Posted on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s website in the last hour, this astonishing promotional video for AEG’s unexamined, ill-defined plan for a downtown NFL stadium and takeover of the LA Convention Center.
The mayor — who has appointed his deputy Austin Beutner to protect the public interest — guarantees it will be 100 percent privately financed, not one cent of any kind of public money will go into it.
Surely that includes the land, demolition of half the Convention Center and the parking lot, all road, freeway and infrastructure costs and means the city will get all — 100 percent — of all tax revenues.
You can trust the mayor — he’s negotiating the deal and always looks after the public interest. Doesn’t he?
Forget about everything else. Let’s recall this idiot before he screws our city beyond help.
come on home boy mayor you nust be out to lunch i love los angeles times this weekend for exposing this crook and liar
WTF?? What a clown!!! He’s like the Peter Principle model. He got to a high position and is one dumb idiot. Every media outlet has had a negative story on AEG but there’s the Failure of a Mayor trying to SELL a development. Don’t forget millionaire asshole TIm Lieweke gave him over $100,000 for his schools. Is that not pay to play indictment? What the hell did Steve Cooley’s Public Integrity Unit do with the Ticketgate Investigation? WE need to start a letter campaign to put the heat on. I’m sick and tired of these gangster low life Latino politicians
Don’t fumble!….Tackle your opponents legs…Is a new stadium really sustainable? Get the facts:
http://www.asustainableusa.org/article/david_pimental_2.html
Don’t believe any of that Malthusian hogwash…Our Mayor knows what is best for L.A…FIGHT ON!
So the Mayor has made a video saying the stadium is a good deal for L.A. That must mean his “blue ribbon” commission has completed its study and submitted its report to him by now. He even read it, and, based on its conclusions, had this video made.
That’s pretty effective if you ask me – it all took less than it takes to get a pothole fixed.
What a bunch of brainless know-nothings who think they know everything. Like 7:11. Somehow fitting, this person might be maybe suited to staffing the night shift, make it the late-late-night shift, at a 7-11. While studying for mid-terms. What a literary genius!
In fact, one media “outlet” supporting AEG and its notion for a football stadium is none other than Peter Tilden of morning KABC, ok, shoot him, he’s not as rabidly anti-Antonio as Doug McIntyre. He may be no Ivy League genius himself (admits to being an ADHD barely C-student, to those of you who love to make educational achievement a huge negative), or even a self-read genius (though he DOES read, got to hand him that, tries to keep up with the day’s news and a step ahead of his audience, not hard there), but he thinks it’s not such a horrible thing for a company with a proven track record of doing what it promises, to turn a down and out area of downtown into what it did with Staples. (EXCEPT hopefully with a mass transit stop, this time, instead of over-priced parking.)
The knee-jerk naysayers are the usual crowd, the Just Say No’s, about Nancy Reagan’s contemporaries, the remaining subscribers to the fishwrap of former record (except those who buy the Sunday paper for the ads and coupons), and the only ones who seem to have the time and energy to flood the Behind the Times with letters. Judging by their claim in the Opinion section.
Wow, what a horrible thing, cleaning up distressed areas and bringing taxes, a focal point of city pride, a meeting place, via a major sports team to L A! You people gripe with reason that this city’s broke and resorting to desperate and short-term measures to raise a buck, but oppose EVERYTHING that brings revenue.
WAIT a minute!!! Your mascot, the Rudy Martinez of a City Attorney, has been feverishly cleaning up downtown on the guise of a homeless problem, which just so happens to coincide with the desires (demands?) of certain contributors. Which ones might those be? Changing your minds yet?
1:00AM – I don’t think people are saying “no.”
What we are saying is fine – build it, but not a penny of tax dollars.
That means AEG carries the full debt load, pays the debt service from the stadium revenues, all taxes from ticket sales, parking, etc go to the general fund, pay a fair market lease for the land, and AEG pays for infrastructure modifications to make the stadium accessible.
But that is contrary to what the mayor has alluded to. Someone needs to ask Tony V what 100% means.
With the $700 million AEG will get from Farmers, it should be able to cover all the costs and still be profitable.
Excuse me, there’s something missing in this dialog about taxpayers being off the hook for the building costs, etc. Has anyone bothered to think about why Antonio and AEG keep saying that this deal won’t cost the taxpayers anything? That’s because I suspect the deal that was brokered with back end guarantees or deferrals including:
1) The city not being entitled to collect sales tax revenue from any ticket sales, merchandise, etc., and 2) to participate in a share of the profits earned by this venture.
1:38 p.m., where do you get the assumption that the city wouldn’t be entitled to collect the usual taxes from ticket sales, merchandise, etc.? If that’s true and AEG is getting some unique breaks there, that would certainly be an issue to raise concerns. The whole point of such a deal would be to provide tax revenue (at that venue and hotels, restaurants, etc.) and civic price, as well as another step in making downtown an entertainment destination of choice, also bolstering the live- work-play atmosphere for those who live and work downtown. But so far there seems to be a lot of unfounded suspicion and not enough transparency – from the mayor/council or AEG, either.