AEG Pulls Plug on Downtown NFL Stadium, Criticizes Hollywood Park and Carson Venues

AEG  jettisoned plans to build its Farmers Field football stadium in downtown Los Angeles despite having already spent $50 million on the proposed project.

The venue, designated to attract a NFL football franchise, has been overshadowed by other potential NFL venues in Inglewood and Carson. The entertainment and sports industry giant acknowledged on Monday that it is no longer in discussions with the NFL, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Breitbart News reported in February that St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke last year purchased 6o acres of land in Inglewood, California, and plans to construct an 80,000-seat football stadium nearby Hollywood Park and the Los Angeles Forum in Inglewood.

Moreover, Breitbart also reported that both the Raiders and the Chargers announced plans to build a privately-financed $1.7 billion stadium on the site of a former landfill in Carson, which could bring not one but two NFL teams to the Southern California region.

Up until Kroenke hatched his $1.86-billion stadium idea, AEG’s Farmers Field was the most expensive L.A. proposal at $1.5 billion. Moreover, it was the only venue that comes fully attached with a sponsor. Farmers paid $700 million for the naming rights to the stadium. The Times reported that Farmers is off the hook for that because the companies agreed that no money would exchange hands until the stadium was built.

Even though the L.A. based conglomerate pulled the plug on Farmers Stadium, they are making life difficult for the other potential NFL Franchise holders. AEG contracted former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge to run some analysis on the potential safety risk of the Hollywood Park location. He determined that it was a potential terrorist target because of its proximity to the flight path of arriving planes at LAX.

Ridge defended the study saying “We’ll never be able to rebut those who say, ‘Well, [Anschutz] got the report he wanted.’” He defended it saying, “No, he got the high-level risk report that’s predicated on facts. And if you’d have commissioned me, I’d have given you the same report.”

On top of that, AEG contacted the Mayor of Carson and complained that a new sports arena in the city could detract from the StubHub Center in Carson, a sports complex that it owns.