Slow Down Stadium Deal

Where’s Joel Wachs when we need him?

The former city councilman, who was the ultimate insider and finger-in-the-wind pol, nonetheless knew a fleece job when he saw one. In 1997, Ed Roski Jr. and Philip Anschutz argued persuasively that Los Angeles would get a super deal by floating $58 million in municipal bond funds to help build Staples Center, money they would repay with tax dollars generated at the arena. Wachs cried foul and kept yelling until the City Council forced the developers to agree to repay the debt without using funds from sales, property or utility taxes. They will also pay several million dollars for a 55-year lease on the land rather than the $1 a year originally proposed.

With a net worth estimated at $6.9 billion, Anschutz is the world’s 54th richest person. But he says he still needs taxpayers’ help to build a football stadium beside Staples Center.

Here’s the deal: Anschutz Entertainment Group has already bought up most of the 20 acres it needs. The company wants the city to help acquire the rest of the land. Then--here’s where things get creative--the city or the Community Redevelopment Agency would float about $100 million in bond funds to buy all 20 acres, including the property the stadium group already owns. The developers, who would get a long-term lease on the land, would repay taxpayers for their bond loan out of ticket sales, taxes and other revenue. For the numbers to pencil out, the National Football League would have to offer a loan and secure commitments for a team franchise and Super Bowl games in Los Angeles.

Where are the Wachs-style questions, or even a little of his righteous indignation? Where, in fact, is the public debate on this issue? Instead, our city leaders seem hellbent to do the deal. On Tuesday, the council introduced a motion to allow the use of public money to help build a stadium so long as the funds were repaid. That motion will be heard next month. Nothing should go forward until every bit of fine print is examined, in public.

Last week, when the council gave preliminary approval to a plan allowing property taxes and other revenue to go toward revitalization of 879 acres downtown, council members indignantly denied that football was the driving force. Housing and hotel plans seemed to be the chief items on the table.

Guess what? As soon as Wednesday’s final vote on the plan was in the bag, out came the foam-board models and the hard sell about how a major league city needs a major league professional football team. Last week, Mayor James K. Hahn said he was still “studying” the plan, but Thursday, study hall apparently over, Hahn stood shoulder to shoulder with the stadium boosters at a news conference on the plan. Meanwhile, at the request of the development group’s president, Councilman Nick Pacheco has signed onto a team working to bring football back to Los Angeles.

Whoa. Let’s take a step back. Is building another huge sports venue, one that would be dark far more than it would be in use, the best way to spur downtown redevelopment? It surely wouldn’t be the best way to use public bond money, which would be tied up for years even if it was eventually repaid. And why do we feel as if L.A.’s about to get rolled again?