COLISEUM EMERGES AS PRIME SPOT IN NFL QUEST.Byline: James Nash Staff Writer Expressing confidence that a professional football team can be lured to Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , City Council members Friday moved forward on plans to prepare the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum For board track racing circuit, see . Present use The Coliseum is now primarily the home of the USC Trojan football team. During the recent stretch of its success in football, most of USC's regular home games, especially the alternating games with rivals UCLA and Notre to host an NFL NFL abbr. National Football League NFL (US) n abbr (= National Football League) → Fußball-Nationalliga team at no cost to taxpayers. Coliseum general manager Pat Lynch told council members that the Exposition Park Exposition Park is the name of more than one place:
Optimistic City Council members said the city could have pro football as early as 2006. ``I think there's a prime-time opportunity for this,'' council President Alex Padilla Alex Padilla is a politician in California. He was elected as the State Senator for the 20th District of California in November 2006 and was inaugurated in early December. In order to enter the Senate he had to resign as Councilman for the 7th District on the Los Angeles City said. ``Bottom line, it's my belief that it's just a matter of time before the NFL comes back to Los Angeles.'' Backers envision an NFL team playing at a modernized Coliseum with 78,000 seats, down from the current 92,000. The stadium would have larger locker rooms and other amenities; the restrooms and concessions would be moved indoors. Coliseum backers have pitched their proposal to NFL team owners, who also are considering the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and a former toxic dump site in Carson as homes for a possible NFL franchise in the Los Angeles area. Lynch asserted Friday that the Coliseum is ``head and shoulders above'' the competing sites. Although officials in Carson and Pasadena have talked about public subsidies for stadium projects there, Los Angeles officials maintain that the Coliseum could be rebuilt with private money. Padilla said NFL owners have reconciled themselves to the idea of no public subsidies, given the financial hardships of California cities. Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa Antonio Ramon Villaraigosa (born Antonio (Tony) Ramon Villar, Jr. on January 23, 1953) is the mayor of Los Angeles, California. He is the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since Cristobal Aguilar in 1872. said Los Angeles shouldn't have to tap into its general fund to lure an NFL franchise. ``We don't want any public money - period, exclamation point exclamation point: see punctuation. exclamation point - exclamation mark , period,'' he said. The council on Friday asked city transit planners to implement traffic- control measures at the Coliseum, including closed-circuit cameras, to help move traffic before and after games. The council also urged transit planners to move ahead with plans for a light-rail line along Exposition Boulevard that would serve the stadium. James Nash, (213) 978-0390 james.nash(at)dailynews.com |
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