Dive Brief:
- Construction crews broke ground Thursday on the Los Angeles Rams' new $2.6 billion Inglewood stadium, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.
- The 3-million-square-foot, HKS-designed facility will be able to accommodate 80,000 people. It is expected to generate 3,500 construction jobs and 10,000 overall jobs upon completion.
- The stadium will be the focal point of a 300-acre commercial and entertainment area, a concept driven by Rams owner Stan Kroenke. The L.A. Stadium and Entertainment District will feature more than 1 million square feet of retail space, 2,500 residential units, a hotel, 25 acres of parks and other open spaces, a lake with waterfalls and a 6,000-seat concert and performance venue.
Dive Insight:
The league gave Kroenke the thumbs up for the move back to Los Angeles at its owners meeting last January, even though St. Louis presented a new stadium deal in effort to convince the team to stay. At that same meeting, owners also approved a San Diego Chargers move to Los Angeles where they would share the new stadium with the Rams. Those plans were placed on hold pending the outcome of a referendum that would have authorized local financing for a new San Diego stadium, but that initiative failed at the ballot box earlier this month. Team officials have until the next owner's meeting in January 2017 to decide if they will move to Los Angeles.
The new Rams stadium should be complete in time for the 2019 NFL season, said team officials, and will host Super Bowl LV in 2021. Hollywood Park Land Company, under Kroenke, announced in July that it had chosen the joint venture of Turner Construction and AECOM-owned Hunt Construction to build the stadium.
Inglewood Mayor James Butts estimated in January that the number of construction jobs for the stadium and district combined would reach 22,000, with 12,000 full-time and part-time jobs available when the district is complete. The city has a 30% local-hiring goal in place, and Butts said Inglewood should see up to $14 million in sale-tax revenue from the purchase of building materials alone. Once the team starts utilizing the stadium, Butts told said Inglewood should realize up to $20 million in revenue from the facility and surrounding developments.
