As the title suggests. Looks like Uncle Phil has been exploring dumping AEG, owners of the league "gem" the Galaxy as well as the LA Kings hockey team, the Staples Center and the Nokia Theatre across the street. Other projects that could be impacted are the LA NFL stadium, the Sacramento arena plan, and Oakland's Coliseum City plan all of which require AEG's involvement to happen to varying degrees. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/anschutz-said-to-explore-sale-of-entertainment-group/
I just read on twitter that just about everything LA is up for sale!? Staples Center, Nokia Center, Kings, Galaxy
I wonder if that's an omen of worse things to come to that state (economic-wise). Who was it that said... "As goes California, so goes the rest of the country" ?
Wouldn't shock me. The band of morons running California have really screwed this state up over the last twenty years. The concept of spending within your means hasn't occurred to any of them which is why we have cities filing for bankruptcy or considering filing all over the state now.
I assumed AEG was trying to focus on LA and would get rid of things like O2 Arena as the NFL came to LA. I was wrong.
I frankly wonder what the implications of this on the potential LA NFL stadium would be. I was under the impression Phil was the primary driver of that program, and if he's gone... I mean I suppose Roski's stadium is still out there, but it never seemed as compelling an idea as Phil's.
I was under the impression that stadium took another step forward last week (parking garages and everything) although it's debatable how much AEG was interested in it moving forward. I'm having problems linking for some reason so I'll trying quoting some of this. Statement
The stadium did take a step forward with the parking garage deal. But ultimately the stadium is at a stand still until the NFL will allow AEG to acquire a team under their terms (which won't ever happen). Which means the stadium is essentially at an indefinitely standstill and that probably won't get any better for AEG w/o Phil involved. Good news for Chargers, Raiders, Rams fans I guess.
Need to change the thread title to "AEG is for sale". There's no "might" about it. AEG is for sale as of late this afternoon according to the LA Times. Which means among other things that the Galaxy are on the market. http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-anschutz-aeg-sale-20120918,0,754304.story
I'm very concerned. I'm not sure how many companies/investment firms can afford this WHOLE company. If they split up all the parts, this can get scary for the Galaxy. The Galaxy should be fine with long-term sponsorship commitments, but I'm still worried!
Liberty Media (Live Nation) and News Corp are being mentioned as potential buyers now. I still can't imagine either buying it all.
But AEG was the one driving the hard bargain with the NFL, the new owner of the downtown LA stadium entitlements could just as easily concede on the revenue arrangements with the NFL that Uncle Phil wasn't budging on. If anything, this could break the standstill. I could picture one of those Russian or Emirati billionaires buying all of AEG up and then plunking down $1 billion for an NFL expansion team. I don't think the NFL wants any of the current ownership groups of the at-risk for relocation teams to be the ones to inherit the LA market.
Would be a first. Do Russian or Emirati billionaires really care or understand anything about the NFL? I doubt it.....
I don't think even the Russians and Emirati's have enough to afford all of AEG (it'll cost more than $20 billion for the whole thing). They're either going to an equally large conglomerate, or more likely being divided up. As for the NFL stadium, AEG was pushing for the entitlements because that's the only way a deal like this with a private stadium pencils out is with them. But Phil is definitely selling high with two of the teams winning it all last year and with the Lakers just having completed a major overhaul that is making them the favorites in their league. And with the NFL stadium deal mere weeks from city approval assuming a buyer would want to go through with it.
There are $700 million reasons to remember the stadium is called Farmer's Field when discussing the potential NFL stadium and convention center in LA.
When the stadium is going to cost $1.5 billion, those $700 million reasons are less than half the battle.
Beside the point, but don't forget at least $150 million from the NFL. I'm also not sure how much the NFLPA invests. AEG wasn't going to be funding the stadium alone.
Short-term, I can't imagine any of the AEG teams spending much money or investing much in the teams. Hopefully a good, deep-pocketed group has already been identified. The mayor of LA is claiming he knew this was possible.
The NFLPA doesn't invest anything. They're not in the business of building stadiums. The rest was coming from AEG and the city.