Hahn Endorses Downtown Stadium Plan

Mayor James K. Hahn said Thursday that he strongly supports a proposal by private developers to build a pro football stadium in downtown Los Angeles--as long as the city does not foot the bill.

“I’m really excited about bringing the NFL back to Los Angeles,” Hahn said at a news conference at Staples Center with stadium developers Tim Leiweke, Casey Wasserman and Ed Roski. “The plan you outlined represents the best chance we have to do that.”

The three partners, with supermarket mogul Ron Burkle, have proposed a $450-million, 64,000-seat stadium on 20 acres in the South Park neighborhood, close to Staples. National Football League officials have said that they are eager to get a team back in Los Angeles, which has lost both the Rams and the Raiders.

Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose district includes South Park, said a stadium would help revitalize downtown.

“Things were good when we finished the [Staples] arena, and they’re about to get better,” she said.

As city attorney, Hahn worked with Leiweke and his Anschutz Entertainment Group on the creation of Staples Center, a public-private partnership that cost the city $12 million--a fraction of what most cities pay for a new sports arena.

“I like the Staples model. There’s no risk to taxpayers, no increased taxes and no risk to the general fund,” Hahn said. “We came up with a different way of doing things.”

The developers reiterated that the city will pay nothing for the football stadium. “The assistance we need out of the city is acquiring land,” Leiweke said.

The developers already have acquired much of the land they need, but say they intend to ask the city to use its power of eminent domain to condemn the property of any holdouts. They also hope to finance the land purchase through up to $100 million in municipal bonds, which would be repaid from a tax on tickets, along with sales taxes and excess property taxes at the stadium.

Leiweke added that if tax revenue comes up short, the developers are prepared to pay off the shortfall.

The only city agency that has the power of eminent domain is the Community Redevelopment Agency, whose officials have been somewhat miffed about the handling of the football stadium proposal. Plans for the stadium were announced just as the City Council was about to vote on a new redevelopment district that includes the site of the proposed stadium, giving rise to concerns that the redevelopment plan--which is aimed at building new housing, eliminating blight and helping the homeless--was a fig leaf for the football stadium.

So far, CRA officials said, there has been no contact between the agency and the stadium group.

“A stadium is not part of our plans,” Donald Spivack, deputy administrator of the agency, said Wednesday. “We have no involvement in a football stadium. We have not been part of any discussion related to a football stadium.”

On Thursday, CRA officials declined to comment further, referring questions about the stadium to the mayor’s office.

Stadium Would Be on 20 Acres

The site of the stadium remained an open question, with Leiweke and others refusing to discuss potential sites for fear of driving up land-acquisition costs. The land is known to be within walking distance of Staples Center--with which it would share parking--and a Blue Line light-rail station at Pico Boulevard and Flower Street.

At 20 acres, the site would be the equivalent of about four square blocks.

One area that seems to match the developers’ hints surrounds Hope Street at about 11th and 12th streets, just east of Staples, a neighborhood dominated by parking lots, warehouses and “For Sale” signs.

Hoyt Leisure, who owns a 47,000-square-foot building in the 1100 block of Hope Street, has entered into escrow with a buyer he declined to identify.

The land was part of a proposal for a South Park stadium years ago that died after backers dropped the site in favor of the Coliseum.

Although the neighborhood’s charms are mostly utilitarian, Joe Berger, who owns a wholesale shoe business that rents space from Leisure, said he would hate to see it razed to make way for a football stadium.

“I just can’t see it here,” said Berger, who has been a tenant for two decades. “It would kill the area.”

The city’s chief administrative officer, Bill Fujioka, said municipal officials have not yet had a chance to study financing proposals for the stadium. He said, however, that it should be possible to structure the financing in a way that guarantees that the city will be fully reimbursed, regardless of the success of the stadium.

“Given the position taken by the mayor,” he said, “it looks like the direction we’ll be taking.”

Eugene Grigsby, director of the Advanced Policy Institute at UCLA, agreed that it should be possible for the city to avoid spending taxpayer money on a new stadium, although he noted that it would be a rare achievement. Most large sports stadiums and arenas built in the United States in recent years have involved significant public contributions.

Grigsby said he was less concerned with the financial risks than with the urban policy implications of the stadium.

“It may pencil out,” he said. “The bigger question is, do you want this big, 60,000-seat monster sitting unoccupied 70% of the time in downtown Los Angeles?”

The developers have said the stadium would be used about 30 to 40 days a year, depending on whether the city lands one or two NFL teams.

Besides pro football, they hope to attract a college team--presumably UCLA--as well as international soccer matches, concerts and other events.

Meanwhile, in San Diego, business leaders were scrambling to find ways to keep the Chargers, one team being considered as a possible Los Angeles franchise, from leaving.

Biotechnology executive Ted Roth said a committee of San Diego Chamber of Commerce members is looking to see if it is possible to answer the Chargers’ request for a new stadium. But Roth conceded that time may be running out.

“We may not be able to put something together quickly enough, but at least we can say we tried,” he said.

And Mayor Dick Murphy continues to be incredulous that the Chargers could consider leaving San Diego: “If I owned an NFL team, Los Angeles is the last place I’d move to.”

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Times staff writer Tony Perry contributed to this report.