Football fans rejoice as the final approval in building a home stadium in Los Angeles has been given.  To be called Farmers Field, after Farmers Insurance, the new NFL Stadium hopes to share the downtown scene alongside other big venues such as the L.A. Convention Center, the Staples Center, and the L.A.Live.  Farmers Field will be developed by AEG, the company that developed and owns the Staples Center and the new LA Live complex.

On July 29, 2011 the City of Los Angeles released an official memorandum of understanding that affirms their approval plans to develop and build the new Los Angeles Football stadium.  A public hearing was also held July 30 with mostly supporters for the venues construction in tow. The memo is not yet an actual approval.  The approval came by a city council vote on August , 2011.

There is no question the introduction of a football stadium and soon-to-follow Los Angeles NFL team will boost the economy.  It is a much needed aspect of continuing development of downtown, which ten years ago only had the Convention Center to boast.  However, with the whole of Los Angeles in an economical budget crisis, there are concerns about funding.  If the plan moves forward to build Farmers Field, it would be funded entirely by private money and from future revenues.

As part of the revitalization of downtown Los Angeles, AEG built the Staples Center, home to the LA Lakers and LA Kings, LA Live, an entertainment district destination with nightclubs, restaurants, theaters and now hotels. The Ritz-Carlton and J.W. Marriott both opened within the past year and the NFL stadium will complete the entertainment complex. NFL fans in LA have waited almost two decades to have an NFL team in Los Angeles again and it seems this time downtown was primed for the arrival.

The Farmers Field Stadium deal is projected to cost $1.5 billion.  The unanimous City Council vote on August 9 approved the implementation of a 72,000 seat stadium in Farmer’s Field.  The upside to the $1.5 billion cost is that with additional development comes tax revenue.

There are a few glitches that LA will face.  Currently the NFL is not planning to expand the number of teams.  Therefore, if Los Angeles wants a team, they will have to bring an already existing team here. Once a team decides that it wants to make the big more, a vote between team owners of three-quarters majority must take place.

Even if all the stars line-up and votes get made, funding is accrued, and so forth, at best we are not looking at the arrival of the new Farmers Field until 2015.