Nfl Stadium

PALM BEACH, Fla. — The astronomical sale price of the Dodgers reverberated across the country Wednesday, and across professional sports leagues, with some NFL owners calling it a $2.15-billion reminder of how valuable the Los Angeles market could be. "I think it reflects the value ? of being involved in the sports business in L.A.," said Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, heading for the airport at the conclusion of the league's annual meetings at the Breakers hotel. "It should serve to encourage teams and owners to come to L.A. " Steve Tisch, co-owner of the New York Giants and part-time L.A. resident, said the sale "is going to draw a lot of attention to L.A. as a super-valuable market for sports teams.

Reporting from Sacramento -- A state lawmaker has proposed the same special treatment for rail projects in California that the Legislature has given to developers of a proposed NFL stadium in Los Angeles and to some renewable-energy projects. Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) introduced such a measure as the Legislature began its new year this week, saying it would "create thousands of desperately needed jobs and give commuters and residents environmentally sound transit options as alternatives to sitting in stopped traffic.

Tim Leiweke had courted them all: lawmakers in Sacramento, politicians at City Hall, business leaders in the Valley and neighborhood groups on the Westside. And, of course, he had wooed folks in the pricey downtown condos that look out on Staples Center and his company's glitzy entertainment complex, L.A. Live. Everyone, it seemed, had heard his gregarious pitch to add an NFL stadium to the development — except the people living just a few blocks away in the blue-collar immigrant neighborhood of Pico-Union.

Tim Leiweke, the chairman and chief executive of Anschutz Entertainment Group, stood in front of the West Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center on Tuesday and told a roaring crowd: "Tear it down!" The order was a bit premature, given that Leiweke will probably have to wait until June at the earliest to break ground on the 72,000-seat NFL stadium that AEG hopes to build at the site. Still, the massive project inched closer to execution Tuesday when Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a controversial bill that limits lawsuits that could delay it. Speaking at a news conference with Leiweke, labor leaders, a gaggle of lawmakers and two high school football teams, Brown said California's high unemployment demands "big ideas and big projects.

Back in 2009, the California Legislature enacted a special exemption from state environmental laws for billionaire developer Ed Roski's proposed NFL stadium in the City of Industry. Just this once, we were assured. Special case. "Rarest of the rare," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) called the occasion. No way the waiver would be a precedent for other big projects, he said. Did you believe that? Me neither. So no one has a right to be surprised that just last week the Legislature granted another environmental exemption, this time for Anschutz Entertainment Group's proposed NFL stadium downtown.

In gridiron jargon, promoters of a downtown Los Angeles football stadium have reached the legislative red zone. They're pounding toward the goal line. They're at the 10 on first down, but time is running out. This year's legislative session is slated to end Friday, although there's nothing written in stone about that deadline. Legislators could waive the rules and go into overtime, but it's not likely. They seem as sick of the Sacramento game as the public. One of the heavily lobbied bills in play would fast-track legal challenges to Anschutz Entertainment Group's proposed 72,000-seat stadium, Farmers Field, next to Staples Center, which it also developed.

Reporting from Sacramento -- As Anschutz Entertainment Group and its myriad backers roam the halls of the state Capitol crafting a last-minute bill to help pave the way for a football stadium in downtown Los Angeles, they face what is a perennial problem in Sacramento: Nobody likes L.A. Not legislators from Northern California, many of whom are dyed-in-the-Gore-Tex environmentalists whose constituents will probably never attend a football game...

The office that advises the California Legislature voiced doubts Friday about the level of economic benefit that would come from an NFL stadium in downtown Los Angeles, saying studies commissioned by the project's developer "likely overstated" the financial boost it would deliver. Speaking to a state Senate panel reviewing the plan by developer Anschutz Entertainment Group, policy analyst Mark Whitaker warned that football stadiums typically have a minimal effect on a region's economic growth, largely because they become a magnet for household entertainment dollars that were already being spent elsewhere in the area.

A proposal to build an NFL stadium in downtown Los Angeles could be jeopardized if state lawmakers fail in the next two weeks to approve special legislation limiting legal challenges to the project, the developers warned Thursday. "If we don't succeed in getting something this session, that will be a significant blow to the project, and we would have to reevaluate the path forward from here," said Ted Fikre, chief legal and development officer for Anschutz Entertainment Group. Fikre said it will cost up to $50 million to complete design and environmental work needed to move the $1.2-billion project forward in the coming months, and legislation defining the process for resolving legal challenges will be essential.

The big headlines and media noise swirling around the proposed downtown stadium have given new life to the nearly forgotten concept that the NFL might have a team in Los Angeles again. One thing is certain. Tim Leiweke and his Anschutz Entertainment Group have won the battle of perception. The only way Leiweke could have made a bigger splash would have been to don a Paul Revere hat and ride through the streets of Los Angeles, yelling: "The NFL is coming! The NFL is coming!" The implication of his proposed site, next to Staples Center, is that it would make L.A. Live even livelier.