LOS ANGELES – As promised on the day their club was announced, Los Angeles Football Club wanted to hear from fans. And on Wednesday, they did just that, gathering a select group of fans to discuss what awaits the MLS expansion franchise.
During an event they called the “LAFC RoundTable” at the club's office in Los Angeles, co-owner and team president Tom Penn discussed the state of the club with seven members of the public, asked for input on several topics, and answered a few questions along the way.
Most notably, Penn explained the club’s current priority is finding and securing a location for a stadium, a process that is well under way but not yet complete.
"We've made a ton of strides, we just haven't gone out there with it yet,” he told those in attendance. “We've been really busy on the stadium project first, and the idea of ultimately getting land under control to the point where we've identified it, it's ours and we have a trajectory on where we go."
While Penn explained that the team originally sought to to elicit fan input regarding the team’s name, colors and crest before an announcement about a stadium, he said they have changed direction – LAFC would like to know for certain where the stadium site will be before starting that process, although he did note it will probably take place soon after any stadium announcement.
“We gotta do [the stadium] first, because that so much defines what we are, where we are, who we claim to be,” Penn explained. “And we felt like it was a reverse order if we did it any other way. Our intention is to get the stadium deal locked up and effectively announced, and then go through a formal process with our fans that's going to involve the name first, because we're not totally locked in...Colors, we're going to sample different colors with everybody, and we're going to get to input on the actual proposed crest and the concepts there.”
Among the topics Penn asked the roundtable participants about during the informal discussion were preferences over the stadium location, the club name, and supporters group composition.
