On September 29, 2012, David Zahniser and Kate Linthicum write in the Los Angeles Times that the Los Angeles City Council has cleared the path for the $1.2-billion 72,000-seat Farmers Field Stadium.
This is a perfect example of an OPPORTUNITY TO CREATE NEW CAPITALIST OWNERS, and yet NO ONE is addressing the issue of WHO WILL OWN the Farmers Field Stadium.
As the article stated:
…it is unclear who will own the company seeking to build the $1.2-billion facility.
City Council members unanimously approved an array of documents that will clear the path for 72,000-seat Farmers Field, billed as the most environmentally friendly stadium in NFL history, to rise on the southwest edge of downtown.
Additional language was inserted to give the council more power to torpedo the deal if AEG’s new owner lacks the required money, sports management experience or character.
But unfortunately, the support by the community is limited to the JOBS CREATION result, rather than to the more lucrative long-term earnings generated for the new OWNERS. That would be billionaire and prospective AEG buyer Patrick Soon-Shiong (see http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-patrick-soon-shiong-aeg-20120919,0,5314243.story), the founder of Abraxis BioScience Inc. who, as of Wednesday, was the 47th-richest person in America and the wealthiest in Los Angeles.
“Taxpayers have a stake in AEG’s future for reasons that go beyond football. The company is the financial backstop if stadium proceeds fail to cover debt payments on up to $268 million in borrowing for construction of the new convention center wing. The debt is guaranteed by the city’s general fund, which pays for police officers, firefighters and other nuts and bolts services.”
So here we have an OPPORTUNITY, with a taxpayer-supported loan guarantee to create NEW OWNERS among the people who are being forced out of their neighborhood, the fans that would purchase the tickets to the sporting events, and to the policemen, firefighters and employees of the stadium to acquire the stadium.
If no deal is reached next year, AEG will try again in 2014 — a move that would push the opening of the downtown stadium back to 2018. But after Friday’s vote, Leiweke said the council had given him “a lot of ammunition” to attract one or even two teams.
“We are done on the political front. We are done on the environmental front. And we’re done on the community front,” he said. “And now it’s time to get this stadium built.”
WAKE UP PEOPLE. If this is a profitable venture for the richest Americans, then it is a profitable venture for the poorest Americans, who are capital-less.
This is another example of government power, backed by taxpayer funding, to displace ordinary Americans from their neighborhoods in the name of JOB CREATION. Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) or the new OWNERS will benefit from government legislation and taxpayer-supported eminent domain to become the OWNER of valuable real estate upon which to build a $1.2 billion 72,000-seat sports stadium. If there was a consciousness in America today that addresses the issue of CONCENTRATED OWNERSHIP, perhaps the Los Angeles City Council would explore other financial mechanisms to empower the poverty-stricken residents in the impacted neighborhoods to acquire the property and develop the stadium, thus broadening private, individual ownership in the future income-producing stadium assets. Their acquisition would be paid from out of the millions of dollars of income generated by the investment, and once paid for, generate a viable capital estate source of income for the displaced neighbor residents.
Today we accept as normal public ownership of gigantic capital instruments like mass rail, subways, government office buildings, universities, water systems, and power systems. These government-owned enterprises and services could be transformed into competitive private sector companies managed by Private Facilities Corporations with the use of the asset or facility leased to the normal using body. The wages of the Private Facilities Corporation(s) are passed through to the leasing body. This would allow us to build the ownership of what is now public capital into individuals and reduce the cost of government, including public pension systems. Thus, when you build the ownership into the employees of the Private Facilities Corporation(s), who now have a vested interest in its quality of operation and maintenance, the contracted lease rental fee committed by the government entity will give the employee stockholders a reasonable return and lesson or replace the need for supplemental redistribution programs.
Consumer Stock Ownership Plan financing can simultaneously build the ownership into the consumers of monopolies such as telecommunications, water and power companies, mass-transit, and even cable and satellite television, who are the source of all their funding, and dividends paid out to the consumer owners would become an offset to their utility bills.
See The Citizens Land Bank: A Just Third Way For Financing Urban Development at http://foreconomicjustice.org/4535/the-citizens-land-bank-a-just-third-way-for-financing-urban-development/
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-stadium-20120929,0,4992069.story
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0914-stadium-20120914,0,4319446.story
