In football scoreboards news, we look at the new proposed NFL stadium in LA, and how the World Cup is affecting its design.
The design of the Roski’s project football stadium is being especially altered to make it suitable for World Cup soccer. The 75,000-seater LA Stadium will be built on a 600 acre plot of land near the junction of freeways 57 and 60. If the US wins the bid to bring the World Cup back to the country in 2018 or 2022, this stadium would host a number of World Cup matches.
The stadium plans need to be tweaked further to meet the field size and seat layout required by FIFA of World Cup stadiums. The designers are ready to incorporate anything that FIFA requires, as hosting top World Cup games would give the entire world the chance to admire what will be a fantastic venue.
Some of the changes will be beneficial not only for soccer fans, but for NFL fans too. The improved sight lines of the new design are clearly better for everyone.
One question now is how this new stadium would impact the Rose Bowl and its continuing desire to host World Cup matches when the competition comes back to the US. The Rose Bowl is one of the premier stadiums in the country, and it hosted the World Cup final in 1994, with the football scoreboards showing the Italy won after a penalty shoot-out.
Whilst approval has been given for the stadium to be built, construction is not due to begin until ownership of an NFL team is secured. This so far has proven difficult, partly because of the ongoing stalemate with the players association.
Funding has also proven to be problematic for Roski. The stadium is projected to cost $850 million. The land has been secured, all environmental requirements have been met, and he has been showing his plans to the public for nearly three years. A downtown stadium would cost as much as $3 million, and an NFL team is valued at minimum $1 billion. It follows that by not building downtown Roski has saved money, but not enough to not mean there are still problems.
Stadiums which attract big events can bring a lot of money into a local economy, but the economics are not there to justify public financing. Roski has to raise all of the money privately, and making the stadium World Cup ready is helping him do this. The World Cup is the biggest and most popular tournament around the, and it attracts more than a billion viewers for its final games. There is no doubt that making such a stadium suitable for World Cup games is a good move.
For more information on the World Cup bid, go to: en.wikipedia.org