Column: NFL stadium in Chavez Ravine? Well, we can dream
An NFL stadium at Chavez Ravine?
You can bet the new owners of the Dodgers will at least kick the tires on that idea. In fact, a league insider said the buyers had preliminary discussions with the NFL while doing their due diligence on the investment.
Peter O’Malley did more than that in the late 1990s. He was well down the road on a proposal to build a football stadium next to Dodger Stadium when the city let the air out of his balloon by supporting the Coliseum, which it partly owned. Had politicians backed O’Malley, we would have had at least one team, and probably two, playing in a hilltop stadium for the last decade.
Frank McCourt tried to float a plan to the NFL too, but the project nicknamed “Five Ton Gorilla” — a football stadium and retail complex — never got off the ground.
So it stands to reason that the group paying $2.15 billion for the Dodgers will explore the idea of plunging into the stadium derby, a puzzle no one has solved for the last 17 years. After all, Magic Johnson, the most recognizable member of the new ownership group, has for years talked about his desire to bring the NFL back to L.A.
-- Sam Farmer, Los Angeles Times