State senate wipes out final hurdle to NFL team…
State senate wipes out final hurdle to NFL team in Industry
By Steve Hunt | Steve.Hunt@sgvn.com |
October 15, 2009 at 12:00 a.m.
San Gabriel Valley residents, are you ready for some football? Some professional football, to be exact?
Majestic Realty Co. chairman and CEO Edward Roski Jr. and Majestic Vice President John Semcken are.
A day after the state Senate wiped away the last hurdle to Roski's proposed football stadium in Industry, Semcken said he thinks an NFL team will be playing at either the Rose Bowl or Coliseum in 2011 and would move into Roski's $800 million stadium in 2013.
"We're going to do something spectacular," Semcken said Thursday. "Something the San Gabriel Valley has never seen.
"We're going to build something wonderful. It'll be to Los Angeles what (Cowboys' owner) Jerry Jones' stadium is to Dallas. It'll be something we'll all be proud of. And we'll do it with union jobs and jobs that can happen here very, very quickly."
Although the state Senate voted 21-14 Wednesday evening to provide the stadium with an exemption to state environmental law, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger must sign the bill authored by Assemblyman Isadore Hall III, D-Compton, for it to become law.
State Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, expects that to happen soon. And when it does, Romero said it will be a huge moment for the San Gabriel Valley.
"It puts us on the map and gives us the respect we deserve," she said.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the league is monitoring news about Roski's plan.
"We're very, very much so closely following all stadium developments in the Los Angeles area," McCarthy said.
McCarthy said he didn't know if Roski had contacted any teams since the bill passed, but there would be no league prohibition on him doing that.
"But, that's up to (Roski)," McCarthy said.
He said the NFL remains optimistic a team will return to the area.
"It's going on 15 years since a team was there," McCarthy said. "It's a priority to return the NFL to Los Angeles. The NFL has prospered since then, but we think the two could do better if we return."
Once Schwarzenegger signs Hall's bill, Semcken said the stadium's CEQA exemption takes effect 90 days from when the Senate passed it.
"Now the governor signs the bill and we've got a stadium we can build," he said. "Nothing can stop us. We can really accelerate the process."
And Semcken said there is a lot of work to be done, including critical work in finishing the grading design at the stadium site, located on 600 acres at the intersection of the 57 and 60 freeways.
"We've got to put the final financial plan together for the league and find out what process they want us to follow and start negotiating with a team once the season's over," Semcken said. "Now the work starts, to be perfectly honest.
"Our project is to build the first LEED green football stadium in the country, provide 18,000 jobs and millions of dollars of economic benefit to the region."
Meanwhile, Industry will wait for Majestic Realty Co. to provide estimates for ticket sales and other revenue, which could come as early as December, said Mayor Dave Perez.
The city will use those estimates to sell bonds, the proceeds of which could be used to begin construction of underground utilities, hillside grading, street lights, and roads around the stadium site in the spring, he said.
The possibility that Industry could soon be featured on a national stage is just starting to hit Perez, he said.
"I'll be honest, the dynamics are going to change," the mayor said. "We went from a mix of retail, light entertainment and warehouses to probably having full-blown televised events. It brings a lot of notoriety. We'll see what happens."
It remains unknown which, if any, NFL team would be willing to sell at least a minority ownership interest to Roski in order to move into a state-of-the-art, 75,000-seat stadium in Industry.
But one team to keep an eye on is the San Diego Chargers. The Spanos family, which owns the Chargers, talked with Roski last spring, but hasn't discussed selling the team since, said Chargers attorney and spokesman Mark Fabiani.
He said the team doesn't want to move. It wants a new stadium in San Diego. But without a new stadium, the Chargers will not have enough money to sign the best players, Fabiani said.
"What we'll run across someday, if we are not lucky, is that we won't get any help and we won't be able to privately finance the project," he said.
"At that point, you have to look at your options. You do have to be able to compete financially. Right now, we're not able to do that."
Staff Writers Frank C. Girardot and Ben Baeder contributed to this story.
steve.hunt@sgvn.com
Steve Hunt