L.A. Chamber Backs Return of Pro Football to Coliseum
Nearly two months after failing to muster enough support the first time the issue was discussed, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce on Thursday voted to support the return of professional football to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
The resolution failed in June, when many executives abstained, leaving it without the two-thirds majority required for passage.
The second time around, the chamber’s rules require only a simply majority. Chamber Executive Director Ezunial Burts refused to say how the vote was split this time, or to disclose how many members of the board of directors were present for the hourlong discussion leading to the resolution’s approval.
“It’s one more important step forward in returning professional football to Los Angeles and the new Coliseum,†said City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who represents the Exposition Park area and has made revival of the stadium his top priority.
Ridley-Thomas and other city politicians have pressured local business leaders to back the Coliseum as the region’s premier venue for pro football. Most have signed on, although privately both political and business leaders say that they expect the NFL to reject the Coliseum and are only supporting it to avoid angering Ridley-Thomas.
Sources said that at the chamber’s first discussion of stadium sites, some board members were swayed by former chamber Chairman Sheldon Ausman, who is spearheading a rival project to place a stadium in South Park, near the Convention Center. That led nine members to abstain during the initial vote, which left the 20 supporters one vote shy.
“Frankly, they haven’t heard any other alternatives,†Ausman said Thursday, noting that a state Senate committee hearing in which he had planned to unveil his proposal was postponed because of the budget crisis in Sacramento. “They had to do what they had to do.â€
The wording of the resolution does not say the chamber backs the Coliseum over South Park or other potential venues, but simply that “the Chamber supports the return of the NFL to Los Angeles to play in the new Coliseum.â€
In the group’s press release, neither Burts nor chamber Chairman Dennis Poulsen even mention the Coliseum specifically.
“We are pleased to be supporters of the return of football to L.A.,†said Poulsen.
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