Edward Roski plans 'major announcement' about NFL in L.A.

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Roski plans 'major announcement' about NFL in L.A.

Associated Press


Updated: April 16, 2008, 10:04 PM EST

Edward P. Roski Jr., a part owner of the Kings and Lakers who has spent several years trying to lure the NFL back to the Los Angeles area, believes his latest concept for a stadium could help finally land a team.

The Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site that Roski has scheduled a news conference at Staples Center to make a "major announcement" concerning the league and L.A.

On Thursday, Roski will unveil his idea for a stadium in the City of Industry, near the southern intersection of the 57 and 60 freeways some 20 miles east of Los Angeles, said John Semcken, vice president of Majestic Realty, Roski's real estate company.

The stadium would be surrounded by a high-end shopping mall, and located on a vacant property which Roski already owns.

"We've spent the last year designing a football stadium that is ideally suited for the Southern California marketplace that will be a part of a major entertainment, retail and office development," Semcken told The Associated Press.

"We want to take all of the uncertainty out of this stadium situation."

If a team committed to moving to Los Angeles, "we could begin construction in the final quarter of this year and have it ready for play for the first exhibition game in 2011," Semcken said.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told the AP that the league wasn't involved in Thursday's news conference.

Los Angeles, the second-largest market in the country, has been without an NFL team since 1995, when the Raiders moved back to Oakland after playing 13 years at the Los Angeles Coliseum and the Rams moved from Anaheim to St. Louis.

Los Angeles lost out to Houston for an expansion franchise since that time, and the league hasn't made relocating to the area a top priority in recent years.

Proposals have been made for numerous stadium sites in the area over the years including the Coliseum and the Rose Bowl in Pasadena as well as in Irwindale, Inglewood, Carson and Anaheim.

Roski and Philip Anschutz, the head of AEG, headed up construction of Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. The Lakers, Kings and Arena Football League's Los Angeles Avengers play their home games at the facility, which opened in October 1999. AEG is not involved in Thursday's news conference either, according to a spokesman.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/8042930?MSNHPHMA#
 

Hostile

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This guy needs to talk to Georgia Frontiere's heirs because they both live in the Los Angeles area and are their best shot to get a team by moving the Rams back.

I am divided on how I would feel about that.
 

FCBarca

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Having lived in LA for awhile, I can attest to the reality that the NFL will never work in LA...It may happen but it'll never last in a way that will ultimately survive...It simply isn't the culture in LA to be too wrapped up in a sports franchise to fill seats on a weekly basis...Too much going on and general disinterest...UCLA Bruin football games are often half empty and the old days of the Coliseum & the Raiders were just an excuse to have a brawl in the stands.

LA has to be one of the most apathetic sports towns going and relative to it's size it is definitely the worst sports town in the country, IMHO.

Lakers survive because of it being a small venue event (Shared with the Clippers, mind you) and the history of putting marquis players on the roster and it's past success.

I just see this as a bad bad idea but with it being such a media market, someone will make money on shared revenue and TV rights in all likelihood...for a short while anyway...But those gate receipts will continue to dwindle although I suppose it'll get recouped from Concerts and other events...But American Football?...It'll never sustain itself
 

Dallas

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St. Louis supports the Rams 100x better than the LA fans ever did. They would be silly to move that team back to LA. No offense Hos - just disagreeing here.


I feel like I need to put that in every post now. :cool:
 

ABQCOWBOY

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Hostile;2039023 said:
This guy needs to talk to Georgia Frontiere's heirs because they both live in the Los Angeles area and are their best shot to get a team by moving the Rams back.

I am divided on how I would feel about that.

I'm not. Unless they somehow manage to get Pete Rozelle, Tex Schramm and Roman Gabriel back into the organization, it is never going to work out IMO.

IMO, this whole idea should be filed under: Good try, nice try, great while it lasted but now it's over fellas. Lets pack up our crap and move along. Nothing more to see here.
 

trickblue

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The Rams should move back to LA... the Cardinals should move back to St. Louis and Arizona should get an expansion team instead...
 

ROMOSAPIEN9

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trickblue;2039185 said:
The Rams should move back to LA... the Cardinals should move back to St. Louis and Arizona should get an expansion team instead...


Not just that. Go ahead and move the Rams back to Cleveland, and the Cardinals back to Chicago, and just start all over again.:confused:
 

dallasfaniac

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trickblue;2039185 said:
The Rams should move back to LA... the Cardinals should move back to St. Louis and Arizona should get an expansion team instead...

Wait. Are you saying Arizona isn't an expansion team? Sorry, just kinda miss getting those jabs in there.
 

Juke99

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I get a kick out of the fact that one of the selling points about a proposed football stadium is that there will also be high end shopping mall.

That says all ya need to know about football in LA.
 

trickblue

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ROMOSAPIEN9;2039195 said:
Not just that. Go ahead and move the Rams back to Cleveland, and the Cardinals back to Chicago, and just start all over again.:confused:

No pre-merger moves...

Modern era only and get St. Louis back in the division...

I'm a dreamer...
 

Rhubarb

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FCBarca;2039042 said:
LA has to be one of the most apathetic sports towns going and relative to it's size it is definitely the worst sports town in the country, IMHO.


Quoted for truth. It's amazing out here... people just don't care, unless it's the championship game.

On top of that, putting the stadium in CoI? That's... strange. I guess it's better than where the colosseum is though.
 

Encore

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This might sound selfish, but, living in the LA area ... I'd say about 90% of the time I have Cowboy games on TV since there isn't a team.

I don't know if I'd want to give that up.

Unless of course the team brought over was a NFC team.. Then I could actually go to a Cowboys game.
 

StanleySpadowski

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The NFL doesn't need to water itself down even more with expansion. The only options are to either relocate an existing team (Jacksonville or New Orleans) or scrap plans for overseas football and rotate teams in one division hosting an out of division "home" game there every year. That would give LA four games a year, teams would only lose a "home" game every eight years and a city of transplants in LA would get to see their real hometown team at least once every four or five years.
 

FCBarca

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Juke99;2039218 said:
I get a kick out of the fact that one of the selling points about a proposed football stadium is that there will also be high end shopping mall.

That says all ya need to know about football in LA.

Exactamundo :D

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