Posted on 02/13/2022 10:48:24 AM PST by RandFan
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — First, the Lakers and the Kings abandoned Inglewood for a shiny new arena in downtown Los Angeles in 1999. Several years later, the horse racing track shut down. In between, there was the financial crisis, which sent home values plummeting. Things got so bad that the state took over the local school district.
“The only thing that was left, effectively, was a Sizzler and a big doughnut,” said James T. Butts Jr., the mayor of Inglewood, referring to the gigantic steel sculpture that sits atop Randy’s Donuts near the airport, long a strange welcome sign for visitors to Southern California.
Now when you fly into Los Angeles, the first sight to grab your eye is the gleaming, futuristic football cathedral called SoFi Stadium that sits on land left vacant by the horse track. It is one of the priciest sports arenas ever built at more than $5 billion, and lured professional football back to Los Angeles with the Rams and Chargers relocating from St. Louis and San Diego. It opened in the pandemic year of 2020, hosting games but not fans. On Sunday, it will be crammed for the Super Bowl, and Inglewood will command the nation’s attention. The fact that the hometown Rams are in the game makes it even sweeter.
For Inglewood, one of Los Angeles’s last communities with a substantial Black population, the Super Bowl is perhaps the fullest expression of a transformation that has been underway for years. Over the last decade the economy improved and crime fell, making Inglewood attractive to outside development. The old Forum was reopened for concerts, and people came. A new home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s youth orchestra opened in a building that was once a Burger King....
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Any way to get past the pay wall for this scab paper?
Does the author address the fact why they built the stadium there? I’d be curious to know if it was because the place was such a disaster and the land was very cheap. Ergo, the team owner wasn’t shelling out the big bucks for some pricier real estate, obviously, nor would he have much resistance from the residents. The folks in Inglewood were begging for something. They got it.
Wonder if/ when the gentrification starts and how many of the residents that have lasted get priced out when the white liberal hipsters and cool “Diners Drive-Ins and Dives” restaurants start popping up?
LMAO
So, I heard the Superbowl is now in February. Is it next weekend? It must be coming up...
It’s still a damned slum.
I hate these "futuristic" Stadiums. It all started here with "Jerry World".
The NFL should have had a halftime show dedicated to John Madden anything less is inexcusable.
The new Intuit Dome will be built by Steve Ballmer in 2024, so I predict they will tear down the old Forum.
I guarantee the team owners did not pay for the stadium.
I grew up in westchester in the late 60s 70s it was a place whitey had to get out of down before dusk
Its the FTPSB
Hollywood Park shut down.
There was room.
Rams are johnnie-come-latelies from Cleveland.
They’re holding a memorial for him tomorrow in the MNF time slot. And the NFL network has already had 1 round table about him. Probably NBC will or has. Last thing anybody needs is a downer halftime.
I like em because of how quickly they’ve made Jerry World look old and pathetic.
Could be. If so, another stain on the city and county of Los Angeles and the state for making th taxpayer pickup the tab.
The ability for cities to pass those costs onto the people has been ended in some places.
Not a fan of Marlins Park, the first "postmodern" or "futuristic" stadium like you said in baseball. Camden Yards did it the best, retro-classic style.
They should bring back “Up With People!” for halftime.
Used love flying in and seeing the race track off to the right.
Those were nice and ignorable.
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