The L.A. Times reported this weekend that the city of Anaheim had opened the door to developers interested in building on the site that had been eyed for a new football stadium after National Football League officials said installing a franchise there is not a priority.
City officials said they are moving on with alternative plans for the site after league officials said at a recent meeting that adding or relocating a team to Los Angeles or Anaheim was not high on its to-do list. The news came just over two months before governments outside of San Diego County can begin stadium talks with the Chargers.
Anaheim City Councilwoman Lorri Galloway said she thought her city colleagues could see the new plans, which would include condos and a hotel, as a viable alternative for the site, which is adjacent to Angels Stadium.
“It would still be a good idea to have an NFL stadium,” Galloway said, “but what’s not a good idea is to wait forever. We can’t wait for the NFL so long that this highly valuable land goes stagnant.”
Two weeks ago, NFL owners balked at the $1 billion price tags that the league set for building or renovating stadiums in Los Angeles and Anaheim. Since then, the board overseeing the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum basically scrapped its NFL plans and began drawing up a proposal to retain the University of Southern California’s home games.
Elsewhere in Southern California, voters in Pasadena will head to the polls tomorrow to decide whether the city should reopen talks with the NFL about renovating the Rose Bowl. Read more about the Pasadena vote here.