January 19, 2011
AEG will build L.A. stadium — if conditions are met
You know, this is the kind of stuff that drives me, as both a journalist and a reader of the news, completely bonkers. Headline in today's San Diego Union Tribune:
Anschutz agrees to finance LA football stadium
He does? All by himself? Well, no: What AEG owner Philip Anschutz actually did was set a series of conditions under which he'd consider building a $1 billion stadium: A naming-rights agreement and other sponsorships have to be in place, the city needs to approve spending $350 million to replace the West Hall of the L.A. Convention Center to make way for the new stadium, an NFL team must commit to moving to L.A., and the NFL itself must approve it.
Those are a lot of details, especially given that an NFL team must not only agree to move to L.A. but must agree to a lease that leaves Anschutz enough money to pay off his stadium; and that the NFL ain't approving nothing until after this fall's expected lockout. And note that there's actually nothing new here: All you have is AEG president Tim Leiweke, who's been point dude on the stadium project, passing along that Anschutz is on board with the plan — as if his boss would have let him spend the last several months talking it up if he weren't on board.
The real goal of this planted story appears to be to put time pressure on the L.A. city council — Leiweke says he hopes to have everything but the NFL approval in place by March (really? even a commitment from a team to move?), which puts the council on the clock at a time when councilmembers are pushing for an impact study on how a stadium would affect the convention center's business. We'll see if anybody folds in this game of chicken.
I think "Approve new LA stadium and end world hunger" has a nicer ring to it. Can't believe Anschutz missed that one...
