Football Drive Receives a Quick $450,000

In the first 24 hours of their drive to return professional football to Los Angeles, the owners of the Kings received $450,000 from local businesses Friday in the form of 45 signed checks and commitments for luxury suites to a proposed new Coliseum.

The proposed new Coliseum will feature 140 suites, and work will continue through the weekend to acquire additional $10,000 deposits with the intention of delivering signed commitments to the NFL owners at their spring meetings in San Diego Monday.

“This shows the business community is ready to support such an effort,” said Los Angeles Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who represents the district in which the Coliseum resides. “It’s a very very encouraging start.”

Edward Roski Jr. and Philip Anschutz, the Kings’ owners and the developers behind a proposed $240 million downtown arena, said this week they are committed to spending more than $500 million to build a new Coliseum and acquire an NFL team to begin play in 2000.

“I guess you could say this was a good first day,” said John Semcken, a Roski spokesman and vice president for Majestic Reality. “We’re just talking commitments for luxury suites in which we have the money, and we’re already one-third of the way there and we haven’t even talked to most of the people who had expressed an interest earlier.”