Despite a report that the AEG project to bring a football stadium to downtown L.A. is "essentially dead," AEG President & CEO Tim Leiweke said that Basketball HOFer Magic Johnson has "assured him he still wants a financial stake in AEG's football project downtown," according to T.J. Simers of the L.A. TIMES. Leiweke said, "Magic Johnson is 100% behind Farmers Field and is part of our group, and I speak on his behalf." However, Leiweke said that Johnson does not speak on behalf of Guggenheim Baseball Management or former Dodgers Owner Frank McCourt, who "really control the Dodger Stadium site." Leiweke: "People who go around saying, 'Dodger Stadium, Dodger Stadium,' here's the reality. How long did it take us to get a deal with the city of L.A.? Took us a year. We've just spent two years on an environmental impact report. And we didn't have the neighborhood they have. [AEG Chair] Phil Anschutz has spent $27 million so far in cash on the EIR, which should be a good indication of our commitment." Leiweke continued, "Phil has committed a billion dollars privately to build a stadium and is prepared to spend another chunk if he has to buy the majority of a team. You can publicly state that. He's prepared to be a majority owner if that's what it takes. [Guggenheim Baseball Management] just spent 2 billion on a baseball team and a stadium that has to be renovated; their plate is full. If they ever turn their attention to football, on a good day they'd still be three years away."
HAVE A LITTLE FAITH IN ME: Simers notes as for bringing football "back to L.A., it remains a mess." There is "bad blood between AEG and the City of Industry projects, and sometimes they seem to be spending more time tearing down the other project than pushing their own." It is all "part of the NFL's grand scheme to keep as many bidders in the game as it can." But Leiweke said, "How many deals have we done in this town? How many things do we own? How many partnerships do we have? Everything we have ever announced in this town for 16 years we've finished. Have faith in us; we'll get to the right place." Anschutz reportedly met with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Patriots Owner Robert Kraft late last year and despite their urging, would not change his terms for a deal to bring an NFL team to L.A. Simers writes the "only revealing thing" to come out of the report about that meeting is that Leiweke, who has "done more than anyone other than the guy with the checkbook to get this project going, wasn't at the meeting." He is the "only one we ever hear from, the one making all the promises, but in the biggest football meeting to date, he's not invited." Simers: "That's my concern with the Dodgers; everyone is being sold a Magic show when it's the Chicago money guy who really counts." Simers asks what is Dodgers controlling Owner and Guggenheim Partners CEO Mark Walter's "grand plan to get wealthier?" (L.A. TIMES, 4/2).
BARGAINING CHIP: In San Diego, Tim Sullivan wrote next to "tangible traction on the local scene, prolonged inertia in L.A. is San Diego’s best-case scenario" to keep the Chargers in town. It "doesn’t make Qualcomm Stadium any more modern or make the Chargers any more content with staying there, but it buys valuable time and, at least theoretically, bolsters this city’s bargaining position." If there is a deal "to be made in L.A., it does not yet conform to the NFL’s requirement of unconditional surrender." Sullivan: "No existing team is going to commit to Los Angeles without being certain that a new stadium will be built, and the hurdles have only grown higher as construction costs have soared past the $1 billion mark for the Dallas Cowboys Stadium and the new shared home of the New York Giants and Jets" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 3/31).
