Group Seeking to Secure Football Team Gets Ally

Frederic Rosen, the president and chief executive officer of Ticketmaster Corp. and a onetime skeptic about the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum’s chances of bringing football back to the city, announced Thursday that he is joining the partnership group in that effort.

“Clearly, events have happened that make this project possible,” Rosen said in an interview, specifically citing the approval of a downtown sports arena. “When I was asked by the mayor to head Football L.A., I . . . thought the Coliseum had no chance. I did not understand the impact of the arena. The arena changed the dynamic and caused me to re-look at everything.”

Rosen was one of two new partners announced for the Coliseum effort. The other, Alan Rothenberg, is a partner at the law firm of Latham & Watkins and is chairman of Major League Soccer.

Although neither Rosen nor Rothenberg said how much money they intended to invest in the football effort, their decision to join the Coliseum campaign was hailed by its chief backer, City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, as evidence that support for the facility continues to grow. Ridley-Thomas highlighted the sports and entertainment backgrounds of the two men and called them “substantial additions to the ownership team.”

Coliseum backers expect to announce more investors. However, they still face formidable political obstacles in winning approval for a financing plan that depends on action in Sacramento to create a special new tax district to help fund the Coliseum proposal.