Analyst casts doubts on economic benefit from downtown L.A. stadium

The policy office that advises the California Legislature cast doubts Friday on the level of economic benefits that would be derived from a planned NFL stadium -– and warned that studies commissioned by developer Anschutz Entertainment Group “likely overstated” the financial boost it would deliver.

Speaking to a state Senate panel reviewing the stadium plan, policy analyst Mark Whitaker warned that football stadiums typically have a minimal effect on a region’s economic growth, largely because they become a magnet for household entertainment dollars that were already being spent elsewhere.

In many cases, a family that planned to buy tickets to an event at the Home Depot Center in Carson, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, a restaurant or a movie theater would probably transfer those expenses to the proposed Farmers Field in downtown Los Angeles, said Whitaker, who works in the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

“There’s no net new economic activity there. It’s just transfer. This wouldn’t be the case with all events... There's no NFL team in L.A. right now, so that would be new economic activity,” he told the panel.