Expansion MLS Team Los Angeles Football Club to Build Arena in Exposition Park

The Los Angeles Football Club president and owner Tom Penn, and executive chairman and owner Peter Guber, managing partner and owner Henry Nguyen, MLS Commissioner Don Garber and additional owners Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Mia Hamm Garciaparra, Chad Hurley, Tony Robbins and others attend a press conference to announce the new Los Angeles MLS team and ownership group at Siren Studios on October 30, 2014, in Hollywood. (Credit: Charley Gallay/Getty Images for LAFC)

by: Los Angeles Times, Courtney Friel

Posted: May 18, 2015 / 09:26 AM PDT

Updated: May 18, 2015 / 09:26 AM PDT

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The expansion Los Angeles Football Club plans to construct the country’s most expensive privately financed soccer stadium on the site of the Sports Arena in Exposition Park, making it the first open-air professional sports venue to be built in Los Angeles since Dodger Stadium in 1962.

The $250-million complex, covering 15 acres in the shadow of the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, would include a conference center, restaurants and a soccer museum. At its center would be a 22,000-seat stadium, home to the new Major League Soccer franchise when it makes its debut in 2018.

The project, costing $100 million more than the team’s projections seven months ago, still needs approval from the Coliseum Commission and the L.A. City Council. But both groups, along with L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, have already expressed support for the project and approval is expected by July.

The decision to go forward with the project was made last week, and the club will formally announce its plans at a news conference Monday.

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