Details emerge on the USC/Coliseum proposal

Last night I posted a FanShot on USC's intent to buy the Coliseum. Today we have a little more clarification on USC's intent.

From The LA Times...

USC is in negotiations with the state to buy the land on which the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Sport Arena sit, essentially making the university the landlord of the Coliseum Commission, a school official confirmed Tuesday night.

"USC has a vested interest in preserving the Coliseum," said Kristina Raspe, the school's associate senior vice president of real estate and asset management. "This enables us to work more closely with the Coliseum Commission to ensure the success of the venue."

Raspe said the school is also in negotiations to buy several parking lots in Exposition Park, although the museums and the surrounding lots are not part of the talks.

That is wholly different than just buying The Coliseum outright.

I am not a real estate expert but it would seem to me that simply buying the structure with all the work that it needs is taking a big bite. I am not sure that this is good return on investment.

Obviously the school is thinking that way as well.

Getting the land is a much bigger deal as the school looks to expand in the coming decades.

This makes a lot more sense.

The only thing that still confuses me is why the Coliseum Commission is still around. It is clear that if ANY NFL team comes to L.A. they won't be playing at The Coliseum...not with two competing projects underway to build stadiums in downtown L.A. and in the City of Industry.

For obvious reasons The Coliseum is the odd man out.

I mean how many moto-cross events or monster truck rallies are really going to take place? If a stadium gets built in downtown that would make it tougher for the Coliseum to attract those types of events. What about concerts? Same thing applies...downtown is lot more appealing when you compare the two locations.

Lots of broad strokes here, it will be interesting to see what the finer details are.

Stay tuned...