Dodgers Downtown? New Stadium Near Staples Center A Possibility

The Los Angeles Dodgers have had a tough time lately--maybe a shiny new baseball stadium is just what they need.

Over two months ago, sources like LA Dodger Talk and Yahoo Sports mentioned the possibility of the Dodgers moving to a new stadium downtown. LA has been hankering for a football team for some time, and the NFL has considered the current Dodger Stadium site at Chavez Ravine their first choice for an LA home, reported Yahoo. Dodger owner Frank McCourt wouldn't budge, but now that the team has filed for bankruptcy, the ravine's future is less certain.

LA Weekly points out that the potential new owner of the Dodgers would have to pay the vilified McCourt rent if the team stayed put. As such, the idea of moving an NFL team to the Chavez Ravine location and placing MLB games downtown has garnered some support.

Now, Sports by Brooks tells us that the MLB has reached out to Anschutz Entertainment Group, the owners of the Staples Center and proposed builders of the football stadium, to build a new baseball stadium downtown. While Sports by Brooks says that AEG wouldn't take an ownership role if they built the new Dodger Stadium, the complex would be close to the Staples Center and would surely bring extra revenue to AEG's LA Live downtown development.

The current Dodger Stadium has been in use since 1962, according to Ball Parks of Baseball. In addition to myriad celebrated baseball players, Olympians, Elton John, and the Pope have all played, performed, and prayed there, according to the MLB. Would a new stadium give the team a fresh start the team so badly needs, or is Dodger Stadium a sacred institution for LA baseball fans?

Comments

[Fred Ricardo]

03:31 PM on 07/15/2011

Build it by the water like AT&T Park in San Francisco.

[Myoho Mod]

02:23 PM on 07/14/2011

NO NEW SPORT STADIUMS ON THE TAX PAYERS DIME

[El Saltine]

12:36 PM on 07/14/2011

I can see a day when LA has no football, baseball, basketball, hockey. Only socker, or what ever you call it, you know that game nobody in america cares about.

[Travis M]

12:35 PM on 07/14/2011

Awful idea.. I know every inch of that stadium because I speant my entire life there.. little league world series games, Dodger Games, concerts, everything... Moving the stadium would be a sad day for Dodger fans everywhere, I understand the current financial situation but still there are some thigns that just should not change, having the breeze over Chavez Revine is one of those things.. The parking sucks yea, but you have to deal with it if you want to enjoy a good ball game.

[DRaymond]

10:53 AM on 07/14/2011

I can see the problem. If the MLB's forced sale of the Dodgers does not include the stadium then McCourt could charge pretty much any rent he wants and will be hungry for cash and not in a friendly mood. Dodger stadium has always been a nightmare traffic wise. Finding the space for it downtown will not be easy though. The area around LA Live is constrained on two sides by freeways and on the third by skyscrapers, so there pretty much is only the ability to put it to the east.

[drfast]

09:55 AM on 07/14/2011

I imagine that the parking would be better....how about going back to Wrigley Field?

[1logicalthinker]

01:47 PM on 07/14/2011

How about going back to Brooklyn? :)

[drfast]

08:36 PM on 07/14/2011

LOL!!

[Jacob007]

09:54 AM on 07/14/2011

I thought Frankie McCourt said he wanted to move the Dodgers to Fontana.

[LuLou Murder]

01:25 PM on 07/14/2011

The Epicenter in Rancho Cucamonga, home of the Dodgers California League affiliate, holds 6500 people. Are you sure a McCourt Dodgers team could draw that many?

[Mr Bad Example]

04:46 AM on 07/14/2011

As a kid, I spent nearly every home game Saturday (and many other nights and days as well) at the stadium, running from the pedestrian gates in Elysian Park to the GA ticket booths so we could get seats right on the edge of the 5th deck...even watching helicopters fight brush fires on the surrounding hillsides while games went on. I can't imagine watching the Dodgers play anywhere else in LA, although if that is what MLB has to do to sever all ties from Frank McMoron, it's probably the best bet. On the other hand, downtown doesn't seem like a real acceptable spot either...personally, I'd be more in favor of someplace further west, where the ocean air would be both cooler and cleaner.

[leorangerie]

03:07 AM on 07/14/2011

the current location of Dodger Stadium (and I'm ducking as I write this) is completely outdated. Traffic is nightmarish. Moving the stadium downtown, of course, creates its own nightmare. But other major sporting venues in other major cities have public transportation that leaves you a few steps from the venue. Dodger Stadium? Not so much. Driving is your only option, and it is a lousy one.

[Mr Bad Example]

04:51 AM on 07/14/2011

And up here in Sacramento, all we hear about is how wonderful the LA Metro mass transit operations have become...guess they still haven't figured out that folks are more than willing to take other ways to the park if they're offered consistantly. We've got the same problem-by the time they get transit built out to our suburban arena on its way to the airport, either the arena will have moved downtown (and right in the way of transit modernization) or the team will have moved to Anaheim.

[Quemars Ahmed]

01:35 AM on 07/14/2011

As a lifelong Dodgers fan there's no way I could support a move away from Dodger Stadium. It has everything, history, beauty, it sits like a halo on top of the City of Angels. I'd rather the area be around it be built up and renovated and made into a thriving area.

But because of all the mess of the McCourts, the tragedy that's happened, all the optimism coming out of the Farmer's Field plan and L.A. Live... for one brief second I entertained the possibility of moving, and that's the scary part...

[ErniePyle]

10:57 PM on 07/13/2011

Sounds like a plan to tear down a less affluent neighborhood and rebuild Chavez Ravine as an enclave for the top 5% with great views of the city and of course the safety of the Police Academy next door.

[Mr Bad Example]

04:34 AM on 07/14/2011

Pretty much what they did when they moved the squatter camps out of Chavez Ravine to build the stadium in the first place, right?

[ErniePyle]

11:36 AM on 07/14/2011

Absolutely

[GenXJedi]

10:05 PM on 07/13/2011

Dodger Stadium is an icon & the Dodgers may as well go back to Brooklyn if they have to leave it. This idea will not go over very well with Dodger fans - it's smells even worse than McCourt. But I guess you have to have something write about. What's the next story planned? Tommy Lasorda taking a job with the Giants?

[crparke]

10:03 PM on 07/13/2011

Downtown LA is ugly as sin. Better to stay in the ravine where you're facing the other way.

[planetjeffy]

09:02 PM on 07/13/2011

I prefer Chavez, but McCourt has spun off the stadium, parking lots, ticket sales and probably the toilets into their own companies so he could suck as much money out of the club as possible. It might be impossible for MLB to get those back and they will be forced to move the team elsewhere if they don't want to deal with Frank the crook. Unless they can get the bankruptcy judge to claw back all of McCourts moves - this just might happen.

[sonjasmom]

08:33 PM on 07/13/2011

Come on - despite the sordid beginnings, Chavez Ravine is a beautiful setting in which to watch a baseball game. If the team is moved downtown, we'll next be hearing about the need for public money to build a palace with luxury boxes so that the rich don't have to rub elbows with the rest of us peasants.