Facility Notes

L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti yesterday promised that the panel "will have plenty of time to debate a plan to bring an NFL stadium to downtown, seeking to soothe anxiety that a vote would be rushed." In L.A., Rong-Gong Lin II reported several city council members "expressed concern that they could feel pressured to approve the deal before July 31, a deadline that had been issued" by AEG President & CEO Tim Leiweke, whose company wants to build Farmers Field. AEG officials now are saying that they "hope to get a vote on the project framework before the council begins a two-week recess on Aug. 20." A team of city negotiators, led by Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry Miller, is "negotiating a draft memorandum of understanding with AEG in private" (LATIMES.com, 7/12).

SAFETY FIRST: MLB Rangers Exec VP/Communications John Blake said team execs started face-to-face meetings with industry officials yesterday to determine "whether to raise railings or do whatever might be appropriate for the safety of our fans." Blake said that team officials "called contractors, architects and other experts familiar" with the 17-year-old Rangers Ballpark last week after fan Shannon Stone fell to his death (DALLASNEWS.com, 7/12).

STOP, DROP & ROLL: The GUARDIAN's Owen Gibson reports U.K. Minister of Sport Hugh Robertson has urged EPL club Tottenham Hotspur to "abandon legal action over the future of the Olympic Stadium, warning that London's bid to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships will be dead in the water unless the matter can be resolved soon." Robertson said that "unless the future of the stadium, awarded to West Ham by the Olympic Park Legacy Company but the subject of an ongoing legal challenge from Spurs, was decided by 1 September then the bid would have to be withdrawn." He added, "I would hope Tottenham would see the greater good to London" (GUARDIAN, 7/13).

COMING FULL CIRCLE: In K.C., Kevin Collison reports 360 Architecture "has won another big sports facility design contract in Iraq, this time for two soccer stadiums with a total value" of $170M. The K.C.-based firm "will be teaming with Anwar Soura General Contracting Co." on the projects. 360 Senior Principal George Heinlein said that the new commissions "were the result of the firm’s experience" designing a complex in the Basra, Iraq, that includes a 65,000-seat soccer stadium. That project is "about two-thirds complete" (K.C. STAR, 7/13).