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October 16, 2009
Industry NFL stadium gets its environmental exemption
The California state senate has approved an exemption from state environmental laws for Ed Roski's City of Industry football stadium. The L.A. Times report notes that this was after the senate president was "unsuccessful in negotiating an agreement that would have a citizens group drop its lawsuit" against the stadium — given that the exemption effectively nullified the lawsuit, this must have been one of those "jump or I'll push you" negotiations.
In any case, let the move threats begin! Er, continue!
SF Chronicle ran an article yesterday too. Apparently Roski reiterated his 7 targets now. He's decided not to wait on the Niners stadium possibly failing and he's added them to his list as well. So now we're up to Niners, Raiders, Chargers, Vikings, Rams, Bills and Jaguars that are the targets of Roski's desire to rob a community of their team.
Posted by Dan on October 16, 2009 01:13 PM
Way to go Roski....... Hey Dan, can u explain to me how Roski is robbing a team from a community ?? If a team leaves a community, its because they dont want(or cant) to be there anymore ! And it usually(if not always) has to do with $$$...... If your community cant(or wont) support your team, get ready to say bon vayage and stop crying about it....
Posted by oscar on October 19, 2009 08:05 PM
Oscar, I say "rob" because it really is robbery to some extent for all 7 teams. Most of these cities have supported the teams very well at the gate with the exception of Oakland and Jacksonville. And even if they aren't supporting them in the stands, all of the targeted cities have doled out hundreds of millions of taxpayer money to these sports owners either currently or in the very recent past.
Posted by Dan on October 20, 2009 01:37 AM
Dan, so who's fault is it(cities handing out millions of dollars to these sports owners'# ? Im sorry, but the way I see it, cities shouldnt be handing out millions of dollars to these owners in the first place ! Most#if not all# NFL owners r billionaires who can easily build these stadiums on their own without public subsidies. So before u start blaming Roski for trying to lure an NFL team to los angeles, u should look at the whole picture. Perhaps, you'll get a better perspective.
Posted by oscar on October 21, 2009 02:44 AM
Dan, so who's fault is it(cities handing out millions of dollars to these sports owners') ? Im sorry, but the way I see it, cities shouldnt be handing out millions of dollars to these owners in the first place ! Most#if not all# NFL owners r billionaires who can easily build these stadiums on their own without public subsidies. So before u start blaming Roski for trying to lure an NFL team to los angeles, u should look at the whole picture. Perhaps, you'll get a better perspective.
Posted by oscar on October 21, 2009 02:45 AM
Latest is the governor has signed off on the Enviromental waiver, creating "18,000 well paid jobs"
link is here
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-nfl-losangeles&prov=ap&type=lgns
Posted by ken h on October 22, 2009 04:22 PM
Yep. Looks like it's a done deal. Let the bidding and backstabbing begin on who gets to be the new LA team. My money is on the Raiders with Al Davis's history of attachment to the market, his history of selling minority stakes in the Raiders (which is all Roski is looking for), Davis' advanced age and failing health making this likely his final move of any importance regarding his beloved team, and the LA area to this day having a fan base that still is somewhat attached to the Raiders.
Posted by Dan on October 22, 2009 06:24 PM
I agree. Although, I wouldnt rule out the Chargers at all. In fact, as of right now, I think I would put them as the frontrunner. They still dont have anything in place for a stadium in san diego. And lets not forget that they conveniently moved their training camp several years ago to cal state doinguez hills(suburb of los angeles). Not to mention the fact that a few months ago they hired a los angeles marketing firm to market the team in the los angeles area. Now, if I was the owner of the San Diego Chargers and I was serious about staying put in san diego, y would I hire an L.A marketing company to market the team in L.A ??? Just a little food for thought........
Posted by oscar on October 23, 2009 02:43 AM
They're(Chargers) also free to leave right now if they wanted to, unlike all the other teams on Roskis' list. They're lease actually expired last year !
Posted by oscar on October 23, 2009 02:48 AM
Looks like the assumption that San Diego is the front runner may have to be revisited. San Diego has brought the idea of a downtown NFL stadium east of Petco Park back to life. And while it's far from a done deal, the city leadership seems behind it as are the Chargers. Looks like the LA stadium has had the desired by product in at least one city so far spurring what had been a stalled stadium search in SD.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/nov/10/chargers-city-are-discussing-downtown/
Posted by Dan on November 10, 2009 04:37 PM