L.A. STORIES
Slam Dunk
The Lakers will not get their victory parade this season, but don’t underestimate the economic benefit that they and other local sports clubs have on the region.
Last year, sporting events had a $2.7 billion economic impact on the Southern California region, made up of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Ventura and San Bernardino counties, according to a new study by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles Sports Council. Direct revenues were $1.45 billion, with three-fourths spent in L.A. County.
The study also found that 27 million tickets to sporting events had been sold in 2003. “I find it hard to believe that any city in the country is able to match that number,” said David Simon, president of the Sports Council.
In addition to a 3 percent increase in direct revenues and a 16 percent jump in attendance figures since 2000, the sports industry also contributed 11,292 part-time and 3,023 full-time jobs to the Southern California region last year. Graduate students at the UCLA Anderson School analyzed information from 56 local sports organizations, as well as data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Rebekah Sanders
Passing the Bar
The bar was the most prominent feature of the Westwood restaurant first known as Stratton’s, then Madison’s Bar and Grill. When the new owners of the Roadhouse took over, though, they decided it had to go. What to do?
They sold it on eBay for $3,500.
“The others thought it was crazy,” said Brad Harris, a Roadhouse partner. “But I sell everything on eBay.”
The Roadhouse is now decorated with antlers and old signs, said Harris. The classic bar, with its expensive mahogany panels, imported Italian marble top and brass railing, just didn’t fit in.
The bar was split up and went to several buyers, among them a former UCLA student who installed part of it in his Orange County house. His wife, none too pleased about the addition, had attended USC, according to a report in the UCLA student newspaper, the Daily Bruin.
Kim Holmes
Going Places
The tourists are coming, according to a survey of delegates to a recent travel convention in Los Angeles.
After serving as host city for the Travel Industry of America’s 36th Annual International Pow Wow, Los Angeles is set to reap the benefits of having 1,141 tour operators and roughly 300 travel writers descend on the city.
The April event at the Los Angeles Convention Center was meant to provide tour operators with an overview of new tourism opportunities in the U.S. It included visits to Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Getty Center and old standards with new features such as Universal Studios Hollywood.
The survey, conducted by LA Inc, the convention and visitors bureau, found that 90 percent of buyers said they plan to develop business in Los Angeles within the next one to five years.
“I can tell people about the Walt Disney Concert Hall all day long, but when you get to see the building, it has a much greater impact,” said LA Inc. spokeswoman Carol Martinez.
Rebecca Flass
Advertising Air
Why have a billboard if there’s no product to sell?
Air America’s liberal talk programming is off the air in Los Angeles, but its billboard remains on prominent display at the northwest corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, atop the roof of the Sunset + Vine complex.
There’s been no L.A. punchline for Air America since April 14, when it got embroiled in a payment dispute with KBLA-AM (1580) and the station’s owner pulled the plug. Air America can still be heard in KCAA-AM (1050) in Riverside, or over satellite radio.
Adam Schiff, of the New York-based public relations firm Dan Klores Communications, said only that Air America might broadcast again in Los Angeles “soon.” Air America President Jon Sinton did not return telephone calls.
Pat Maio
OUT OF THE PAST
Housing Forecast
In one of the Los Angeles Business Journal’s first editions, published Sept. 17, 1979, housing industry experts were asked what the future would bring. The city’s big builders looked into their crystal balls and saw a “new lifestyle” influencing the housing industry:
“The 1980s will see continued strong demand for home ownership by American families, primarily because of the sharp increase in the formation of new households and inflation,” declared Eli Broad. The increase is caused by the aging population, and to a larger extent it is a result of new types of households being formed, Broad observed.
“Singles, divorcees, unmarried couples all are part of this new group of non-traditional buyers who previously were renters,” he explained.
Also on the demand side, the increasing numbers of working wives and two-income families are qualifying more potential buyers for home loans, Broad said.
In the housing supply, the most significant trend cited was the rising cost of land.
“In the year ahead land will become more and more difficult to obtain, particularly in the ‘close in’ locations,” remarked Jim Warmington, president, Warmington Development Inc. “The land which is available will be very expensive, causing the price of homes to continue to increase,” he predicted.
The forecasts proved accurate, said Stephen Cauley, co-director of the Richard S. Ziman Center at UCLA’s Anderson School, but he added a caveat: the housing market collapsed in the 1990s.
“It sounds like there’s no risk investing in houses,” Cauley said. “And that’s just not true.”
Steve Silkin
“Out of the Past” is published each week to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Business Journal.
