L.A. Stadium Grows Close

There is no timeline to when Los Angeles will have a new stadium, if it’s built at all, but those with a vested interest are beginning to step up their game.

According to John Semcken, president of developer Majestic Reality Co., the 75,000-capacity Los Angeles Stadium has moved past politics into sales.

“We want everybody down here to understand we’re getting close,” Semcken told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. The stadium would be the fist step to returning a National Football League – maybe even successfully this time – to the Los Angeles area.

He recently visited the Orange County Chapter of the Building Industry Association of California to pitch the project to about 60 people. Semcken’s boss, billionaire Ed Roski, said the stadium would be for all of Southern California, not just the city of L.A.

The visit to Costa Mesa was to court potential suite buyers – the conservatively skewed Orange County has a higher median household income than L.A. County.

“They’re the ones that buy the club seats, all the things that make this financially feasible,” Semcken told the paper.

He noted that the project would draw 11.5 million people from a 30-mile radius and, if it’s built into the sides of hills, would save more than $500 million in construction costs. Semcken was amused when, at one meeting, residents asked him if they could invest in the project rather than buy seats, the paper said.

Roski and Co. have lobbied the state to exempt the project from state environmental rules and the subsequent bill could pass by mid-October if Majestic settles a lawsuit with NIMBYs.