The City of Los Angeles wants to build a soccer stadium, and subsequently wants to land a Major League Soccer franchise to inhabit its new downtown digs. At least, that's the inference being taken from a recent community draft report seeking to elevate the city's collegiate and professional sports profile and bring tourism dollars downtown.
The report states that Los Angeles Convention Center officials will assume a "leadership role in working with the Mayor and City Council to identify a [soccer] team, a potential site and a viable business plan prior to the end of calendar year 2013."
The director from which the report originated went on to say that city officials are working diligently to bring a professional soccer team and a new stadium to downtown LA, according to the story linked above on DailyBreeze.com. The desired soccer stadium would also not be reliant upon the ever-elusive Famers Field stadium project – designed to bring the NFL back to Tinseltown – falling through. In fact, they'd both exist in downtown Los Angeles.
So, here's the (many, many) million-dollar question: Who's the team to call a stadium in downtown LA "home"?
The LA Galaxy are more than entrenched as tenants of the newly dubbed StubHub Center in Carson, 16 miles south of downtown, and don't seem likely to move anytime in the foreseeable future.
A third MLS team in LA seems extremely unlikely at this point, given that New York just received a second, Orlando City SC continue to make the push to jump from USL PRO to MLS and rumors of David Beckham purchasing a Miami franchise seem to be creeping slowly toward "that's more than a rumor" territory.
Which, of course, leaves one potential downtown target for the City of Los Angeles: Chivas USA, currently sharing the StubHub Center with the Galaxy. They've lived in the Galaxy's considerable shadow for their entire existence, and have long talked of the need for a home of their own.
A move to central LA seems to check every single box for the Goats. New home, new location, but still close enough to keep their current fanbase turning out.
As with all stadium projects, though, don't expect it to get done overnight.
What do you think? A downtown LA stadium? If it happens, it's for Chivas USA and no on else, right? How far would this go toward pulling Chivas out of their current funk?
