Before the Rams and Chargers moved to Los Angeles and Stan Kroenke’s SoFi Stadium became reality, numerous groups had big dreams — and big renderings — to lure the NFL back after the Rams and Raiders left town in 1995. Here’s a look at some of them.
Michael Ovitz, the co-founder of Creative Artists Agency and former Walt Disney Co. president, wanted to build a stadium and shopping mall on the site of a former landfill in Carson. He dubbed the project “The Hacienda.” NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue took a helicopter tour of the site in March 1999, but the league ultimately awarded an expansion team to Houston, instead of L.A., later that year.
In 2002, Anschutz Entertainment Group confirmed plans to build a 64,000-seat stadium next to Staples Center with hopes of an NFL team returning to Los Angeles for the 2003 season. AEG pulled out after Coliseum officials announced a plan to develop their own proposal for an NFL stadium.
In April 2008, billionaire developer Ed Roski proposed building a football stadium into a hillside on 600 acres in the City of Industry. Roski wanted partial ownership of any team that relocated to his stadium and said he’d break ground “the moment we have secured an NFL franchise.” It never happened.
Eight years after its first attempt to bring the NFL to downtown Los Angeles, AEG announced plans to try again in 2010, this time with a proposed stadium on the other side of Staples Center where the West Hall of the Convention Center sits. The following year, Farmers Insurance agreed to pay $700 million for naming rights if the stadium was built. AEG abandoned its plans for Farmers Field in 2015 after being overshadowed by competing projects in Carson and Inglewood.
In February 2015, the Chargers and Raiders proposed a 68,000-seat venue in Carson with a more traditional feel — an open-air stadium with a natural grass field and spacious parking lots granting easy access to the 405 Freeway — than the competing project in Inglewood. The following January, NFL owners approved the Rams’ proposal, which put an end to the Carson project. The Chargers joined the Rams in calling SoFi Stadium home and the Raiders moved to Las Vegas and play at the new Allegiant Stadium.
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