Los Angeles backs deal for downtown NFL stadium

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles has taken a major step toward building a downtown stadium to lure an NFL team back to the nation’s second most populous city.

The 12-0 City Council vote Friday came despite questions about how a 72,000-seat stadium in the city’s dense urban core would impact notorious freeway traffic, nearby housing prices and air quality.

But supporters predicted the deal with developer Anschutz Entertainment Group would lift the city’s struggling economy with thousands of jobs and new tax dollars for cash-starved City Hall.

The Raiders and Rams fled Southern California in 1994 and, for now, there is no one to play in the proposed stadium.

But supporters hope the agreement with AEG will eventually attract a team to one of the nation’s most lucrative media markets.