Many NFL fans have heard talk for a while now of a team possibly moving to Los Angeles, but so far it's all been just rumors and speculation. Although no team has officially announced they're moving to California anytime soon, construction is moving ahead on the stadium that would eventually house the mystery team, reports ESPN.
The entertainment company Anschultz Entertainment Group (AEG), which owns the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, has put forth a proposal for a $1.1 billion stadium. The naming rights have already been sold to Farmers Insurance Group, with the proposed title for the location "Farmers Field." The goal is to get the stadium into the "shovel-ready" stage, and then find a team willing to move their operations to California. At that point, the cranes could start up immediately and construction would begin.
The news source reports that AEG has already spent $27 million on a 10,000-page environmental impact report, which was released to the public today. That report will be available for public comments for 45 days, and will also need to be approved by city officials. The project will then be open to legal challenges for 30 days. Once any legal issues are resolved, construction will be allowed to commence, with AEG hoping to get things underway by March 2013.
Of course, that's dependent on the company finding a team to move into the new stadium. AEG says that it won't start construction until a team is in place, but also won't wait around forever - they'll shut down the project completely if they don't have a team by 2015.
"So February 2013 is going to be a moment in time for this city and then February 2014 is going to be another moment," AEG CEO Tim Leiweike told the news source. "What I'm going to tell you is we won't be sitting here in February 2016 still chasing Farmers Field."
At that point, Leiweike says that his company would focus on renovating the city's convention center and the LA Live area around the Staples Center. However, it does not make sense to go ahead with those plans until the company knows if a stadium will be built there.
One sticking point for any deal is that AEG says that it wants to own a piece of any team that comes to Los Angeles - something that the current NFL owners may not go for. The company currently owns all of the Los Angeles Galaxy, and has stakes in the Houston Dynamo and Los Angeles Lakers as well. While Leiweike says his company does not need 100 percent ownership of a Los Angeles NFL team, the company does want a significant portion before it puts more than $1 billion into the stadium.
Complicating matters is real estate magnate Ed Roski, who has had stadium construction plans ready to go since 2009. Roski's proposed stadium would be built in the nearby City of Industry, just east of Los Angeles. However, the news source reports that Roski is unlikely to be able to match the $1.1 billion that AEG would put into their proposed deal. It's unknown if Roski wants a stake in the team that he strikes a deal with, which could make his offer ultimately more attractive.
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