Roski plans 'major announcement' about NFL in L.A.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Edward P. Roski Jr., a part owner of the Kings and Lakers who has spent several years trying to lure the NFL back to the Los Angeles area, believes his latest concept for a stadium could help finally land a team.
The Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site that Roski has scheduled a news conference at Staples Center to make a "major announcement" concerning the league and L.A.
On Thursday, Roski will unveil his idea for a stadium in the City of Industry, near the southern intersection of the 57 and 60 freeways some 20 miles east of Los Angeles, said John Semcken, vice president of Majestic Realty, Roski's real estate company.
The stadium would be surrounded by a high-end shopping mall, and located on a vacant property which Roski already owns.
"We've spent the last year designing a football stadium that is ideally suited for the Southern California marketplace that will be a part of a major entertainment, retail and office development," Semcken told The Associated Press.
"We want to take all of the uncertainty out of this stadium situation."
If a team committed to moving to Los Angeles, "we could begin construction in the final quarter of this year and have it ready for play for the first exhibition game in 2011," Semcken said.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told the AP that the league wasn't involved in Thursday's news conference.
Los Angeles, the second-largest market in the country, has been without an NFL team since 1995, when the Raiders moved back to Oakland after playing 13 years at the Los Angeles Coliseum and the Rams moved from Anaheim to St. Louis.
Los Angeles lost out to Houston for an expansion franchise since that time, and the league hasn't made relocating to the area a top priority in recent years.
Proposals have been made for numerous stadium sites in the area over the years including the Coliseum and the Rose Bowl in Pasadena as well as in Irwindale, Inglewood, Carson and Anaheim.
Roski and Philip Anschutz, the head of AEG, headed up construction of Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. The Lakers, Kings and Arena Football League's Los Angeles Avengers play their home games at the facility, which opened in October 1999. AEG is not involved in Thursday's news conference either, according to a spokesman.
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