It's easy to trash AEG's plans for a new football stadium next to the Staples Center and the Nokia Theatre in downtown LA. The fact is I get a headache just thinking about attending an event at LA Live. But I'm not the stadium's demographic. The last NFL game I went to was over two decades ago. I saw the New York Jets against I can't remember who in the dead of winter at Giants Stadium in the godforsaken New Jersey Meadowlands. Yes that's right, the New York Jets in the land of ARC tunnel killer Chris Christie. Why the team, which had a great transit-friendly stadium in Queens, then known as Shea, had to play in New Jersey I'll never know. Money anyone? But what of it. The Jets lost anyhow, and the woman I went with is no longer a part of my life. I'm married now and have been for years.
If a pro football stadium must be built in LA, then it should be built at Staples.
I'm not enthusiastic about the developers asking the city to guarantee $350 million in loans though. Thanks to Steve Lopez of the LA Times for pointing out how little that does for LA.
If AEG is such a valuable property, worth billions, then they can guaranteed their own loans. And with Governor Brown working to cut the deficit by shutting down the LA CRA and dozens of other community redevelopment agencies throughout the state, all the more reason for LA to keep its powder dry so that it can borrow money when it needs to for building important projects that Angelenos lack like affordable housing and public transportation. I'm thinking more track and stations west of the VA on the Wilshire Subway to the Sea. How about you?
Which brings me to why I'm AEG and Casey Wasserman's biggest fan of the downtown stadium. The Metro Blue Line and soon-to-open Expo Line will bring people there. How is anyone supposed to take transit to a stadium in the City of Industry? I know, I know. On game days the 10 and the 110 freeways will be backed up for miles with fans driving to the games. It'll be just like USC home games at the Coliseum but only worse. I'm not so sure. At least there will be some way to get there other than driving. And when the Downtown L.A. Streetcar is built, an attractive, environmentally clean way to get elsewhere in downtown like the Red Line station at Metro Center will be added to the mix.
I'm not one who thinks stadiums are the best spark plug to ignite the economy of downtown. But that a new stadium, along with Staples, LA Live, the new condos and restaurants in South Park and the new Broad Museum, will make downtown more happening is without question. And then there are the jobs it will create.
What about the Coliseum? Why not an NFL stadium there? That ship has sailed. It's USC's now or soon and probably should be. They, if they know what's good for them, and LA, will keep it the pristine, simple and elegant bowl that it is. A place where Tommy Trojan regularly pummels UCLA, Stanford (not so much...) and the rest of the PAC 10 Conference.
It's been a tough week in America what with the mass murder and wounding of innocents in Tucson. As we mourn the senseless deaths and injuries and pray or whatever we do for the recovery of Congresswoman Giffords and the other shooting victims, I'm hoping the downtown stadium proposal prevails and that civility returns to that cat fight as well as to Washington. And don't get me started on the right to bear arms for everyone with a trigger finger regardless of their documented questionable mental health.
One last observation about the stadium deal. With the media buzzing about AEG being in negotiations with Farmers Insurance over a naming-rights deal worth $20 million a year for 30 years, I can't help thinking about the lesson Metro can learn from the pros at AEG. Back in December 2009 I wrote a piece about the ungodly sum that Mercedes was paying AEG to put its name on AEG's planned sports arena in Shanghai. I also said that Metro should consider cutting the same sorts of naming-right deals for all of its new stations, rail cars and other equipment larger than a wingnut. I still think so.
With no end in sight to the challenge of securing the cash we needed yesterday to build out Metro and with the agency facing an operating deficit that threatens to reduce existing bus operations I'm for any deal that gets Metro the money it needs to operate and expand.
Hey, just saying.
Yours in transit,
Joel
Follow Joel Epstein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thejoelepstein
Honestly, I think that you are right about AEG backing it's own loans. Why should the city taxpayers bond a loan for a stadium that won't contribute to the character of the city? AEG's got billions, let them back the loan, and the extra cost for any transit development that is routed directly to the stadium.
To effectively integrate Metro into it, parking should also be a limiting constraint. Less parking would contribute to more people taking Metro, and keep streets clearer (although if Laker games are any indication, it probably won't help as much as we would hope). AEG should also cover the cost of any street improvement/design implementation, and maintenance as well.
More importantly, before any design approvals or construction begins, there needs to be massive outreach to the community in the form of town-hall style meetings, planning workshops, and serious consideration on the stadium's short and long-term effects on the area and residents around it's proposed location. If the City and AEG just slap a stadium onto downtown's skyline with no thought to the local community and business impacts, citizens will burn it to the ground before the season ends.
the Expo line should be routed up Figueroa instead of Flower, going underground, with an underground station at the Stadium/Staples, terminating at 7th Metro.
Some of the Expo trains could terminate there, and some could be routed along Flower as through routes, continuing on to Pasadena of East L.A.
AEG should pay for this as part of the deal for the stadium. They should also have their own underground light rail stop to service LA Live/Staples/football stadium.
This would releive pressure having both the Blue Line AND Expo trains along Flower.
Alternatively, AEG could just build a "shuttle" subway from 7th/Metro. People would transfer to shuttle train going three (long) blocks south to LA Live/Staples/football stadium. AEG could even own this, operating only during heavy usage times (games, concerts etc.) They would only have to build one tunnel and track, making it cheaper than usual. If it were used only at certain times, they would not have to buy too many trains, and they would not have to be that long, maybe only two or three cars long.
Still, I'm sure AEG doesn't want to be in the mass transit business, so they should probably just pay for the construction, have this integrated into the Metro network, and have Metro operate the thing as part of the system, even if it only runs part of the time.
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Sounds great, but how do they get home? Metro stops running long before a night game ends. .