AEG president Tim Leiweke wants Los Angeles to commit to his company's downtown NFL stadium project by July 31. But, he claims, that might be hard because "there's a lot of distrust" between the city and the league.
Leiweke told the Los Angeles Times earlier this week that team owners "don't have a lot of faith" in Los Angeles, which in turn "doesn't have faith in the NFL, either."
The region hasn't fielded an NFL team since the Raiders (from Los Angeles to Oakland) and Rams (from Anaheim to St. Louis) both left after the 1994 season.
Southern California has been the home of many professional football teams, from the L.A. Buccaneers in 1926 (a traveling team that never actually played in Los Angeles) to the XFL champion L.A. Xtreme in 2002. The Avengers were the last active team in L.A., but the team folded in 2009. Teams that have called Southern California home1940-45Los Angeles BulldogsPCPFL1967Long Beach AdmiralsContinental1967-68Orange County RamblersContinental1974-75Southern California SunWFL1982-1994Los Angeles RaidersNFL1983-85Los Angeles ExpressUSFL2000-09Los Angeles AvengersArena
Still, Leiweke hopes to receive a "memorandum of understanding" from the Los Angeles city council before it takes its summer break Aug. 1. Meeting that deadline would keep Farmers Field on schedule to open for the 2016 season.
"Can this city and these 15 council people figure out a way to get this project done? Huge question mark," Leiweke said. "This is not a city where a lot of new projects get done.
"These 15 folks sometimes don't know how to get out of their own way. Can they kill this deal? Yes, they are very capable of killing this deal. The key to this entire vision is going to be a deal with the city."
Leiweke said he'd like the city council to issue $350 million in municipal bonds to relocate the convention center's west hall, where the stadium would be built. But the bonds issue has caused some opposition to what Leiweke called "the best deal that's ever been made for any city in the history of the NFL."
"The biggest thing people don't understand about the deal is they're all convinced that the $350 million in bonds is going to end up coming back to haunt the city or ultimately affect the general fund, or become a liability to the taxpayers," Leiweke told the Times. "Once people understand the way we're going to structure the bonds, and the fact that we're going to come in and write a check every year to back those bonds, then the only issue in that area is, what if you go bankrupt? And we say, 'Please, if we go bankrupt, then you have a far bigger issue than a football stadium or bonds.' You've got a $3 billion project and a $6 billion company that goes away? That's not going to happen."
AEG needs an answer from the city by July 31, according to The Times, before the company commits an estimated $45 million on an environmental impact report, designs for the stadium and replacement for the convention center's west hall, and the pursuit of an NFL team to play at Farmers Field.
Finding a tenant for the stadium in the nation's second-largest market shouldn't be difficult, according to Leiweke.
"There are 32 teams, and six or seven of those currently don't have a home that economically works," Leiweke said. "Are all six or seven of those going to solve their problems in their current marketplace? No. We're confident that it's not just going to be one team. I think there are going to be at least two, probably more, that are going to have to look at moving in order to remain competitive within the league."
But for anything to happen, Leiweke insists the city must meet AEG's deadline. If not, he said, "I'm OK if we get to July 31 and we don't get a deal done, and we move on, and I didn't spend $45 million of (billionaire Philip Anschutz's) money."
Gerry Miller, who's heading the city's negotiations with AEG, declined to comment Thursday, but the July 31 deadline came as news to city councilman Bill Rosendahl, who said "we're all ears."
Added Rosendahl: "I don't work under threats or pressure or those types of situations. I truly know that AEG has a lot to gain downtown in having a continued successful partnership with the city of Los Angeles."
AEG operates Staples Center, home of the NHL's Kings and NBA's Lakers and Clippers, and L.A. Live, an entertainment district located across the street from the arena.
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