Los Angeles Football Club’s stadium focus firmly on Sports Arena site

The fledgling Los Angeles Football Club, which will join Major League Soccer for the 2017 season, is closer to picking a place for its new custom-built home.

A person with knowledge of the team’s negotiations said the focus now is firmly on the site of the Sports Arena, next to the Coliseum in Exposition Park.

“I would be surprised if they announced a site other than the Sports Arena,” said the person, who is not authorized to comment publicly about the negotiations until a deal is reached.

Team President Tom Penn would not dispute that, but he said no firm decision has been reached.

“We do not have a deal with them or anyone else,” Penn said. “There’s never any way to be close to a deal. You either have a deal or you don’t.”

The historic Sports Arena would have to be torn down to make room for the kind of state-of-the-art stadium LAFC is planning to build, which will take time. But an environmental impact study for the site has already been completed, which will save time.

LAFC, which said it wants to spend upward of $150 million on a home with a capacity in the 25,000 range, has selected Southern California-based architect Gensler to build that stadium. Five firms auditioned for that job by submitting blueprints for a proposed stadium on the Sports Arena site.

“From the beginning the Sports Arena site has been a site of high, high interest,” Penn said.

For the landowners as well. Eighteen months ago, when USC was granted control over the Coliseum and Sports Arena, the school immediately announced its intentions to tear down the arena and construct an MLS stadium in its place.

Seventeen months ago, when USC was granted control over the Memorial Coliseum and Sports Arena, the school immediately announced its intentions to tear down the arena and construct an MLS stadium in its place. - See more at: https://www.tidewaterreview.com/sports/la-sp-sn-sports-arena-site-mls-team-20150221,0,2125949.story#sthash.mFa4oE43.dpuf

Seventeen months ago, when USC was granted control over the Memorial Coliseum and Sports Arena, the school immediately announced its intentions to tear down the arena and construct an MLS stadium in its place. - See more at: https://www.tidewaterreview.com/sports/la-sp-sn-sports-arena-site-mls-team-20150221,0,2125949.story#sthash.mFa4oE43.dpuf