MLS expansion club LAFC "is closer to picking a place for its new custom-built home," as the focus "now is firmly on the site of the Sports Arena, next to the Coliseum in Exposition Park," according to a source cited by Kevin Baxter of the L.A. TIMES. The source said, "I would be surprised if they announced a site other than the Sports Arena." LAFC Owner & President Tom Penn, whose club begins league play in '17, "would not dispute that, but he said no firm decision has been reached." Baxter notes the Sports Arena "would have to be torn down to make room for the kind of state-of-the-art stadium LAFC is planning to build, which will take time." An environmental impact study for the site "has already been completed, which will save time." LAFC, which said that it wants to spend upward of $150M on a home with a capacity in the 25,000 range, "has selected Southern California-based architect Gensler to build that stadium" (L.A. TIMES, 3/19).
LEFT AT A LAS: In Las Vegas, James DeHaven reports city residents "will not get a chance to weigh in on millions of dollars in public soccer stadium subsidies" despite a court order "permitting a June 2 referendum on the issue and despite some City Council members’ assurances that they wanted to hear the public’s opinion on how to pay for the apparently dead soccer venue." The council yesterday "adopted an ordinance that places language in the city’s charter that prevents the city from 'contributing, investing or lending any of its revenue or assets'" for a MLS stadium in Symphony Park. Now that it is "on the city’s books, that question cannot appear on this spring’s ballot" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 3/19). DeHaven cites a city of Las Vegas document as showing that it spent $3.1M on its "failed soccer stadium project." A staff report states that most of this money "was paid to the project’s would-be developers at Baltimore-based Cordish Companies," which made $2.5M for "failing to build on the 13-acre downtown stadium parcel." Much of the rest "went to a throng of public relations and economic development consultants that helped orchestrate a weekslong PR blitz aimed at selling the soccer venue to the public" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 3/19).
