Report: NFL to L.A. deal '95 percent done'
Yesterday's L.A. Daily News reports that a Coliseum Commission member confirmed that, with regard to an agreement to bring an NFL team to Los Angeles and play in the Coliseum, "The deal is 95 percent done...We are pretty close to an agreement with the NFL."
The article also notes that NFL owners will meet Oct. 26-27 to determine a team location in southern California, with two sites (Coliseum and an area in Anaheim) competing for the yet-to-be-named team. The Coliseum is the clear frontrunner at this point.
Grounds for a new stadium near the Coliseum could be broken next year, with the facility operational by 2009. However, as reported earlier on this site, the Coliseum could begin hosting NFL games as early as next year.
It may be beneficial to have a team in Los Angeles in 2006, prior to the groundbreaking for a new stadium, so that the area can push its support behind a team it knows will house the new facility. Also, the new team's owners would probably need to have some input on the construction of the stadium.
Which all continues to fit within the very realistic possibility of Tom Benson utilizing the $81 million option to get out of the lease with Louisiana after the 2005 season and sell the team to Los Angeles investors for $1 billion.
The article also notes that NFL owners will meet Oct. 26-27 to determine a team location in southern California, with two sites (Coliseum and an area in Anaheim) competing for the yet-to-be-named team. The Coliseum is the clear frontrunner at this point.
Grounds for a new stadium near the Coliseum could be broken next year, with the facility operational by 2009. However, as reported earlier on this site, the Coliseum could begin hosting NFL games as early as next year.
It may be beneficial to have a team in Los Angeles in 2006, prior to the groundbreaking for a new stadium, so that the area can push its support behind a team it knows will house the new facility. Also, the new team's owners would probably need to have some input on the construction of the stadium.
Which all continues to fit within the very realistic possibility of Tom Benson utilizing the $81 million option to get out of the lease with Louisiana after the 2005 season and sell the team to Los Angeles investors for $1 billion.
posted by cg | 4:35 PM
1 Comments:
Hope you're okay re: Katrina. (I'm assuming you're in New Orleans or thereabouts.) This Louisiana native appreciates your work here.
I wonder if the one tiny, insignificant sliver of good news to come out of Katrina will be keeping the Saints. It obviously changes the Superdome renovation game, and I have trouble imagining Benson being willing to take the incredible amount of heat that would come from leaving New Orleans at a time like this.
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