The Los Angeles City Council on Friday approved a $1.2 billion plan to build a downtown football stadium, moving the No. 2 U.S. city closer than it's been in years to having a professional football team.
Council members voted unanimously in favor of the Anschutz Entertainment Group's proposal to erect the 72,000-seat stadium in the city's downtown core, to be christened "Farmers Field". AEG, controlled by billionaire Phil Anschutz, is up for sale but an agreement with the city will require its new owners to take up the stadium project.
Hundreds of football fans in the yellow-and-blue jerseys of the Rams football team, ushers from sports arena Staples Center sporting "Farmers Field" T-shirts, and even carpenters' union members turned up at Friday's vote, jamming the meeting room and spilling into the hallways outside. NBA Hall of Famer and local celebrity Kareem Abdul-Jabbar arrived to raucous applause.
AEG executives say they plan to lure a National Football League team to anchor the envisioned stadium. The St. Louis Rams and Oakland Raiders are among teams expected to be contacted.
The city has been without professional football since 1994, when ironically the Rams, then playing in nearby Anaheim, as well as the Raiders, both left. Business and labor groups had spoken in favor of a plan that could create from 20,000 to 30,000 jobs and generate business downtown, while critics had protested about traffic congestion and costs to the city.
http://www.torontosun.com/2012/09/28/la ... ll-stadium
