Boost for City of Industry stadium plan?

 

Has the proposed $800-million football stadium in City of Industry just inched closer to reality?

The National Football League's decision to end one part of its revenue-sharing program won't be good news for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings or any of the other struggling franchises often mentioned as candidates for relocation or sale.

Calling the change "a significant move," ESPN reported over the weekend that the league has decided to cancel a program that allows its poorest franchises -- usually eight to 12 teams in any given year -- to divvy up roughly $100 million. That's a comparative drop in the bucket next to the revenue-sharing agreement that all 32 teams are part of; that one brings in $6.5 billion every year. And the plan to end the subsidy -- known as the supplemental revenue-sharing program, or SRS -- has to be seen as part of ongoing posturing connected to negotiations over the collective bargaining agreement between the league and the NFL players union.

Nonetheless, for franchises on the financial ropes, this could be the jab that knocks them to the canvas in the next two or three seasons. (According to a report from the Twin Cities, for example, the Vikings rely on $15 million to $20 million in SRS cash every year.) With that KO could come an agreement between an existing owner and developer Edward Roski, Jr., who is spearheading the City of Industry effort, to bring a team to Southern California. That in turn would fast-track a stadium plan by architect Dan Meis that I have argued makes little sense, whatever its design appeal, from an urban-planning or land-use point of view.

-- Christopher Hawthorne

Image: A rendering of the proposed City of Industry stadium. Credit: Meis Architects/Aedas

Comments

[cachimbon]

RAIDERS!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Henry]

Well, here we go again. The big boys with the bucks buy a few elected folks and build a building that is not in the publics best interest.

Hell, at least build a stadium on the Mtero train route. Here it is againAmerican Greed at it's finest-no thought at all, just gimme more type of greed...

[CSUF Alum]

Bring us the Vikings, Jaguars, or Bills. But please, please, don't let the Raiders and their decrepit owner, Al Davis come back to the Southern CA area. Is the NFL and anyone so short sighted that they can't remember the terror the so-called Raiders "fans" wrought on anyone who would go and cheer the visiting team? Threats of great bodily harm and sneers and cat call of "where you from, ay," coming from the uneducated, drunk mouths of the losers that chose to "adopt" the 'bad boy' image the Raiders portrayed. It's the same thing now with USC, the Dodgers and Lakers. These idiot hangers on, (ie gangbangers), want to lay claim to anything that represents something of respectability.
So thank you, no thank you Raiders. I'll go on cheering for my NFC East teams, the Chargers and Chiefs, the Bruins, Irish, Angels and Clippers. At least I don't see 'cholomobiles' emblazoned with logos of MY favorite teams. (They play elsewhere, with the notable exception of the Bruins and Clips).

[abc]

Without public money involved, it's difficult to imagine a team coming to LA. Which is fine by me. If one dollar of California's public money (provided we have a dollar to spare) goes to the NFL, I don't think I'll be alone in my outrage.

[George]

Not one dollar of public money for any stadium and any funding for infrastructure for the stadium. If these greedy NFL bums want their stadium then let them fund it without taxpayer money. Roski Jr. is a fine example of the cancer that has rotted this country and those few politicians’ who sell their souls and place the burden funding this useless stadium on the back of the local people and the state. As for that idiot of a governor no more can be said for the mess with all his stupid bravado Arnold was going to fix--Gray Davis must be laughing. One year left of this "B" actor, if you want to call him a thespian.

[William Wray]

I enjoy riding my bike in that area, that's over.