Am I Late? A Push to Get a Team to L.A. Yipee!

[ex carrabba fan]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slu...v=ap&type=lgns

By JOHN NADEL, AP Sports Writer Apr 17, 4:25 pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (AP)—Billionaire developer Edward P. Roski Jr. has made a commitment to build the kind of stadium an NFL team needs to thrive in Los Angeles. Now, he’s hoping one will commit to play there.

Roski, a part owner of the Kings and Lakers who has spent years trying to lure the NFL back to this area, unveiled plans Thursday for a 75,000-seat facility in the City of Industry he said could be finished in time for the 2011 season.

“I intend to develop our stadium project that meets all of the NFL requirements, and more,” Roski said at a Staples Center news conference, where stadium models and artist renditions were displayed. “Always the most important thing has been the certainty of doing this. A team is not going to commit to coming to Los Angeles without a stadium. We’ve taken this one point of uncertainty and made it a certainty. The stadium is a certainty and it will be built.”

And, Roski added, without public money.

“Absolutely no taxpayer dollars,” he said. “There’s no taxpayer dollars to get.”

The proposed 600-acre site, near the southern intersection of the 57 and 60 freeways about 20 miles east of Los Angeles, would be surrounded by a shopping mall, and located on a vacant property which Roski already owns. Roski said around 12 million people live within 25 miles of the site.

“We are aware of it and are monitoring all stadium-related developments in southern California,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said from his New York office.

Roski said the cost would be around $800 million, adding the stadium will be built into a hillside meaning far less steel will be required. And that, he said will result in a cost of about $400 million less than it might be otherwise.

Roski said the site is already zoned and an environmental impact report was approved in 2004.

“A supplemental EIR is currently in progress,” he added, saying construction could begin as early as the final quarter of this year and parking requirements would be met. “We’ll make it happen, just as we did here at Staples Center with the Lakers and Kings.

Roski and Philip Anschutz, the head of AEG, headed up construction of Staples Center. The Lakers, Kings and Arena Football League’s Los Angeles Avengers play their home games at the facility, which opened in October 1999. AEG is not involved in this venture.

The one obvious obstacle standing in the way is a tenant for the new stadium. Possibilities might include the New Orleans Saints, Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings and San Diego Chargers because of their stadium uncertainties.

Roski made it clear construction will not begin until a team agreed to move, adding he did not expect an expansion team to be involved.

The NFL has said it has no plans to expand from its present 32 teams, and it’s also clear Los Angeles is not a high priority with the league at this time. But that might not stop a team with stadium uncertainties to make the move.

“No team is going to say they’re going to come here until we have this,” Roski said of the stadium plan. “We have not talked to any teams. Now, we will start the second phase of it. We’ll start talking to the NFL and the teams. We’ve got this out of the way. Now, we’ll concentrate on getting a team.”

With a smile, the 69-year-old chairman and CEO of Majestic Realty Co., added: “If I was sitting there, I would be waiting for my call. This is the top market. The team that decides to come to Los Angeles is financially going to be one of the top teams in the league, by far.”

Los Angeles, the second-largest media market in the country, has been without an NFL team since 1995, when the Raiders moved back to Oakland after playing 13 years at the Los Angeles Coliseum and the Rams moved from Anaheim to St. Louis.

Proposals have been made for numerous stadium sites in the area over the years including the Coliseum and the Rose Bowl in Pasadena as well as in Irwindale, Inglewood, Carson and Anaheim.

But, as Roski pointed out, there were always uncertainties.

Should a team decide to make the move, he said it could play the 2009-10 seasons at either the Coliseum or the Rose Bowl while the new stadium was under construction.

[SPTO]

I hate to be a Debbie Downer but oh well....

Don't count your chickens just yet. Don Banks of SI was on the radio here the other day and he says while the NFL would love to go to LA they've seen this kind of situation before for the last 12 years!

Roski would still need city approval to build a stadium on the land so that's one obstacle that may be impossible to jump over as the City of LA seems to be dead set against any of this.

However, let's play with the assumption that this will get done. The one rumor i've heard that is the most credible is that the Raiders would move back to LA especially if the terms on gate receipts and such are favourable to the team. The next most likely team would be the Jags.

[MassNole]

Can't they just promote Southern Cal from the Pac 10 to the AFC West and demote the Oakland Raiders back into the Pac 10?

[bkrich83]

It's become a low priority for the NFL. The people in LA don't care they don't have a team, and couldn't support the Rams or the Raiders when they had them.

I doubt LA gets a team any time soon.

[P2K]

What a waste of time and money.

[ex carrabba fan]

Well that's a downer. I really want to get behind a football team, the Chargers are just too far south, and the 9ers/Raiders too far north. Uggh. L.A. fails for not being able to get us one.

[Olson-for-Heisman]

Quote: Originally Posted by bkrich83

It's become a low priority for the NFL. The people in LA don't care they don't have a team, and couldn't support the Rams or the Raiders when they had them. I doubt LA gets a team any time soon.

People in L.A. don't care about the NFL because the NFL franchises that have been here haven't cared about them. Irwindale gave Al Davis millions of dollars to build his own stadium yet he took the money and ran. The Rams were owned by a St. Louis native who had absolutely no intention of keeping the team in the city and took the colors, logo, and history with her.

[P2K]

Quote: Originally Posted by Olson-for-Heisman

People in L.A. don't care about the NFL because the NFL franchises that have been here haven't cared about them.

Yeah, that's the reason...

[SPTO]

Right, I guess that's why the Coliseum in LA was known as the Moseleum (sp) when the Raiders were there. It's a two way street. The fans didn't exactly come out in droves and that was when the Raiders were a darn good football team.

As for the Rams, yeah Frontiere wanted to leave but she did ask the city to build a new stadium which never came. St. Louis came calling and offered her a deal she couldn't refuse. You can't blame her too much for that as she'd been looking for a new stadium in Anaheim for at least 5 years before she left.

[Jon22]

LA's had teams come ago...

How about a team in Austin Tx.