Following last week's report that some people want to bring a football stadium downtown, comes this news: The San Gabriel Valley Tribune reports that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is once again saying there are "concerns with the funding for local billionaire Ed Roski's proposed NFL stadium for Industry." More via the SGVT: "This isn't the first time Goodell has raised questions about the financing of the 75,000-seat, $800-million project in a down economy.
"While the stadium in the City of Industry has gotten many construction approvals, it still needs to be determined how to pay for it," he wrote in an online chat with fans on NFL.com today. "This is a big challenge particularly in this economic climate. It is one of the issues we are addressing in the context of our collective bargaining agreement."
Goodell also noted that the NFL "[wants] to get back to LA." For those confused as to how the whole financing of a stadium works, earlier this year, there was an excellent LA Times piece that broke down all the details.
The story stated that it'll likely be up a team and the NFL to privately finance the Industry stadium; Roski would likely hand over the land and entitlements and keep an equity stake in the team, according to the Times. And perhaps this is all jockeying for position on the part of the NFL? As the Times piece noted, "the NFL has a history of dealing with multiple sites at once to get the most favorable deal. Paradoxically, it could be a sign that the league is getting closer to an L.A. deal when other sites arise." The Times piece also pointed out that the NFL team owners want players to take a pay cut to help ultimately pay off debt on the new stadiums.
· NFL commissioner again raises concerns with Industry stadium funding [SGVT]
· NFL in LA? Let's Huddle [LAT]
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