Courtesy of MCT
It’s time to bring football back to Los Angeles. The Los Angeles City Council approved the building of a proposed NFL stadium in downtown Los Angeles on Friday that will cost approximately $1.2 billion. It’s a huge attempt to bring back football to the city after 17 years, and will provide some extra entertainment money as a bonus.
Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) now has the opportunity to begin seeking a team and continue planning the 72,000-seat stadium that will be located on the southwest edge of downtown. This will undoubtedly bring much-needed business and revenue to the city and help its businesses to thrive.
Unfortunately many hurdles remain, not least of which is that AEG still needs to make a deal with the NFL, which has been known to reject past bids for a team made by top Los Angeles businesses.
Further complicating things, on September 18, the owner of AEG, multi-millionaire Philip Anschutz, announced plans to sell his live-entertainment company, which only complicated the two-year approval effort to build the NFL stadium, according to the Los Angeles Times.
But despite all this, football will still be coming to Los Angeles.
“This is an agreement between two institutions, just as there will be several mayors, city council presidents and city councils during this contract, it was always contemplated there could be new ownership at AEG,” said Miguel A. Santana, the city’s chief administrative officer, at a meeting where the contract of the stadium was being discussed, according to the LA Times.
There are over 1,000 pages of protection in the event of the company ever being sold. This safeguard shows just how serious the city and its people are about this endeavor, and is proof that this is no whim.
As would the amount of money being thrown behind the project; the council voted, 12-0, approved various documents that paved the way for the stadium as well as a $315 million upgrade for the city’s convention center.
Of course one cannot leave the real heart of the matter out of this—that of competitive sports. The NFL has never been an easy league to thrive in, but Los Angeles has a winning tradition. Given that teams such as the Lakers, the Kings and the Sparks have all won titles only comes to show that teams in Los Angeles can thrive.
Other critics are attacking council members, arguing that they are showing little to no interest in conducting a thorough analysis the project will have on traffic, parking, air quality and noise; though they seem to forget the number of teams already operating out of the city right now.
Not to mention the seasonal nature of sports ensuring not every stadium will be in operation at the same time.
Opening up a new stadium in downtown Los Angeles would be a great idea. Football in Los Angeles, what more could sports fans possibly ask for? Los Angeles hasn’t had a football team since the loss of the Raiders and the Rams back in 1994 due to a lack of a working sports facility.
Not only will Los Angeles be gaining a ootball team, it’ll also be gaining hundreds of new jobs. Just think about all the news jobs it’ll create; Los Angeles will begin recovering from this horrendous economy it’s in. All in all, the proposal for this stadium seems to be a good idea, it’ll bring prosperity to a city in need.
Additionally, critics who say we should be focused instead on opening up new universities or other schools seem to be forgetting the stadium is being paid for by private funds, not the city itself.
It’s football season right now. I sure wish I was able to support a Los Angeles football team instead of the San Diego Chargers.
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