AEG reveals proposed designs for downtown L.A. football stadium

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After months of praising the merits of an NFL stadium in downtown Los Angeles, AEG finally put some pictures to its vision Wednesday, revealing architectural renderings of what the venue might look like.

Those renderings were submitted by the three design firms deemed finalists, narrowed from an original field of nine firms. AEG plans to pick a design within the next month, while simultaneously working on the entitlement process with the city.

You can see a gallery of the artist renderings of the three proposals here.

The three finalists are HKS, which designed the new Texas Stadium and Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis; HNTB, which designed Denver’s Invesco Field and is currently working on the Tom Bradley Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport; and Gensler, which has not designed an NFL stadium but has vast experience with all types of major projects, including the L.A. Live’s Club Nokia and the district’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel & Residences and the JW Marriott hotel.

Just because there are impressive pictures doesn’t mean there will be a stadium, as dozens of viable L.A.-area stadium plans have wound up on the scrap heap since the Raiders and Rams left after the 1994 season.

What’s more, AEG is in competition with L.A. real estate magnate Ed Roski, who has a shovel-ready piece of land in City of Industry where he says he can build a better stadium for considerably less money. The cost projection for the AEG venue – which would sit next to Staples Center, on the site of the existing West Hall of the convention center – is at least $1 billion.

Tim Leiweke, president and CEO of AEG, has said he needs to know within a few months whether this project can move forward. That’s tricky, however, because the NFL is not going to formally address the idea of relocating a franchise until it resolves its labor dispute with its players. The current collective bargaining agreement expires in March, and the labor haggling could easily carry on into the summer and perhaps into next season.

There will be more on this story later tonight on latimes.com/sports.

--Sam Farmer