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LAFC breaks ground on new stadium, announces naming rights deal

August 23, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; MLS commissioner Don Garber poses for a photograph with LAFC part owners Brandon Beck, Lon Rosen, Magic Johnson and Will Ferrell at Los Angeles Football Club Stadium Site. The venue will be named Banc Of California Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
Photo by Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

With Los Angeles FC joining MLS in less than two years, the team took another leap forward.

LAFC broke ground on its soccer-specific stadium on Tuesday, with MLS commissioner Don Garber, LA’s owners and fans, along with the city’s mayor Eric Garcetti in attendance.

The 22,000-seat venue — built on the site of the Los Angeles Sports Arena — will be called the Banc of California Stadium after LAFC announced a naming rights deal with the organization. It is expected to be completed in time for the 2018 MLS season.

“We start here,” said Larry Berg, LAFC lead managing owner. “After years of planning and hard work we are set to make history here in the heart of the city.

“Banc of California Stadium will allow for greater sports-viewing and live entertainment experiences to take place in Los Angeles than ever before.”

The club says that the stadium will rake in more than $350 million in private investment to the area. Part of that will be dedicated to a district featuring restaurants, a public plaza, a retail store, conference and events centers.

“This world-class stadium,” said LAFC executive chairman and owner Peter Guber, “Will be a state of the art venue featuring ‘state of the heart’ experiences for players, fans and artists.” 

Like many other MLS stadiums, LAFC’s building will host various events. However, as seen in the renderings that were released in May, it was designed for soccer and promises to be a cutting-edge facility.

“This spectacular stadium will provide LAFC and its fans with a world-class home,” said MLS commissioner Don Garber, “and I look forward to the many rivalry matches between LAFC and the LA Galaxy that will be played here for years to come.”

Comments

  1. But when will the Sounders get a real stadium with real grass? It’s not a rhetorical question…teams who are not even in existence yet are putting them to shame, Seattle being forced to play at that vomit inducing abomination of a turf ‘field’…can’t believe their hipster fans are ok with watching subpar football in subpar conditions…

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  2. Stadium looks great. Steep, intimate feel w/ fans right on top of pitch. Should be awesome game experience. Very happy to have a SoCAL alternative to Galaxy. Can’t come quick enough.

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  3. I just remembered that AEG still owns the entitlements (although some have lapsed) for the abandoned “Farmers field” NFL Stadium that was to be built only 2 miles from the LA Expo site, and was next to Staples and the LA Convention Center. During the presentation to the LA City council, the architects and developer showed renderings of it as a 40-50K soccer stadium for a “local soccer team”(LAG?) AEG would have financed, built and managed it for a co-ownership of a LA NFL team or sold it outright. It was to be expensive but looked like the big brother to the LAFC stadium.As most stadium are built financed (and depreciated) over a 20 year lifetime, the Stub Hub would be depreciated to $0 by 2023, and most likely, if the growth of the MLS is any indication, The Galaxy would be looking for another stadium and site should they decide to leave Carson.

    Just sayin’….

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  4. I didn’t realize Garber had joined the Village People…

    Glad that LAFC is becoming a reality and that the LAG will have a real rival. Sorry but I just don’t consider the games with SJ to be much of a rivalry, no matter how much MLS tries to play it up that way

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  5. I think everyone referring to LAFC as Chivas USA reincarnate can put those comments six feet under with this stadium becoming a reality.

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    • Yeah, they’ll be very hot property, very fast. Everybody wants to live in LA, particularly Euro-guys with supermodel WAGS, Signing big-name players will not be a problem.

      Here’s where the league could make another tweak, IMHO: allow teams to sell or trade DP slots. I have zero issue with teams like LAFC spending, especially if they’re enriching a rival in the process. Spending is great; superteams draw fans…and as long as competitive parity is maintained I have no problems whatsoever with how a team chooses to go about their business.

      Might as well allow teams like NYFC, LAFC, Galaxy, and Seattle to load up if they wanna. Frustrates me to see a showpiece stadium and scene like this get built, and then know they’re going to have completely unnecessarily shackles on them because they aren’t allowed to spend more than Columbus or Salt Lake.

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      • Q, I wish the DP rules were simpler.

        1. Each team has a Max of 5 DP’s (No trades/no swaps)

        AND

        2. DP Salaries do not count against the Cap (Salary Cap Exempt)

        Which leaves the 3.49M (plus yearly increase) for the remaining 18 First Team players.

        Simple enough, right?

  6. I’m not sure what’s more comical: Will Ferrell or the fact that LAFC will likely have their own stadium before NYCFC (and we might as well throw in the likes of that dumpster fire New England).

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