April 22, 2011

Majestic hires L.A. lobbyist to fight AEG stadium plan

Long article in the L.A. Weekly this week on John Ek, a powerful Los Angeles lobbyist who's been hired by Ed Roski's Majestic Realty to lobby for his City of Industry stadium plan — and against AEG's competing downtown proposal. In fact, the paper notes, Ek sent the L.A. city council a list of 44 questions to ask AEG during hearings, and chief AEG critic Bill Rosendahl ended up reading them nearly verbatim:

Majestic: "Will the stadium developer agree to never sell/refinance the project until the bonds are paid off?"

Rosendahl: "Will the developer agree to never sell/refinance the project until the bonds are paid off?"

Majestic: "The L.A. Auto Show controls the entire convention center nearly the whole month of November; will we have football or the L.A. Auto Show?"

Rosendahl: "The L.A. Auto Show occupies the entire Convention Center nearly the whole month of November, which is football season. How will the two coexist?"

Majestic: "Given the passing of Prop. 26, would a 'ticket tax' require voter approval?"

Rosendahl: "Does the new Proposition 26 require that the proposed ticket tax be approved by voters?"

As the Weekly concludes: "Those are fine questions, deserving of answers. But that was even finer lobbying." And it's an indication that the AEG plan could have a rougher road ahead than some might have anticipated — as we've seen before, it's a lot easier to stop a stadium deal when there's a major local corporation in your corner.