."

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AEG

This week backers of a downtown NFL stadium will roll out a $27 million environmental impact report that will undoubtedly tell us how good this venue will be for Planet Angeles.

Fair enough, but a new report over the weekend casts some doubt on the grand designs of Anschutz Entertainment Group, the LA Live developer that wants to build this 72,000-seater for more than $1.2 billion.

Yahoo! Sports says the whole deal to build "Farmers Field" is dead unless ...

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A survey being distributed by the backers of a proposed downtown stadium says you really do want such a venue in the heart of L.A.

The survey by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates says 72 percent of Angelenos want to see the thing built and that 45 percent "strongly" support it.

The folks who are the most gung-ho?

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LFL

While you were enjoying halftime festivities with Madonna yesterday the perv pay-per-view nation was tuning in to the real competition:

Lingerie Bowl IX.

Are you ready for some freak ball?

Turns out, L.A., you are indeed:

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Mark Sanchez when he was a big dog at USC.

Former USC quarterback Mark Sanchez has been the NFL's Great Brown Hope for a Latino nation not so used to seeing Hispanic surnames on Monday Night Football.

Frankly, Latinos come in 250-pound sizes, but rarely in the 6-foot range required by the hard-hitting league. So Sanchez (6 feet, 2 inches, 225 pounds), quarterback for the New York Jets, has been a rare shining light for a demographic of, well, compact and often rotund people.

But after a lackluster, 8-8 season, Jets fans are looking for a scapegoat, and the third-year pro with the $50 million contract presents a nice target:

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We call it Maxi Pad Stadium: It's got wings.

Looks like the NFL threw a monkey wrench into plans to build a stadium in downtown L.A.

League commissioner Roger Goodell pretty much said no yesterday to the idea of a franchise coming to town for next fall. " ... Next season is too soon to put a team in the nation's second-largest market," he said, according to the L.A. Daily News.

Tim Leiweke of Anschutz Entertainment Group, the company proposing the stadium, had stated a team was needed next season to get this thing off the ground.

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AEG

Like Red Bull, Farmers Field gives you wings.

In the proposal to build an NFL stadium in the middle of the publicly owned Convention Center, it's all about the roof.

The stadium's would-be owner, Anshutz Entertainment Group of next-door Staples Center, promised the city a retractable roof in its "memorandum of understanding" with the people. The idea is that the venue would double as a Convention Center showcase whenever needed so the space it takes up wouldn't just disappear from the map.

The reality is turning out to be a little different, with an unprecedented design element under consideration -- a removable roof -- that would take at least a day to put in place when it's needed for events.

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AEG

An artist's rendering of Farmers Field.

LA Neighbors United, the group founded by City Controller hopeful Cary Brazeman, suggests in a letter to top city officials this week that alternatives to the downtown NFL stadium proposal have not at all been taken seriously.

The group wonders aloud why these alternatives haven't at least been seriously considered and ruled out:

The expansion of the Convention Center where the stadium would be built (if this is all about tourism dollars), redevelopment of the property with the addition of 1,000 hotel rooms, or even (gasp) the consideration of a different site, perhaps ...

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Farmers Field

Brown signs.

Gov. Jerry Brown granted the wish of Anschutz Entertainment Group, the people behind Staples Center, by granting it "fast track" status for its downtown stadium plans.

Brown signed the bill that would allow AEG to take any legal challenges to its environmental impact reviews for the planned, 72,000-seat venue straight to appellate courts. That makes it hard for anyone but a large, deep-pocketed organization from trying to stop the project.

The fast-track is on for AEG, even as ...

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Charger Girls. Hint hint.

Updated at the bottom: This thing could go all the way. Read about how the stadium could cause more traffic than you think, here. And see our piece on how it could create a sea of billboards, here. First posted at 4:11 p.m. on Wednesday.

The forces behind downtown L.A.'s proposed stadium got their way in the state assembly today, it seems.

Anschutz Entertainment Group, the people behind Staples Center, are asking the legislature for a fast-track approval of its plans and for at least some protection from lawsuits over its environmental impact report.

State assembly speaker John Perez is carrying their day with SB 292, approved today by the assembly.

It would, in the words of Perez's office, allow for ...

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Dennis Romero

Cheers for Farmers Field.

Updated at the bottom with endorsements today for the stadium plan. First posted at 4:56 p.m.

For the first time that we know of organized community opposition to the downtown L.A. stadium plan has cropped up. It comes to us in the form of a letter sent to California legislators who are considering letting Anschutz Entertainment Group, the folks behind the NFL proposal, off the hook for possible lawsuits stemming from its environmental impact report for the venue.

A letter endorsed by 27 area residents and businesses states that "we are greatly concerned with traffic, noise, pollution and quality of life issues that only a full and complete environmental review will analyze."

The letter expresses "our opposition to the proposed development of Farmers Field." The document was the brain child of downtown resident and attorney Gina Zapanta, who told the Weekly today that her main concern was traffic:

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Coming back to L.A?

Updated at the bottom: A Chargers executive tells us it ain't gonna happen -- at least not this way. First posted at 3:06 p.m. Tuesday.

The proposal to build an NFL stadium in the middle of our dense downtown still has many hurdles, including whether or not an environmental impact report will be required, final city approval, and, last but not least, the granting of an actual team.

That last aspect, predicts one online pundit, could be a shoo-in.

In fact, the website footballphds.com bets the San Diego Chargers are moving to L.A. for the 2012 season. Here's how the site believes this will go down:

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AEG

Stadium dreams.

On a day when the state Senate Select Committee on Sports and Entertainment was sniffing around the proposal to build a downtown football stadium, news spread that a medical association is pulling out of the L.A. Convention Center in 2014 over fears that construction for the NFL venue will rain on its parade.

The Society of Critical Care Medicine's "Congress" is out, and the stadium hasn't even been approved yet. The plan by Staples Center-owner Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) is to tear down the old West Hall of the Convention Center and build there while also replacing that space with new convention digs.

Nice, right? Except that, as critics have shouted ...

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Dennis Romero

Woot-woot.

With reporting from Simone Wilson.

The downtown stadium dreams of Anschutz Entertainment Group, the owners of Staples Center and LA Live, are coming true one spineless bureaucrat at a time.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a deal, negotiated mostly behind closed doors, that would allow AEG to build its $1.2 1.5 billion NFL venue atop city owned property -- the L.A. Convention Center's West Hall.

L.A. would also borrow $275 million or so so the billionaire-controlled company to replace the West Hall space with new digs for conventions.

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