Dodgers & NFL Do The Stadium Dance

          Here we go again. The Dodgers are getting ready to start a new season at Chavez Ravine, their home for over 50 years.  Everyone’s minds should be on baseball, but lots of people are talking about football, including building an NFL stadium next to Dodger Stadium.

We’ve been down this road before and its not an easy one to travel. In 1996, Dodgers owner Peter O'Malley met with NFL officials to discuss the possible construction of a football-only stadium on Dodger-owned property surrounding Dodger Stadium. His plan offered solutions to a number of problems faced by the NFL in locating a team in Los Angeles, following the departure of both the Rams and the Raiders.

          First, it provided for scarce, centrally-located land. Second, the proposal came attached to highly-regarded, established sports franchise management via the O'Malley involvement. Third, like Dodger Stadium, the new facility would be privately financed, and thus not entangled in lengthy municipal funding debates. Fourth, the plan called for alignment with an expansion team, meaning that no existing franchise would have to be moved.

Published reports indicated that O'Malley spent upwards of $1 million on an initial round of architectural renderings, land use studies and environmental impact research, and quickly garnered substantial support among NFL owners who would have to vote their approval. As meetings continued over the next year, O'Malley received a call from Mayor Richard Riordan, asking him to cease pursuit of the NFL franchise. The city had decided that the team should play in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, already over 70 years old, and absent any of the considerable amenities now standard in NFL stadiums.

          O'Malley reluctantly shelved his work and withdrew, noting that while he believed strongly in the viability of his proposal, "you can't fight City Hall."   His disappointment prompted him to sell the Dodgers to FOX and the team has not been to the World Series since.  Instead of having a gleaming new stadium with an NFL team, Los Angeles has neither.  All because of one phone call from a myopic mayor.

That phone call essentially ruined two franchises: the future NFL team in L.A. and the Dodgers. 

(Top) The "ravine" right of the scoreboard behind Dodger Stadium, (below) the view looking down at the imaginary football field

Over a decade later Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) came up with Farmers Field, a proposed football stadium in Downtown Los Angeles intended to attract an NFL team to the city.  They sought approval to begin construction of Farmers Field in 2013 for a 2016 completion which was in the process of being finalized at the time that AEG's president Tim Leiweke announced his resignation.  That’s right.  The guy behind the corporation with the best chance of bringing pro football back surprised everyone by abandoning the ship!  Once again the future of the NFL in L.A. is cloudy at best. 

Yet its quite clear if one goes to Dodger Stadium and sits in the upper deck behind home plate.  From there you can see a small valley (or ravine) in the hills behind left field.

Upon closer inspection this ravine surrounds lot 15, used for over-flow parking at sold-out games.  Standing in the middle of the lot and looking up at the sloped hillsides its easy to imagine a football field surrounded by roaring fans.  Its such a perfect fit that hardly any earth would have to be moved to make it happen.  It could have happened fifteen years ago and the NFL could be playing there right now.

The Dodgers were bought by Guggenheim Partners who have a ton of money to spend and are interested in building a football stadium.  Let's just hope they screen their phone calls. 

View from the "field" looking north and then south toward Dodger Stadium