As plans "firm up for the Chargers and the Rams to start playing" in '19 at the $2.7B Inglewood stadium, the city of 109,000 residents is "stealing downtown L.A.’s thunder, threatening the so-far unchallenged reign of the arts and sports district roughly 10 miles to the northeast," according to Hannah Karp of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Inglewood’s development boom and "rising real-estate prices are part of a reincarnation of a town once known more for violence and graft." Now the sports facility is "driving up Inglewood’s real-estate values." Oak View Group's Irving Azoff and MSG Chair James Dolan "reopened the historic Forum arena together next to the stadium site three years ago." Inglewood Mayor James Butts said the Forum's unexpected success "put away the talk that Inglewood isn't a place that people would come to." He said until the Forum’s reopening, Inglewood had been “perceived as a dangerous, unsavory place.” AEG "doesn’t expect the revitalization of Inglewood will put much of a dent in business at its L.A. Live campus, but company executives say the Forum is a worthy competitor to its Staples Center arena, which hosts 240 events a year." Staples Center hosted 32 concerts in '16, "down from an average of 35 a year before the Forum reopened." But '16 was still the "second-most profitable year in the arena’s history and AEG’s most profitable year, despite none of Staples’ anchor sports teams making the playoffs." AEG said that the Forum "hosted 69 concerts last year" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 1/27).
