Venue News: L.A. City Council Wants Report on Stadium Effects

A member of the Los Angeles City Council called this week for a report on how a new downtown NFL stadium would effect operations at the Los Angeles Convention Center, which would share the proposed site. Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who heads the council committee that deals with tourism and trade, wants updates on all of the negotiations that are at play in a possible NFL deal. “I think it’s a great idea to bring a football stadium to our city,” she said in a statement. “However, since the Convention Center is a city asset, we need to know the potential impacts that these plans may have on it”…

…The Miami Dolphins will push a change in state law allowing Broward County to cross county lines and spend hotel taxes on a $225 million renovation of the football team’s Miami-Dade stadium. In targeting Broward hotel taxes, the Dolphins this week formally launched an ambitious bid to remake the 1987 stadium using dollars collected from tourists across South Florida. The Dolphins-backed bill also would let Miami-Dade boost its hotel tax to fund the stadium redo as well as a long-stalled effort to expand the Miami Beach Convention Center. “We have to test the waters,” team CEO Mike Dee told a luncheon held by the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. “We need the support of the community”…

…Rugby Sevens fans can soon start packing their biltong for Cape Town, South Africa, if Western Province Rugby and the city council succeed in having the major world event in the sport staged at Cape Town Stadium for the next five years. The city has committed itself to providing funding and municipal services for the tournament. And the city is also keen to host international rugby Tests and Super 15 games at the stadium. The city and WP Rugby had jointly put in a bid for the South African leg of the IRB Sevens World Series, the city’s 2010 technical director, Dave Hugo, said, adding, “I’m hopeful, but we’ve got to follow due process”…

…Sheahon Zenger called his dream “Redbird Renaissance,” a $39 million plan laid out in a brochure in 2006, his second year as Illinois State University athletic director. Included were a $3.4 million upgrade to baseball’s Duffy Bass Field and a new $2.5 million tennis facility. Both came to fruition. Also on the list was the completion of Redbird Arena, most notably a new men’s basketball locker room and upgraded women’s basketball and volleyball locker rooms. Money has been earmarked, but the project has moved slowly. University bureaucracy can drag even well-intended feet. That said, Zenger was making progress in all but one area when he accepted the A.D. job at Kansas this week.