DENNIS ROMERO FEBRUARY 23, 2011
While much of the media spotlight has illuminated a fantastic, last-minute effort by the owners of Staples Center to build an NFL stadium next to LA Live downtown, Majestic Realty has been quietly moving forward with its own “Los Angeles Stadium” dreams in the city of Industry.
And those dreams include blockbuster naming rights and the possibility of not one but two NFL teams.
That according to Majestic vice president John Semcken, who sat down with the Weekly for an hourlong interview Tuesday:
“Well probably have the largest naming-rights deal ever done,” he said.
Earlier this month Staples owner AEG (Anschutz Entertainment Group) announced a $700 million naming rights deal for a downtown stadium that has yet to be formally proposed to the L.A. city planners. The stadium will be called Farmers Field, for Farmers Insurance.
“Are we concerned about naming rights” the wake of that deal, Semcken said. “Not at all. I’m confident we’ll get more money than that.”
He noted that the Industry stadium is within an hour’s drive of 15.5 million people, already has the land it needs, has all the approvals it needs, and is ready to go pending the move of an NFL team to L.A.
“That’s the only thing left,” he said. “We’re ready to go.”
Even with a subsequent California exemption, it took Majestic a year just for environmental impact report planning. It looks like AEG’s stadium is at day one as far as that goes (no blueprints or architectural drawings have been revealed, and an architect for the project has yet to be announced).
Semcken said, he’s planning on hosting two teams at the $800 million venue, making it more lucrative — with at least 20 games instead of 10 regular-season match-ups.
He wouldn’t say which teams might come to town but noted that Majestic, which would be part or whole owner, has talked to “all” of the candidates that would be eligible to move contractually.
“There’s a possibility there will be two teams, yes,” Semcken said.