AEG’s Super L.A. Plan

AEG’s Tim Leiweke continues to up the ante in the attempt to build a mulitpurpose stadium in downtown Los Angeles and return the National Football League to the city.

Now, he’s talking about a Super Bowl and acknowledging he’s been meeting with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell “for a while” in the effort.

Leiweke told the Los Angeles Times he could complete a stadium project in time to host the 50th Super Bowl in 2016. His group would ask the NFL to waive the usual requirement that a stadium be open for at least one year before being eligible to host America’s highest-profile annual sports extravaganza.

“We’re asking [the NFL] to look at our track record, the uniqueness of that anniversary, and the place that this city has played in hosting Super Bowls, Leiweke told a recent Biltmore Hotel luncheon crowd.

L.A. businessman Casey Wasserman has joined Leiweke in pitching a retractable-roof “event center” that could double as convention space and sports venue adjacent to the L.A. Convention Center near AEG’s Staples Center and L.A. Live campus.

Developer Ed Roski is also in the hunt for a stadium in the suburban City of Industry area, and has already received an “entitlement” that protects the project from lawsuits related to an environmental impact report.

Leiweke said his group seeks a similar entitlement for the downtown project.

“Despite the speculation I’ve seen out there that we would not go through an entitlement process and we’re using Sacramento to avoid that — not true,” Lewieke told the Times. “We think this thing stands on its own two feet. So we will do an entitlement. What we won’t do is allow unwarranted lawsuits to delay [or complicate] the process.”

In the meantime, L.A. remains without a pro football team. Goodell told the Times that any team relocation will have to wait until an ongoing NFL labor dispute is resolved, and any transfer will take a year or more to approve.