GUEST WORDS - Let’s see if we got the facts straight: For 30 years, the LA Coliseum Commission made up of city, county and state elected officials and their appointees chased away two NFL teams, screwed up a long series of opportunities to modernize and upgrade the historic stadium and now they are going to give it to USC for nothing.
Oh yeah, along the way the commissioners failed so miserably in the legal oversight responsibilities that millions of dollars were stolen by the people they hired to run the Coliseum in a scandal of epic proportions. They ran the stadium and Sports Arena into the ground while commissioners were taking a bottomless pit of freebies, including trips around the country to attend Super Bowls in their official capacities.
Even when the guy in charge — paid $277,000 a year with bonuses of up to $125,000 — gets caught taking kickbacks and overseeing a criminal conspiracy, he’s got the goods on so many public officials that the District Attorney drops nine of the 10 charges against him and lets him walk without a day in prison, without even the slightest effort to determine what they commissioners knew and when they knew it. Take that you poverty-stricken, uneducated gang punks who get locked into a life of prisons and crime for stealing a fraction of what Patrick Lynch stole.
On Tuesday, the commission released a 92-page proposed lease that basically turns the management and operations of the Coliseum and Sports Arena over to its primary tenant, the University of Southern California, a private institution in the process of raising $5 billion.
“I don’t see where this benefits the city, the county or the state,” Councilman and Commissioner Bernard Parks told the Daily News’ Rick Orlov. “What you find is that any money from events goes back into the Coliseum, but any revenue from advertising or naming rights goes to USC.”
The 42-year lease obligates USC to pay the annual $1 million fee to the state but lets the university keep all revenue from events, digital billboards, you name it. Presuming, USC officials aren’t crooks like the commission and its employees, making money on the facilities won’t be all that hard.
Thomas Sayles, senior vice president for university relations and not coincidentally president of the DWP Commission socking residents and business with soaring rates, said USC hopes to restore the Coliseum to its “former glory and ensure its viability for many generations to come” with a $70 million renovation.
“Our goal is to make the Coliseum a proud landmark and gathering place for all Angelenos.”
Is it really? Isn’t that what AEG’s LA Live, Staples Center and Farmers Field down the road is supposed to be and doesn’t the gift to the city’s richest university make sure the Coliseum can’t compete for an NFL team?
Those are questions Dr. Leonard Bloom, managing director of the sports and entertainment company U.S. Capital, has been asking for months and yet he couldn’t even get his foot in the Coliseum door to pitch his plan for the $1 billion rebuilt Coliseum pictured above.
He doesn’t understand what a small little town this is, all one big happy family feeding at the public trough — so small in fact that AEG’s competitor for building an NFL stadium is none other than Ed Roski, chairman of USC’s Board of Trustees.
What are all us little people to do? Stand up for yourselves and your interests for a change and stop letting them steal you blind.
The Coliseum Commission will try to approve this deal as soon as its next meeting on May 2 when its hand-picked consultant with a pre-determined recommendation submits his analysis and the public will get to speak out.
It will take a big crowd to make a difference since USC has shown its willingness to stack the deck at previous hearings.
INFO: Comments for the record can be emailed to [email protected] or by mail to the Office of the General Manager, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission, 3911 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA, 90037.
(Bernard Parks is Los Angeles City Councilman for the 8th Council District and Chair of the Education and Neighborhoods Committee. He also serves on the Coliseum Commission. He can be reached at: [email protected]) -cw
Tags: Bernard Parks, City Council, Coliseum Commission, Coliseum, Ed Roski, USC
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 33
Pub: Apr 24, 2012
