February 16, 2011
AEG fiddles with stadium plan while news columns burn
Little action but much talk on the AEG L.A. NFL stadium front:
- AEG reps and union leaders met with Governor Jerry Brown yesterday to, in the words of Maria Elena Durazo, the executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, "make the case for why this project is so important to help put working families back to work in good jobs." Brown, according to the L.A. Times, "was noncommittal."
- Times sports columnist T.J. Simers says he's "turned off" by AEG's "arrogance" in trying to "jam a new stadium down everyone's throats because he says it will be good for L.A." and getting "huffy and dismissive" about its own potential for profits. All of which may well be true, but it leaves the impression that Simers would be happy to let AEG have $350 million in public if he just asked more politely.
- ESPN's Mark Kreidler writes that the NFL will miss the leverage that having an empty L.A. market has given to other teams in demanding stadium deals from their hometowns.
- The oddly named USC journalism school site Neon Tommy thinks that AEG should pay attention to the lessons of the Sprint Center in Kansas City, which AEG also operates, and which has been unable to lure an anchor sports tenant. Of course, in K.C. this doesn't matter much to AEG thanks to its sweetheart lease, but in L.A., notes Neon Tommy, "to pay off [its] massive investments, AEG would need to make $50-60 million per year from the stadium and surrounding L.A. Live complex," which is more than the vast majority of NFL teams turned in operating revenue last year. Also, "AEG made off like bandits in keeping much of the sponsorship and suite revenue from Sprint Center, but it may have to share a good portion of its $700 million Farmers Insurance naming rights deal with potential teams if it wants a tenant on Sundays." Remind me why they're doing this again?
Posted by Neil deMause in Los Angeles NFL team
COMMENTS
Neil,
You wrote in your 2009 article about AEG's sweetheart lease saying:
"While an occasional $1.8 million windfall, as the city got last year when the Sprint Center had an exceptionally good year, is nice, it's still a drop in the bucket on that debt."
I'm curious (or maybe just a tad stupid) is that $1.8M money made after paying their $13.8M bond payment or is that before leaving them with $12M to be paid through the general fund.
Thanks
Posted by Andrew T on February 17, 2011 07:13 PM
The latter.
Posted by Neil deMause on February 17, 2011 08:23 PM
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