The Los Angeles City Council voted 12-0 in favor of a new downtown NFL stadium yesterday. Developers are hoping the $1.5 billion field will lure an NFL team or two to relocate. The Anschutz Entertainment Group's current CEO, Tim Leiweke, said:
"We're not trying to steal a franchise and we're not trying to force them to move before they make a decision to move. That's up to the individual owners out there today. But we will be very active in letting them know, despite what a lot of people thought, we have a deal with the city, we've gone through this process and we are shovel-ready."
AEG also owns the LA Kings, LA Galaxy, 30% of the Lakers and the Staples Center and are currently up for sale, but that won't factor in the building of the new stadium. The potential new owner of AEG, Patrick Soon-Shiong, was in the building during the Council's hearing in a show of good faith. The plan also calls for a state of the art $314 million convention center next door. If all goes well, developers hope to have an NFL team within the next four years and should have Farmers Field ready by 2018. If a team decides to relocate before the new field is ready they can play in the area's already existing stadiums, like the LA Memorial Coliseum.
Looks like Ari is going to be an NFL owner after all.
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[via ESPNLA]
