{"id":25294,"date":"2025-10-27T10:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T10:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/25294\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T10:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T10:58:08","slug":"the-motives-behind-frank-mccourts-dodger-stadium-gondola-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/25294\/","title":{"rendered":"The motives behind Frank McCourt’s Dodger Stadium gondola plan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you\u2019re looking for a place to catch the Dodgers game, there\u2019s a pizza place not too far from Dodger Stadium called LaSorted\u2019s<\/a>. If you know, you know. If you don\u2019t know, this probably is not your place.<\/p>\n

The walls are almost entirely covered in Dodgers memorabilia: yearbooks, programs, newspapers, magazine covers, advertisements, record albums, even a thermometer reading \u201c1988 World Champions,\u201d with portraits of Vin Scully, Don Drysdale and Ross Porter.<\/p>\n

The menu includes a pizza called Mookie, with three cheeses, garlic, mushrooms, and mushroom cream.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe original pizza was called Spooky, just because it was Halloween colors,\u201d owner Tommy Brockert said. \u201cAnd then we signed Mookie [Betts]. It just rhymed.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019d like to welcome our World Series guests from Toronto, one of the world\u2019s great cities. In Toronto, fans get to the game the way God intended: on mass transit that drops you off right at the ballpark, because the communal experience of professional sports should include the ride there.<\/p>\n

In Los Angeles, where we built a light rail line<\/a> that stopped two miles from the airport, we have a train station two miles from Dodger Stadium. For many fans, if you want to take mass transit to the game, you have to get to the train station first.<\/p>\n

For now, you take a shuttle bus from Union Station. That shuttle \u2014 and a sister shuttle from the South Bay \u2014 served a record 400,000 riders this season, according to Metro. That\u2019s one rider for every 10 tickets the Dodgers sold.<\/a><\/p>\n

Frank McCourt, the former Dodgers owner, believes he can do better. In 2018, McCourt first pitched a gondola from Union Station to Dodger Stadium, eventually promising free rides for fans.<\/p>\n

\"Former <\/p>\n

Former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt appears during a segment on the Fox Business Network in January.<\/p>\n

(Cindy Ord \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

As the project has wound its way through various bureaucracies, some Chinatown residents have protested that the gondola would fly too low over residences, risk damaging a beloved park, and add traffic to an already congested neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Brockert\u2019s pizza place is in Chinatown. He opened it last October, on the day the Dodgers eliminated the San Diego Padres<\/a> in the National League Division Series and three years after he opened the original LaSorted\u2019s in Silver Lake. He signed a 10-year lease.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be here whether the gondola is here or not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Brockert does not necessarily share the concerns of those Chinatown neighbors. He believes a gondola would be cool, and it would be a welcome bonus if it generated additional foot traffic in Chinatown \u2014 and customers for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t trust the person behind it,\u201d Brockert said.<\/p>\n

How could McCourt earn his trust?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we knew,\u201d Brockert said.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Tommy Brockert, the owner, stands in LaSorted\u2019s, a Dodgers-themed pizza restaurant in Chinatown.<\/p>\n

McCourt sold the Dodgers out of bankruptcy court in 2012, but he retained half-ownership of the parking lots<\/a> that surround the stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust getting the gondola up there? Is that it?\u201d Brockert said. \u201cIf you really just think about the business side of it, why would a person who owns the parking lot and makes money off people parking in the lot want to get people there for free?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you own the parking lot, wouldn\u2019t you also build something in the parking lot?\u201d<\/p>\n

Brockert is not necessarily opposed to development of the Dodger Stadium parking lot. The city needs housing. A contemporary stadium site<\/a> includes restaurants, bars and shops around the ballpark. Brockert might even look into opening a LaSorted\u2019s there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gondola is not just about Dodger Stadium,\u201d Ed Reyes, the stadium-area councilman when McCourt owned the Dodgers, told a recent rally of gondola opponents. \u201cIt\u2019s about creating a whole new set of shopping centers and destinations we probably won\u2019t be able to afford.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A rendering of the proposed gondola that would transport fans from Union Station to Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n

(LA Aerial Rapid Transit)<\/p>\n

In a June commentary<\/a> in the Los Angeles Daily News, Joshua Schank \u2014 who helped shepherd the gondola through the Metro bureaucracy \u2014 said the gondola project would \u201copen up new areas for critical housing development.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCourt and his surrogates have said<\/a> the only proposal on the board now is the gondola itself, and any subsequent plan to develop the Dodger Stadium parking lots would be subject to a brand-new approval process, which would involve significant zoning changes and planning hearings. The Dodgers\u2019 current owners also can veto any development there.<\/p>\n

Reyes was in office when McCourt proposed<\/a> building restaurants, shops, team offices, a team museum, parking structures and parkland around the stadium during his ownership, but a May appeals court ruling<\/a> dismissed as \u201cspeculative\u201d the premise that large-scale development would necessarily follow construction of the gondola now because McCourt proposed it in 2008.<\/p>\n

Over its years of considering the gondola, one Metro document framed the issue this way: \u201cCould an aerial tram to Dodger Stadium alleviate traffic congestion, clean the air, and spark joy?\u201d<\/p>\n

Project supporters would say yes, yes, and of course. Project opponents would say no, probably not, and hell no.<\/p>\n

Brockert doesn\u2019t really have time for all the politics. He has another pizza to make, maybe even for Betts.<\/p>\n

He participated in an event in support of Betts\u2019 foundation, and he took the opportunity to tell him about the Mookie pizza, and all of its toppings. He said he told Betts he would change the toppings if Betts so desired.<\/p>\n

He did.<\/p>\n

\u201cSun-dried tomatoes, chicken, onions and spinach,\u201d Brockert said. \u201cSo I\u2019m working on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny other players, if they have a favorite pizza, I\u2019ll put it on the menu too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re looking for a place to catch the Dodgers game, there\u2019s a pizza place not too far…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[19405,19404,13005,1335,2139,10614,11154,19402,19403,19408,48,52,51,47,50,49,19407,17428,6927,1410,19406],"class_list":{"0":"post-25294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-betts","9":"tag-brockert","10":"tag-chinatown","11":"tag-development","12":"tag-dodger-stadium","13":"tag-dodgers-game","14":"tag-fan","15":"tag-frank-mccourt","16":"tag-gondola","17":"tag-great-city","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-la-headlines","20":"tag-la-news","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","23":"tag-los-angeles-news","24":"tag-mookie","25":"tag-parking-lot","26":"tag-pizza","27":"tag-place","28":"tag-way-god"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}