the best out of four Southland proposals on the table to house a NFL team. (Thinkstock)
AEG’s downtown Los Angeles stadium project is still the best out of four Southland proposals on the table to house a National Football League team, a city councilman insisted Friday.
“Los Angeles continues to be the best candidate for a new NFL team and a new stadium would be a great way to build on the tremendous redevelopment success of our downtown core,” said Councilman Curren Price, whose district includes the site of AEG’s proposed Farmer’s Field stadium.
He noted that AEG’s planned stadium has already won approval from the city and is ready to go as soon as a team agrees to move there.
“We have the best proposal for a new stadium and we are the furthest along as far as the design and entitlement process goes,” he said.
AEG executives declined to discuss a proposal put forth by the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders to build a combined stadium in Carson.
Los Angeles is continuing to work behind the scenes — with the unpaid help of former Disney CEO Michael Eisner — to woo an NFL team to the downtown stadium, according to Yusef Robb, spokesman for Mayor Eric Garcetti.
AEG has a “shovel-ready, approved project that is ready to go” in downtown Los Angeles, Robb said, but he added that “at the end of the day, this is a business deal between stadium owners, the developer, the NFL team and the league.”
“We want L.A. fans to have a team of their own,” Robb said, adding that “we would prefer football downtown, but we would welcome football anywhere in the region.”
Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge cheered the possibility that an NFL team may relocate anywhere in the region.
LaBonge, who worked as an assistant cameraman during Rams games in the 1970s, urged the NFL to act fast to give Los Angeles football fans their own team, though he said he hates to see San Diego or Oakland lost a franchise.
“I hope the league makes a decision soon, because there are generations of football fans, especially young fans, who don’t have a team here in Los Angeles,” he said.
