After shoring up its financial protections, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission approved an agreement Wednesday granting a group led by real estate developer Ed Roski the exclusive right to seek a new professional football team to play in a modernized Coliseum.
Although it approved the contract 8-0 at a special open session, the commission's vote was the culmination of last-minute, behind-the-scenes negotiations between its members and Roski's group, New Coliseum Venture.
The commission wanted to ensure that it does not have to pay Roski's group a $5-million "breakout fee" if the National Football League awards another party the right to bring a pro franchise to the Coliseum. Roski wanted protections of his own, including an exclusive negotiating agreement.
"Mr. Roski, you have a new partner," Coliseum Commission President Mike Roos told the developer after a half-hour of discussion and the vote.
The pact opens the way for Roski and his partners to negotiate a long-term lease under which they will spend $200 million to remodel the aging Coliseum and then manage it as a venue for football, soccer, concerts and other events.
It also allows New Coliseum Venture and commission members to present a united front when they travel to Kansas City next week for an NFL owners meeting.
At that Oct. 27 gathering, they will try to persuade the NFL to award an expansion franchise to them rather than famed deal-maker Michael Ovitz, who is seeking a team to play in a stadium and entertainment complex he proposes to build in Carson.
"I think it's a good proposal," commission member and City Council President John Ferraro said of New Coliseum Venture's plan. "They deserve . . . our full cooperation, and I think we've done that with this agreement."
Roski described the vote as "a defining moment in this process."
"It gives us the ability to finally say the [Coliseum] facility is available as it has never been before," and that the new stadium "will be designed and managed to be really a very state-of-the-art facility," Roski said in an interview.
Roski said he looks forward to competing with Ovitz, whom he described as "a friend," and with another proposal to award the next NFL expansion franchise to Houston.
A New Look for the Coliseum
