Leiweke tries to re-establish timetable on downtown stadium

If all goes according to plan - that is if city officials sign off on AEG's environmental impact report by the end of the year - the stadium project could be shovel ready by March 2013, Leiweke told ESPNLosAngeles.com. (The EIR will be released on Thursday.) He spoke about the next couple of Februarys being important dates. That's when the NFL commissioner must receive written notice from a team wishing to relocate for the following season. "So February 2013 is going to be a moment in time for this city and then February 2014 is going to be another moment," Leiweke told ESPN. "We won't be sitting here in February 2016 still chasing Farmers Field." Now to be clear, Leiweke has thrown around deadlines throughout this process, and they've tended to come and go. But he did seem to stress that billionaire Phil Anschutz, who would be bankrolling construction of the stadium and perhaps the purchase of the team, has only limited patience in making this thing happen. "Phil has made it clear to me it is not his lifelong ambition to own an NFL team so we're going to do the best we can to try and get this done in the next year or two," he said. Think of the different constituencies Leiweke has to deal with: Anschutz, of course, and the NFL, and L.A. lawmakers, and last - and definitely least - the public at large. I wouldn't trust anything this guy says, but it's interesting to watch the dance.

There are multiple reasons why AEG has set a deadline for acquiring a team and beginning construction on Farmers Field. First, there is a sunset clause on the senate bill and the assembly bill passed last year to expedite legal challenges to Farmers Field that expires in January 2015. Also, if construction on Farmers Field doesn't begin by that time, Farmers Insurance Exchange could back out of their naming rights deal which is reportedly worth $700 million to $1 billion over 30 years. "We have clauses in our agreement with Farmers that if we don't have a team playing in the stadium by a certain date, they are no longer obligated on that naming right deal," Leiweke said. "More importantly, with (AEG head) Mr. (Philip) Anschutz, when you tie up that kind of capital and resources that we're tying up, when you spend $27 million on the environment report and another $45 million in design drawings, what you're not going to do is chase this for the next two years. It distracts from our organization and it distracts this city and everything we're doing here."