6 Sites for an LA NFL Stadium

By Patrick Londrigan

By now you should know that my thesis project for this year is a new NFL stadium for the St. Louis Rams.  Attempting to keep them in St. Louis.  What some of you might not know is that St. Louis is competing currently with Los Angeles for the Rams.  The Rams just being the team at the moment to move cities.  Their contract to their current stadium is up and the stadium is out of date.  Whether the Rams move or not, it seems that LA is determined to build a stadium that could one day host an NFL team. 

It has been twenty years since Los Angeles has been home to an NFL team and in those past twenty years they have been working to get one back.  Currently it seems to be a possibility for the city.  At the moment Los Angeles has six possible plans for an NFL Stadium. The First site being in Inglewood.  The Rams owner, Stan Kroenke, has announced that he is joining up with the current firms that are redeveloping Inglewood's Hollywood Park racetrack on a proposal for an 80,000-seat NFL stadium with parking and a 6,000-seat entertainment venue to sit adjacent to the huge Hollywood Park development.  This site will also house residential, retail, office space, with hotels and parks.

Site number two would locate the stadium in Downtown.  In 2012, Los Angeles attempted to improve their current stadium Farmers Field, which is a 72,000-seat stadium in Downtown LA's South Park.  The stadium was developed by Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns the neighboring LA Live and the Staples Center (where the NBA teams, the Lakers and the Clippers currently host games).  The new stadium will seat 68,000 and expand to 78,000 for special events.  It will be a total of 1,700,000 square feet with a retractable roof and 32,000 parking spaces within a fifteen minute walk.

The third site is the City of Industry and is more than likely the front runner for an NFL stadium in Los Angeles.  This plan is a 600-acre entertainment zone with a 75,000-seat stadium in industry.  Creating a tiny city in the San Gabriel Valley, an NFL city.  In this city one would be able to do many things besides just seeing a ball game.  The design illustrates surfers in wave pools, gondolas in which fans fly over the site, a BMX course, concert stages, an "NFL Experience" area with punt, pass and kick competitions, and a Harley Davidson Café with an area for fans to show off their bikes and cars. 

The other three sites are currently rumors with no current ideas developing but LA is pushing to have an NFL team and not just one, they wouldn’t have a problem with two.  Just like in the NBA, as mentioned before Los Angeles is home to two NBA teams.  Two of the sites that have been rumored are in Carson, east and west of interstate 405.  Both large enough to house an NFL stadium.  The east being a 172-acre park and golf course that could potentially share the property and the west being a 91-acre lot.  The final site being in Chavez Ravine where the MLB team the Dodgers host their games.  They would most likely add a football stadium somewhere on the enormous amount of land that surrounds the current stadium. 

With all of these designs coming forward and seeing how badly Los Angeles wants an NFL team It seems that St. Louis is in trouble of losing their team.