Speaking of stadium pushes that never die, AEG must be doing a full-court press on L.A-area sportswriters to get behind their imaginary downtown football stadium, because now we have L.A. Times columnist T.J. Simers chiming in with an entire column saying it would be the best thing since sliced bread.
Simers’ reasons? AEG built the Staples Center, and everybody loves that, right? Also, “Philip Anschutz is the NFL’s kind of guy.” And “The Coliseum, Rose Bowl and Dodger Stadium are dumps.” Nothing, needless to say, about how an NFL stadium would be paid for, which matches well with AEG’s own lack of specifics about the project.
On the other hand, we do have a YouTube video about how a downtown stadium would lead to riots. I guess that’s what passes for news analysis in these days of citizen journalism.
Simers may by and large be ranting and pulling stuff out of his nether regions, but he does have one thing right. If AEG plans to do this then I have no doubt they’ll put on a full court press and pull out all the stops to get it done, even if they have to build it privately. That said his implications are so off base about Dodger Stadium and how well the Clipper’s draw among other things one has to wonder if he’s ever actually been to a sporting event in Los Angeles.
If AEG wanted to build it privately, it would already be built. Teams don’t really need to wait for city councils to approve things that will be paid for privately (apart from normal zoning and environmental studies and the like). If building a stadium made sense economically to the team, the team would do it. The fact that teams don’t go build these things themselves without wads of public subsidy (cash, land, whatever) should clue anyone in who’s paying attention that these are bad deals that only “work” for the team if someone else (e.g. the public) is paying for it.
If you think a project as big as a football stadium could just “be built” if it was privately financed then you’re being naive, or you’re misinformed. A project of that size still needs to go through a fairly rigorous round of gov’t involvement even if it’s 100% private down to the last penny. As for the AEG project specifically, it’s not like they’ve been discussing this for very long. It’s a very new idea in the grand scheme of things and it’s location will definitely involve several rounds at LA city hall due to the proximity to the downtown core and the size of the project.
While I’m posting, another thing just lept out at me from the Simers article on a second read through. Dodger Stadium a dump? Seriously? Isn’t it regularly ranked as one of the better stadiums in baseball and called the west coast’s Yankee Stadium? If Simers wants a dump try visiting Oakland.
Another reason this project can’t be built without city council approval is because of the site itself. If you read the article, it says it would replace the west hall of the city’s convention center. I don’t think AEG can knock that down without asking permission first. Plus, they need to complete an environmental impact study, or secure a waiver. But I’d bet this project gets done. I just hope they leave my team (Vikings) alone.