Oh wow, ex-Dodgers owner Frank McCourt just keeps getting more hateable. Even though he sold the Dodgers last year (to everyone's delight), he held onto a whole lot of the land around Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine. And now that deal will probably threaten any big dreams for building an NFL stadium by the baseball stadium. Everyone in LA has dreamed of football at Chavez (including McCourt!), and these days even the NFL is sounding interested (they're in talks with Dodgers owners Guggenheim Baseball Management). But "The Los Angeles Times obtained documents Wednesday that show the unpopular former Dodgers owner has the option to buy back land if another sports facility -- let's say an NFL football stadium -- is built on Dodger Stadium property." The NFL is not super psyched about working with McCourt and is probably also not psyched about paying a lot of money to buy out his land holdings.
Meanwhile, the Times's Sam Farmer adds that "McCourt isn't the only problem. Getting the site entitled for a football stadium, including untangling all of the traffic and neighborhood issues, would take five years at a minimum, and the project would surely be a litigation magnet." Meanwhile, local politicians are probably still nursing their wounds from the Farmers Field debacle, in which they rubber-stamped developer AEG's plans for an NFL stadium in South Park, only to see everything fall apart. And so once again, after a couple brief shining moments, the prospects of bringing professional football back to LA look pretty dark.
· NFL stadium at Chavez Ravine tough sell with Frank McCourt in the mix [LAT]
· Dodgers Owner Says It's Trying to Bring Second Sport to Chavez [Curbed LA]
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